Class Power And Crime

Question 1

Crimogenic capitalism

Answer 1

Marxists argue that the very nature of capitalism causes crime . Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class and therefore is very damaging to them which leads to crime.

Question 2

3 ways in which marxist argue capitalism causes crime

Answer 2

•poverty leads working class to commit crime just to survive.
•working class have to commit crimes to obtain consumer goods advertised by capitalism.
•alienation and lack of control over their lives can lead to aggression in which they commit non utillitarian crimes such as vandalism and violence.

Question 3

Marxist explanation of corporate crime

Answer 3

They argue that capitalism is a dog eat dog system that encourages competition between businesses and to achieve profit in any way possible so they resort to corporate crime.

Question 4

State and law making

Answer 4

Chambliss argues that laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of capitalism.

Question 5

Ideological functions of crime and law

Answer 5

Pearce argues how laws that appear to protect and help the working class such as health and safety laws are actually there to keep working class fit to be exploited by the ruling class.

Question 6

Feminist evaluation of marxist view of crime

Answer 6

Feminists critiscise marxism for ignoring the relationship between crime and gender due to patriarchy.

Question 7

Reiman and leighton

Answer 7

The more likely a crime is to be commited by higher class people, the less likely it is to be enforced.

Question 8

How does the media cause invisibillity of corporate crime?

Answer 8

Because the media gives very limited coverage to corporate crime, it reinforces the stereotype that crime is a working class phenomenon. They also describe corporate crime in sanitised language, for example accidents at work rather than employers negligence.

Question 9

Strain theory and corporate crime

Answer 9

Box argues how companies innovate using strain theory as companies that fail to maximise profit legitimately resort to corporate crime instead.

Question 10

Labelling theory explanation of corporate crime

Answer 10

Nelken defines “de-labelling” in which he argues how the ruling class can afford lawyers and accountants will prevent their corporate crimes such as tax evasion and fraud from being labelled as criminal.

Question 11

Evaluation of marxist and strain theory view of corporate crime

Answer 11

They overpredict the amount of business crime as nelken argues its unrealistic to assume that all businesses would offend if not for punishment