3. Class, power and crime

Question 1

Marxism: criminogenic capitalism

Answer 1

• capitalism is criminogenic; by its very nature it leads to crime in three ways:
  1. Poverty : w/c turn to crime to survive
  2. Obtaining consumer goods: utilitarian crimes
  3. Alienation: non utilitarian crimes
• crime isn’t just a w/c thing, capitalists commit white collar crimes
• Gordon: crime is a rational response to capitalism and is found in all social classes

Question 2

Marxism: the state and law making

Answer 2

• law making and enforcement only serves the interests of the capitalist class
• Chambliss: laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy
• the ruling class can prevent laws that would threaten their interests
• Snider: the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of their businesses

Question 3

Selective enforcement

Answer 3

While powerless groups are criminalised, the police and courts ignore the crimes of the powerful

Question 4

Marxism: ideological functions of crime and law

Answer 4

• some laws appear to benefit the working class but Pearce argues that
  1. They benefit the ruling class
  2. They create a false consciousness
• Jenabi: the laws are rarely enforced
• due to selective enforcement, crime seems to only be in the w/c, which makes them blame each other rather than capitalism
• the media portrays criminals as disturbed which hides the fact that capitalism makes them criminals

Question 5

Evaluate Marxism

Answer 5

• ignores the relationship between crime and non-class inequalities
• too deterministic and over predicts the amount of crime in the working class
• not all capitalist societies have high crime rates
• the criminal justice sometimes goes against the interests of the capitalist class
• left realists argue that Marxists ignore Intra-class crimes

Question 6

Taylor Walton and Young: critical criminology

Answer 6

They wrote a book called the new criminology. They agree with Marxists that:
- capitalist society is based on exploitation
- the law enforcement serves the capitalist class and criminalises the working class
- capitalism should be replaced by a classless society
But they critique Marxism and call their view critical criminology

Question 7

Anti-determinism

Answer 7

• Taylor et al say Marxism is deterministic. They reject all ideas that claim crime is caused by external factors
• they take a voluntaristic view and say crime is a meaningful action and conscious choice, usually with a political motive
• criminals aren’t passive puppets, they deliberately strive to change society

Question 8

A fully social theory of deviance

Answer 8

This combines
- Marxist ideas about unequal distribution of wealth and power
- interactionist and labelling theory ideas about meaning, societal reaction and the effects of labelling
They say a complete theory needs to unite six aspects
1. The wider origins of the deviant act
2. The immediate origins of the deviant act
3. The act itself and its meaning for the actor
4. The immediate origins of social reaction
5. The wider origins of social reaction
6. The effect of labelling on the person’s future actions

Question 9

Evaluate critical criminology

Answer 9

• feminists say the theory is gender blind, focusing on male criminality at the expense of female criminality
• Left realists argue that
  1. The theory romanticises w/c criminals as robin hoods who are fighting capitalism to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, when really these criminals prey on the poor
  2. Taylor et al don’t take such crime seriously and ignore its effects on w/c victims
• Burke: the theory is both too general to explain crime and too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime

Question 10

White collar and corporate crime: Sutherlands definition + a critique

Answer 10

Sutherland defines white collar crimes as ‘a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation’
But the definition doesn’t distinguish between:
- occupational crime committed by employees against the organisation for their personal gain
- corporate crime committed by employees for their organisation in pursuit of its goals

Question 11

Pearce and Tombs’ definition of white collar crime

Answer 11

‘Any illegal act or omission resulted from deliberate decisions or negligence by a legitimate business organisation that is intended to benefit the business’
Tombs says the difference between the offences is who has the power to define crime; powerful corporations can influence the law so that their actions aren’t criminalised.

Question 12

The scale and types of corporate crime

Answer 12

Tombs: corporate crime has enormous physical, environmental and economic costs. It is widespread, routine and pervasive. It includes
- financial crimes
- crimes against consumers
- crimes against employees
- crimes against the environment
- state corporate crime

Question 13

The abuse of trust

Answer 13

• Carrabine et al: we entrust professionals with a lot of our information but their position and status gives them the opportunity to abuse this trust
• Shipman was believed to have murdered over 200 of his patients across his 20+ years as a GP. Although he had obtained enough morphine to kill 360 people, he was let off with a warning and allowed to keep practicing as a GP

Question 14

The invisibility of corporate crime

Answer 14

The crimes of the powerful are relatively invisible and when visible, aren’t seen as real crimes because:
- the media give it limited coverage
- lack of political will to tackle it
- crimes are complex and law enforcers can’t investigate effectively
- de-labelling where corporate crime is filtered out from the process of criminalisation
- under reporting

Question 15

Partial visibility of corporate crimes

Answer 15

• the activities such as campaigns against corporate tax avoidance have made CC more visible
• neoliberal policies eg marketisation mean that large corporations are more exposed to public scrutiny

Question 16

Explanations of CC: strain theory

Answer 16

• Box: if a company can’t achieve its gol of maximising profit legally, they may do it illegally
• Clinard and Yeager found law violations increased as financial performance decreased

Question 17

Differential association

Answer 17

• Sutherland: crime is behaviour learned from others in a social context. If we associate with people who have criminal attitudes, we are more likely to become deviant ourselves
• Geis found that people joining companies where illegal price fixing was practised became involved in it as part of their socialisation

Question 18

Explanations of CC: labelling theory

Answer 18

• Nelken derived the term de-labelling to explain at businesses and professionals often have the power to avoid labelling eg affording expensive lawyers
• the reluctance/inability of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute reduces the number of offences officially recorded as such
• sociologists who rely on official stats will inevitably under estimate the extent of the offences

Question 19

Explanations of CC: Marxism

Answer 19

• corporate crime is a result of the norms functioning of capitalism and will inevitably cause harm
• capitalism has created what box calls a mystification: it has spread the ideology that CC is less widespread or harmful than w/c crime.
• Pearce: this sustains the illusion that it is the exception rather than the norm, which avoids causing a crisis of legitimacy for capitalism

Question 20

Evaluate the explanations for corporate crime

Answer 20

• Strain theory and Marxism over predict the amount of business crime. Nelken says it’s unrealistic to assume that all businesses would offend if not for punishment
• even if capitalist pursuit of profit is a cause of CC, it doesn’t explain crime in non profit making state agencies such as the police, army or civil service
• law abiding may be more profitable than law breaking.