Last Updated on September 1, 2024 by Karl Thompson
Left Realists, Lea and Young argue that the three main causes of crime are marginalisation, relative deprivation and subcultures.
It could be that the higher rates of recorded crime are because ethnic minorities are more likely to be marginalised and suffer from higher rates of relative deprivation compared to white people. Possibly ethnic minorities will be more likely to form subcultures too.
There is some truth in the fact that that ethnic minorities are disadvantaged in comparison with other groups in society, and this is especially true for young black males who have much higher levels of unemployment. In comparison with their peers from other ethnic groups, they are much less likely to be successful in the labour market and so suffer lower wages and thus higher levels of relative deprivation.
Young ethnic minority males are also more likely to experience marginalisation because they are under-represented at the highest levels of society, in government, political parties and trades unions for example.
Lea and young argue it would be surprising if there were not higher crime levels among those groups which experienced higher levels of deprivation and marginalisation.
Relative Deprivation, Ethnicity and Crime
In 2018 50% of Bangladeshi and 46% of Pakistanis were in the most deprived 20% of the population, compared to only 20% of white people.
In 2020 nearly half of Black/ African/ Caribbean and Black British people were in poverty compared to just 19% of the white population
Institute of Race Relations: BME statistics on poverty and deprivation, accessed September 2024.
This recent report seems to offer broad support for Left Realism, but also suggests there are other factors which need to be taken into account in order to explain variations in patterns of offending by ethnicity…
Marginalization, ethnicity and crime
Marginalisation means living on the edges of society. It is where people are excluded from fully participating in society.
There are several ways of measuring social exclusion, including living in poor neighbourhoods, poor access to housing, and even exclusion from school.
According to Official Government Statistics on ethnicity and deprivation Black and Asian people are much more likely to suffer from social exclusion and thus marginalization.
Black people are much more likely to live in deprived neighbourhoods.
Black people are 3 times more likely to live in areas with barriers to housing and social services compared to white people. Asian people are almost twice as likely to live in such areas compared to white people.
In 2019 more than 30% of black people lived in the top 10% most deprived neighbourhoods, compared to only 8% of white people.
Black and Asian people are also more likely to live in areas with high crime rates. This means it is more likely people will be drawn into crime, and be victims of crime.
Black pupils have historically been more likely to be permanently excluded from school compared to white pupils. Back in 2008 they were two times as likely to be permanently excluded. However by 2021 exclusion rates for black and white pupils are very similar.
School Exclusions
Historical trends may explain why there are higher rates of imprisonment for black people in their 20s and 30s today. However over time we would expect the difference to decrease, which it has done.
Evaluations of Left Realist Explanations for differences in ethnicity and crime figures
There is a broad correlation between the differences in rates of relative deprivation and marginalisation/ social exclusion for black and white people and differences in the imprisonment rates by ethnicity. However this doesn’t explain ALL of the difference.
What Left Realism cannot explain is why Asian people suffer higher rates of marginalisation and relative deprivation but are not as over-represented in the criminal justice system compared to black people who suffer similar levels of marginalisation and relative deprivation.
A further criticism is that these statistical differences don’t rule out other underlying causes. It could be that structural racism explains BOTH higher levels of relative deprivation and marginalisation and the higher imprisonment rates, for example.
Finally, it’s very difficult to analyse the role of subcultures in explaining rates of crime as there are no statistics on subcultures which are readily available.
In conclusion it seems like Left Realism can certainly explain some of the differences in official crime statistics by ethnicity, but we need to go deeper for a fuller understanding!
Signposting
This material is mostly relevant to the crime and deviance module, part of A-level sociology.