Left realist criminology

Abstract

This chapter outlines the emergence of left realism in the UK in the 1980s which came about as a response to the success of the Thatcher government in exploiting law and order politically. Left realism’s key components include a “taking crime seriously” orientation, based on local crime victim surveys, and the “square of crime”. Left realism constituted a political reorientation rather than a new paradigm. Little Australian criminology parades under a left realist banner, and while there are conservative, positivist, scientistic, and quantitative tendencies in Australian criminology, a politically self-conscious neo-conservative or right-wing criminology is largely absent. Left realism in Australia is situated as a minority stream in a broader Australian critical criminology, distinguished by its politically engaged character and its vibrant, pluralist, and reflexive nature.