James Q Wilson, Charles Murray Right Realism James Q Wilson, Charles Murray Wilson & Kelling 1982 Clarke 1992, Newman 1972

Right Realism and Rational Choice Right realism is based on the right wing view that criminals have made a rational choice to break the law. People are not forced to become criminals – they have chosen to break the law. The role of the government is not to eliminate “mythical root causes of crime” such as poverty, but to punish the criminal. Humans are naturally selfish and greedy – if people receive poor socialisation then crime will be the result Crime can never be eliminated, merely reduced.

Zero tolerance policies James Q Wilson developed zero tolerance policies whilst working as an advisor to President Reagan in the 1980s but his views were also influential to the British government of that time. This policy is based on the idea that if small crimes are allowed to go unchallenged then this leads to more serious crimes being committed Notes on Zero Tolerance

“Broken Windows” Theory Wilson & Kelling 1982 High levels of crime occur where informal social control over anti-social behaviour has broken down If low level anti-social behaviour is prevented then this does not escalate to serious crimes being committed. Analogy of an abandoned building – once one window gets broken – then all the windows soon get smashed.

Situational Crime Prevention Clarke 1992 advocates policies and practices which make it difficult for crime to be committed. People will commit offences when the benefits of offending outweigh the costs. Newman 1972 introduced the idea of “defensible space” – the design of streets and houses could make them safer. “Target Hardening” – improving security, CCTV

Evaluation of crime prevention theories Garland (2001) argues that situational crime prevention policies merely limits the extent and impact of crime and ignores the underlying causes of crime Crime Displacement – crime merely shifts to a less well monitored area or the type of crime may change Alongside crime prevention other actions must be considered such as Early Intervention programmes and programmes that involve the communities involved Take notes from pages 392 & 393 in the text book Read handout on Perspective from the Right and answer summary questions