3.1 perspectives on crime and deviance - marxist

Question 1

What is meant by capitalism is criminogenic?

Answer 1

• capitalism creates crime because it encourages economic self-interest, greed and personal gain
• crime is a natural response to competitiveness and inequality created by capitalism

Question 2

Do marxists believe that the crime stats are real?

Answer 2

• no, they believe they are a social construct

Question 3

What is meant by relative poverty?

Answer 3

• that some struggle to survive or are excluded from participation in the consumer society, therefore encouraging crimes like theft

Question 4

Who talks about selective law enforcement?

Answer 4

Chambliss

Question 5

What is selective law enforcement?

Answer 5

• the idea that there is one law for the poor and another for the rich
• crimes of the powerful often go unpunished
• the MC and UC are generally treated more leniently

Question 6

What does Snider (1991) argue?

Answer 6

• power is largely held by those who own and control the means of production, the superstructure reflects the relationship between the powerful and the relative powerless
• laws reflect and serve ruling class interests

Question 7

What is meant by corporate crime?

Answer 7

• crimes committed by a company to benefit the company

Question 8

What is meant by white collar crime?

Answer 8

• an individual who commits the crime to benefit themselves (in a relatively high position)

Question 9

What are positive aspects of the marxist perspective?

Answer 9

• useful explanation of the relationship between crime and capitalist society
• shows the link between law making and enforcement and the interests of the capitalist class

Question 10

What are the negative aspects of the marxist perspective?

Answer 10

• largely ignores the relationship between crime and non-class inequalities such as ethnicity and gender
• too deterministic
• not all capitalist societies have high crime rates e.g. Switzerland, Japan
• the CJS sometimes acts against the interest of the capitalist class
• left realists = marxism ignores the intra-class crimes

Question 11

What does Gordon (1976) argue?

Answer 11

• capitalism is a ‘dog eat dog’ society and competition leads to criminal activities
• crime is a rational act in order to get ahead of others on competing positions

Question 12

How does the ruling class create laws?

Answer 12

• ruling class utilises connections within elected officials to pass laws that protect private property
• large companies use lobbying groups to pass laws in the interests of the ruling class
• the use of the media to make WC activities appear deviant and in need of control

Question 13

What is the ideological function of laws?

Answer 13

• by criminalising the activities of the WC, this benefits the ruling class as they protect their property
• theft, trespass and copyright laws protect the interests of the ruling class who can continue to make profits

Question 14

What is the ideological function of law enforcement?

Answer 14

• focusing on WC crimes causes misrepresentation of the WC as criminal

Question 15

How do neo-marxists differ to traditional marxists?

Answer 15

• neo-marxism mixes classical marxist structural ideas with elements interactionism

Question 16

How do neo-marxists characterise WC crime?

Answer 16

• they are symbolic political acts of resistance to ruling class oppression
• WC criminals are seen as ‘Robin Hood’ figures, taking forms of political action against inequalities in power and wealth, misdirected into criminal activities rather than traditional

Question 17

What is Taylor’s (1973) fully social theory of deviance?

Answer 17

• there are six aspects that need to be explored:
  1. wider social origins of the deviant act
  2. the immediate origins of the deviant act
  3. the actual act + what it means to the deviant
  4. the immediate origins of societal reactions
  5. wider origins of societal reactions
  6. outcomes of the societal reaction on the deviants further action

Question 18

What is Stuart Hall’s (1978) theory on the new criminology?

Answer 18

• crime is used to reassert the dominance of the ruling class hegemony at the time that was under threat due to political and economic crisis
• diverted people’s attention away from the real problems and structural causes of the crisis onto the problem of mugging by scapegoating young black men
• the media exaggerated the problem of black crime and created demands for something to be done about it
• society reacts and moral panic is created

Question 19

What are some criticisms of Stuart Hall’s theory?

Answer 19

• some argue that Halls theory about black muggers is a conspiracy theory, nobody could prove that anyone deliberately set out to divide the WC to prevent revolution
• Hall himself recognised that a significant factor in the media’s decision to sensationalise such crimes was because it sold papers

Question 20

Evaluation of the New Criminology:

Answer 20

• Paul Rock (1988) = gave too romantic a view of criminals, most crimes aren’t politically motivated
• only a very small portion of crime could be considered as politically motivated or part of anti-capitalist activism
• many crimes aren’t targeted to the elites
• feminist criminologists = there is no specific discussion of the power of patriarchy, women should be included in the criminology discussion

Question 21

What did Gilroy find about crime?

Answer 21

• looked at black crime in the 70s
• seen as a form of resistance to ruling class oppression in the form of police racism and harassment

Question 22

What is meant by critical criminology?

Answer 22

• adopts a wider range of perspectives including feminism, anti-racism and environmentalism
• they recognise issues such as the struggle for Black Rights in the USA

Question 23

How does critical criminology see existing societies?

Answer 23

• sees society and the criminal justice system as unfair and exploitative and in need of change

Question 24

What is zemiology?

Answer 24

• sociologists of crime should study ‘social harm’ rather than law-breaking i.e. harm to the environment