ABSTRACT
Relative deprivation is a concept central to the left realist tradition of criminology. W. G. Runciman's Relative Deprivation and Social Justice might be described as a combination of theory, historical analysis and survey. It should not be thought of as the definitive discussion of relative deprivation because others had used the term before Runciman. Runciman's conceptualization provides a broader framework and, in so doing, could be characterized as a synthesis between Durkheim's emphasis on the effects of anomie on the better off and Robert K. Merton's emphasis on the poor. Despite being a central element of left realism, the application of relative deprivation theory has been more fully explored within social psychology, especially in social identity theory and self-categorization theory. In this regard, relative deprivation has been inverted so that the processes through which individuals or groups arrive at a sense of well-being or injustice have become more important than the outcome of deprivation.
