8 - Conflict, Radical & Feminist Theories

Question 1

Focus of conflict theory / Questions?

Answer 1

The system itself.

If people agree on the value system, why are so many people in rebellion (so many crimes / people in prison)? If criminal law supports collective communal interest, why do so many people deviate?

DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN CRIME ITSELF.

Question 2

Consensus model

Answer 2

Acts as threatening to community survival designated as crimes. If vast majority of members agree / share this view, group has acted by consensus. Assumes society generally agrees on what’s right / wrong. Law is mechanism to settle disputes when ppl stray from what society considers acceptable.

Question 3

Key concept of conflict theory

Answer 3

Power. Ppl who possess the power work to keep the powerless at a disadvantage.

(EX. Draptomania -> 50’s mental illness, symptom was ‘slaves that have tendency to run away fr their owner’)

Question 4

Conflict Theory

Answer 4

Those who have political control in any given situation have the power, and thus are able to make things happen. Powerful groups maintain their interests by making illegal any behaviour that may be a threat to them. Laws thus become a mechanism for control, or “a weapon in social conflict”.

Identifies social conflict as basic fact of life and as source of discriminatory treatment by the CJS of groups and classes that lack the power and status of those who make and enforce the laws.

Question 5

George Vold

Answer 5

First sociologist to link conflict theory to criminology. Band in groups cause social animals & needs best served thru collective action. If group serves members, survives, else replaced. Individuals constantly clash to advance their group’s interests. As a result, society is in constant state of conflict.

Question 6

Dahrendorf

Answer 6

Most important characteristics of class are power and authority.

Inequities are lasting determinant of social conflict. Conflict can be constructive (positive change in social order) or destructive (breakdown of social structure).

Question 7

Turk

Answer 7

expanded Dahrendorf’s. Criminality is social status defined by perception, evaluation and treatment of an individual by legal authorities.
- Criminal status defined by “authorities” (decision makers) and imposed on the “subjects” (subordinate class). When one refuses to go along and challenge authorities, conflict arises.
- Authority maintain power thru control of society’s goods and services; war power / police, economic power, political power, ideological power (beliefs, values).
- Laws help shape culture, ppl in power (thru education and stuff) maintain status quo by passing on value system.

Question 8

Critiques of conflict theories

Answer 8

Adler / Lizotte -> evidence that socioeconomic factors influence judgement of defendants in court.

Behaviours common among society’s more disadvantaged members have a greater likelihood of being called “crimes” than the activities in which those more powerful typically participate.

Question 9

Saints VS Roughnecks

Answer 9

Saints (upper-class, respectful, get along w/ authority) VS Roughnecks (blue collar / lower class, maybe issues w/ authority).

Both engaged in criminal acts (i.e. partying), however only roughnecks caught / labelled.

Social class -> wealthier ‘saints’ had privilege of going to other / outside communities to commit.

Question 10

Radical Criminology (AKA ‘new’, ‘critical’ or ‘Marxist’)

Answer 10

Concerned w/ the way the system controlled people. Focus on economic power / control being source of conflict. Based on Marxist principles.

Question 11

Engels

Answer 11

Addressed effects of industrial revolution. Son of man w/ industrial empire, but attacked own class as ‘brutally selfish’. Documented and blamed horrible conditions on COMPETITION. Association between crime & poverty is political problem.

Question 12

Karl Marx

Answer 12

Argued that all aspects of social life, including laws, are determined by ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION. First to advocate revolutionary change, and first to construct coherent theory w/ economic determinism (people who are kept in a state of poverty will rebel by committing crimes).

○ Important relationship in industrial society between the capitalist bourgeoisie (own the means of production), and the proletariat (workers who labor for them).
○ Society always been hierarchical, state representing who owns the means of production (not the common interest).
○ Revolution is ONLY means of bringing about change, and so is morally justifiable.

Lumpenproletariat -> beneath proletariat, beggars / criminals (social scum that give cops practice)

Question 13

Taylor, Walten & Young

Answer 13

The New Criminology -> underclass (labor forces of society) controlled through criminal law and its enforcement, while owners of labor will be bound only by a civil law which regulates their competition w/ each other.

○ Economic institution is source of all conflicts.

○ Class struggles relate to distribution of resources and power.

Question 14

Quinney

Answer 14

Class, State & Crime -> “the criminal justice movement is a state-initiated and state-supported effort to rationalize mechanisms of social control”.

• Purpose of CJS is to secure capitalist order.
• Only when capitalism is abolished will crime disappear.

Question 15

Krisberg

Answer 15

Crime is a function of privilege, the rich create crimes to distract attention from injustice they inflict on the masses. Power determines who holds privilege (that which is valued by given social group in a given historical time).

Question 16

Herman & Schwendinger:

Answer 16

Delinquency. Stated that legal relations secure a capitalistic mode of production, whereas laws are created to secure the labor force. Bourgeoisie always threatened by proletariat, therefore capitalistic interests underlie basic constitutional laws.

Question 17

Other areas that have come under scrutiny of Marxist Criminologists

Answer 17

○ informal means of settling disputes outside of courts have extended control of CJS by adjudicating cases that are not serious enough for the courts.

○ youth court dispositions are unfairly based on social class

○ sentencing reform has failed to benefit the lower class

○ police practices during latter half of 19th century geared towards controlling labour rather than crime

○ Sexual Assault victims are made to feel guilty

○ penitentiary reform has benefited the ruling class by giving it more control over the lower class

• capitalist interests are strengthened by private policing

Question 18

Evaluation of Marxist Conflict Theories

Answer 18

• Exclusive focus on class interests, while ignoring the fact that society is made up of many interest groups.
• Oversimplification of causation by the focus on capitalism.
• Criticisms intensified in wake of collapse of Marxist economic order.
• Very Pro-Offender / sympathetic to offender (minimize reality of crime).
• Klockars: Division of society into social classes may be beneficial. Standards are created to inspire remainder of society. Control VS ownership of industry very different, anyone can own but bureaucrats who may or may not own control.
• Radical Criminologists have encouraged colleagues to look with a critical eye at ALL aspects of CJS

Question 19

Feminist Theory

Answer 19

Criminology has been male-dominated field. Intellectual sexism appears in the form of traditional theorizing about female criminality that located women’s deviance in their biology.

	○ Women were less intelligent, more in need of love (linked to sexuality / need for sexual attention) than men, all linked to criminal behaviours.

○ Evidence from Pollack was that women could conceal / fake orgasms -> practiced the art of deception. Women were more deceitful, vengeful and manipulative than men.

○ Men and women’s disparity in crime rates: women more caring / nurturing, men more aggressive.

• These explanations have STILL not completely disappeared (PMS argument).

Social and economic inequality and social structure ignored in explanations of criminal behaviour. Feminist Theories have brought to light importance of social structural factors in explanations of female crime and differences in crime rates between men and women. As well as sexist nature of CJS and double standards (women have frequently been criminalized for sexual deviance and ‘immorality’, not considered criminal for men. Also, women more likely to be labelled ‘sick’ for deviance, then treated medically / psychiatrically for that ‘sickness’).

Question 20

Importance of intersectionality

Answer 20

Recognition that different women experience these situations differently. Contextualizing experience within structures characterized by inequalities of race, gender and class.

Question 21

Liberal Feminist Theory:

Answer 21

Focuses on gender role socialization. Women raised into passive, dependent, cautious roles, whereas men raised into assertive, independent, risk-taking roles (more conducive to criminal behaviour).

Adler and Simon: Role socialization in broader context of women’s liberation movement. As women’s equality and participation in society increases, so should their crime rate (not supported by statistics).

Question 22

Liberal Feminism Debates

Answer 22

○ While women’s criminal offending has increased as predicted, nature and extent of role convergence has not.

○ Small # of female offender to begin with = any increase seems bigger than it is.

○ Women’s movement primarily affected white privileged women, increase in female criminal involvement more directly linked to feminization of poverty (more women becoming poor) rather than female emancipation.

○ Assumes maleness is norm which women should be compared to.

• Underlying argument was that women’s equality was ‘dangerous’.

Question 23

Power Control Theory

Answer 23

Focuses on relative power of men and women in families and how that power is related to roles within capitalist economic system.

• Patriarchal families: men work outside the home and women are stay-at-home moms. Both parents supervise activities of sons and daughters, but daughters are more closely supervised. Being socialized into “cult of domesticity”, whereas boys granted more freedom / independence and are more likely to get into trouble.
• Egalitarian families: mothers and fathers both work outside the home and both supervise children (includes single-parent, female-headed households). Girls and boys supervised in same way, offered same freedom / independence. Girls share in possibility of trouble / experimentation as brothers, thus higher rates of delinquency and crime among daughters.

Question 24

Radical Feminism

Answer 24

Cause of many women’s problems, including crime and victimization, is patriarchy. System of male domination includes structural and ideological privileges for men over women.

Division of labor by sex was the first class structure in society.

Cause of female crime is women’s subordination and victimization at hands of males. [EX. in patriarchy, boys taught to be aggressive and exploit women in relationships].

Justice system contributes to female crime and delinquency [double standards].

Passage and enforcement of laws favor interests of men [‘private troubles’].

Question 25

Socialist Feminism

Answer 25

Both patriarchy and capitalism are to blame for women’s criminal behaviour and the kinds of victimization experienced [Radical feminism & Marxist theory].

Women ‘doubly oppressed’ by both systems, therefore lower crime rate for women in capitalist societies.

Messerschmidt: capitalists control labor of workers, and men control women biologically and economically. Isolated to families, women have less opportunities to commit crime. Reflected in crimes committed by men (elite deviance, street crimes such as drug offences, B&E and assault) VS women (petty property, non-violent crimes).

Powerless and doubly oppressed, women more likely to express subordinated status through drug crimes and self-destructive behaviours.

Question 26

“add women and stir”

Answer 26

Generalizability Problem -> Can we take theories built around men and generalize them to women

Gender-Ratio Problem -> Can these theories explain why more men than women commit crime.

Question 27

Standpoint Feminism

Answer 27

Women are ‘knowers’ / experts of own lives, should be placed at center of inquiry. Pathways into crime -> victimization early on leads to criminalization.

Question 28

Postmodern Feminism

Answer 28

Rejects claims to ‘truth’ / ‘answer’ of feminist empiricism & standpoint feminism. Importance of DISCOURSE -> historic systems of meaning which identify subjects.

Foucoult -> W/ creation of crim & psych disciplines have changed how we treat ppl, created offender as someone to be studied / analyzed, altered identity.

Reveal how certain discourses come to dominate in society at particular points in history.

Interrogate Language: Criminal (what makes her do) VS Criminalized (what brought her here) women.

Question 29

Critiques of Feminist Approaches

Answer 29

• Feminist studies in criminology primarily descriptive (often case studies dealing w/ victimization). Don’t lend themselves to broad theory-building. Focus on ‘deconstructing’ existing theory w/ out offering anything to replace said theories.
• Power control, how can it be feminist if it posits that women’s liberation will lead to more female delinquency.
• How do men have more power, yet are arrested / imprisoned more? If they control legal / social institutions, wouldn’t they work to BENEFIT their gender?
• Struggles to attain mainstream credibility because of their value of grand theoretical arguments and quantitative analyses.
• Feminist have done lost of work in contributing to a ‘gender aware’ criminology.

Question 30

Critiques of Feminist Approaches

Answer 30

• Feminist studies in criminology primarily descriptive (often case studies dealing w/ victimization). Don’t lend themselves to broad theory-building. Focus on ‘deconstructing’ existing theory w/ out offering anything to replace said theories.
• Power control, how can it be feminist if it posits that women’s liberation will lead to more female delinquency.
• How do men have more power, yet are arrested / imprisoned more? If they control legal / social institutions, wouldn’t they work to BENEFIT their gender?
• Struggles to attain mainstream credibility because of their value of grand theoretical arguments and quantitative analyses.
• Feminist have done lost of work in contributing to a ‘gender aware’ criminology.

Question 31

Critiques of Feminist Approaches

Answer 31

• Feminist studies in criminology primarily descriptive (often case studies dealing w/ victimization). Don’t lend themselves to broad theory-building. Focus on ‘deconstructing’ existing theory w/ out offering anything to replace said theories.
• Power control, how can it be feminist if it posits that women’s liberation will lead to more female delinquency.
• How do men have more power, yet are arrested / imprisoned more? If they control legal / social institutions, wouldn’t they work to BENEFIT their gender?
• Struggles to attain mainstream credibility because of their value of grand theoretical arguments and quantitative analyses.
• Feminist have done lost of work in contributing to a ‘gender aware’ criminology.

Question 31

Critiques of Feminist Approaches

Answer 31

• Feminist studies in criminology primarily descriptive (often case studies dealing w/ victimization). Don’t lend themselves to broad theory-building. Focus on ‘deconstructing’ existing theory w/ out offering anything to replace said theories.
• Power control, how can it be feminist if it posits that women’s liberation will lead to more female delinquency.
• How do men have more power, yet are arrested / imprisoned more? If they control legal / social institutions, wouldn’t they work to BENEFIT their gender?
• Struggles to attain mainstream credibility because of their value of grand theoretical arguments and quantitative analyses.
• Feminist have done lost of work in contributing to a ‘gender aware’ criminology.

Question 32

Emerging Explanations

Answer 32

Left Realism, Peacemaking Criminology, Restorative Justice, and Critical Criminology.

Question 33

Left Realism

Answer 33

○ Focus on making little changes in policy to affect the NOW. Policies to help reduce crime in the short term.

○ Crime seen as inevitable outcome of social and political deprivation

○ Status quo not cool for long-term, but in mean time need to make little changes for HARM REDUCTION.

○ Restorative Justice

Question 34

Restorative Justice

Answer 34

Crime is behaviour injurious to social relationships and to the community. Restorative justice based programming thus focuses on resolving conflict between parties through a holistic and peaceful approach.

Question 35

Peacemaking Criminology

Answer 35

○ Emphasis on mediation and conflict resolution policies rather than punishment and prison.

○ Promotes humanistic, non-violent and peaceful solutions to crime.

○ Helps victims by restoring: property loss, sense of security, dignity, sense of empowerment, deliberative democracy, harmony based on a feeling that justice has been done, and social support.

○ Hopefully offender won’t re-offend.

Question 36

Neo-conservatism

Answer 36

Concern for tradition, order, hierarchy, and authority.

“Get tough on crime”

people afraid -> more public displays of what was once taken care of by social programs.

Question 37

Neo-liberalism

Answer 37

Promotion of markets, meaning all institutions, controlled by those in power. Minimal state involvement in economy, opposite of welfare state.

Crime control strategy rejects rehabilitation and correction, “risk management” -> off the street = reducing what we pay for them [irony that costs more to have someone in prison than on streets].