Left Realism is an applied integrative theory. It is founded upon a social democratic position and draws from a range of sociological theories. It emerged during the late 1980s in response to the growing scholarly and policy influence of more conservative criminology.

Elliot Currie suggests that there are two variants of left realism. Original Left Realism (with capitals) was pioneered by Jock Young and colleagues. The second, which Currie calls ‘plain left realism’ (without capitals), shed some elements that were of its time and place (that is, in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s) and is a ‘big tent’ under which many criminologists meet, including those who may not identify with original Left Realism. Nonetheless, several common principles draw all left realists together: they take lived experiences seriously, acknowledge that crime affects some communities more than others and identify crime as an endemic product of inequality.

Traditionally associated with street crime in urban areas, Left Realism has been used by a small number of scholars to explore a range of rural issues. The theory has influenced, for example, James Windle’s research on opium cultivation in Asia and farm theft in Ireland, and Walter DeKeseredy, Joseph Donnermeyer and Martin Schwartz’s collaborative and individual work on sexual violence against women in rural areas, agricultural crime and rural drug markets. The latter’s body of work advanced Left Realism by employing feminist and masculinity theories, areas original Left Realism failed to sufficiently engage.

The original Left Realists critiqued the critical criminology literature for: dismissing that crime disproportionally affects the economically disadvantaged and socially excluded; ignoring issues which most concerned working-class people; romanticizing crimes committed by the working class; ignoring that most crime was inter-class; and dismissing people’s experiences of crime by suggesting that fear was more prominent than actual victimization. They also took critical criminologist’s to task for refusing to work with the state.

Young summarized Left Realism as composed of five key principles. First, and most importantly, researchers, policymakers and practitioners must be ‘faithful to the nature of crime’. That is, they must acknowledge the precise form that rural crime takes and where it takes place, grounded within political and economic context.