Class and Law making

Question 1

What are the key debates concerning class and law making?

Answer 1

1. The Law criminalises the working and work-less classes.
2. The Law under-protects them.
3. The is a class bias in the making of law (serves upper class interests).

Question 2

The Black Act 1723 (Thompson 1976)

Answer 2

This act reserved the rights of peasants to hunt, fish and gather wood on farmers land as it conflicted with mercantile interests (even though there was no evidence that poaching had become a problem).

Question 3

Vagrancy Laws (Chambliss 1993)

Answer 3

After the plague there was a mass shortage of labour. These laws asserted that if you weren’t employed you could be enslaved for two years. Control but also in upper class interests.

Question 4

Employment Acts

Answer 4

These prohibited mass picketing. Also created the Trade Unions Act 1984 to shut down employment protests- this used to be a civil issue. Trying to control to working class.

Question 5

Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

Answer 5

Empowers police to remove tresspassers off land. Empowers them to ban festivals on private land.

Question 6

Public Order Act 1986

Answer 6

After Brixton and Toxteth riots. Created rules like having to give 7 days notice before a protest and empowering police to ban it if they think it might be violent.

Question 7

C&D Act 1998; ASB Act 2003; ASB Crime and Policing Bill 2013

Answer 7

Banning people from certain areas at certain times, ‘protecting the upper classes’. Predicting behaviour leads to stereotyping and resentment.

Question 8

Does the law underprotect the working and workless classes?

Answer 8

Yes. Occupation with street offending despite harmful and pervasive consequences of corporate crimes.

Question 9

Tooms 2007

Answer 9

Majority of deaths are investigated by private regulatory bodies, despite being a criminal and police matter. These usually result in a fine rather than criminal sanction.

Question 10

Making of laws: Functionalism

Answer 10

Pluralist theory- Durkheim- the law serves a moral consensus.

Question 11

Making of laws: Critical theories

Answer 11

Marxism- Law as an instrument of the ruling class
Weberian- Law as an outcome of competing interest groups.

Question 12

Chambliss (1993) Dialectical theory of Law Making

Answer 12

More than some instrumental expression of ‘ruling class interests’, it is a skilled political tool used for resolving dillemas, conflicts and contradictions.
Contradiction in capitalist society- profit and mode of production.
Poses state with dillemma.
Solution: Create laws, some of which serve interests of workers, some capitalists.
EG. Factory acts- improved working conditions so bad for capitalists as more money but resulted in future profit as workers were more productive.