Left Realism Criminology

Walter S. DeKeseredy

Left realism is a main school of thought within critical criminology, and contrary to what some critics declare, it is not dead. In fact, left realism is just as important now as it was during the Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher years when it was born. Left realists take crimes of the powerful (e.g., corporate crime) seriously and publish scholarly materials on this topic, but the bulk of their theoretical work addresses street crime, draconian means of policing, and violence against women in heterosexual relationships. The main reason for this is that prior to the 1980s, most critical criminologists focused primarily on corporate and white-collar crime, as well as on the influence of class and race relations on definitions of crime and the administration of justice. Left realists agree that these are important topics and warrant much more social scientific and political attention. Still, they claim and have empirically demonstrated ...

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