NCJ Number
128954
Journal
Crime, Law, and Social Change Volume: 15 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1991) Pages: 51-72
Date Published
1991
Length
22 pages
Annotation
The article reviews the strengths and weaknesses in the arguments of left realism and its opponents in the area of crime control and incorporates the critiques of feminist criminologists.
Abstract
Left Realism is defined in terms of four ideas: the working class is victimized from all directions in capitalist societies; crime involves the victim, offender, State, and community; proponents defend quantitative, empirical methodology; and further try to provide practical, progressive crime control strategies. The Left Realists attack radical criminology and left idealists on poverty and crime, on the theory of the State, pay sole attention to elite deviance, and expound weak strategies for change. Two Left Realist theories of crime control or lack thereof are examined in detail: the decentralized and destructured community-based solution to street crime and the lack of a solid program offered by left realism to control abuse of women. 125 notes (Author abstract modified)