Conflict Theories

Question 1

How does conflict theory view society?

Answer 1

As an arena of inequality that inevitably leads to conflict.

Question 2

What does this theory believe is the driving force of social change?

Answer 2

Conflict.

Bet you didn’t know that one.

Question 3

What determines your position in the superstructure?

Answer 3

Your relation to the means of production.

Question 4

What is the superstructure?

Answer 4

Your position in society.

Question 5

What did Sellin believe about norms in culturally homogenous societies?

Answer 5

Conduct norms reflected the consensus.

Question 6

What did Sellin believe about more complex heterogenous societies?

Answer 6

That there would be conflict between conduct norms of different groups.

Question 7

What happens with norms in heterogenous societies?

Answer 7

The dominant groups will enact criminal laws that reflect their cultural norms.

Question 8

When does cultural conflict occur?

Answer 8

When minority groups act on their own conduct norms that have been criminalized.

Question 9

What are the names of the girls killed in 2007 and 2009 honour killings respectively?

Answer 9

Asqa Parvez - 2007
Noor Almaleki - 2009
Shafia sisters - 2009

Question 10

What does group conflict theory attempt to explain?

Answer 10

Certain types of criminal behaviour as resulting from a conflict between the interests of divergent groups.

Question 11

What does George Vold focus on?

Answer 11

Conflict between diverse interest groups?

Question 12

How does Vold see society?

Answer 12

As a collection of groups in a constantly shifting equilibrium of opposing interests.

Question 13

What is Vold interested in, specifically?

Answer 13

The way that the creation of law reflects the activities of antagonistic interest groups in the broader community.

Question 14

What are the two ways that conflict can lead to crime?

Answer 14

1. As a result of minority group behaviour.
   e. g., a gang with interests against the majority values.
2. As a result of conflict among various interest groups.
   e. g., revolution makes criminals of those who previously held power.

Question 15

Richard Quinney focuses on what aspect of group conflict?

Answer 15

“Segments” of society or types of social groupings.

i.e., how more powerful segments are able to secure and protect their own interests by forming and enforcing laws.

Question 16

Quinney has six propositions, what are they?

Answer 16

1. Crime is a definition of human conduct created by authorized agents in a politically organized society.
2. Criminal definitions describe behaviours that conflict with the interests of segments that have power to shape public policy.
3. Criminal definitions are applied by the segments of society that have power to shape the administration/enforcement of laws.
4. It is not the behaviour that is criminal, but the action taken against it.
5. Conceptions of crime are constructed and diffused in the segments of society by various means of communication.
6. The social reality of crime is a function the formulation (2), application of (3), development of behaviour related to (4), and construction of (5) criminal conceptions.

Question 17

Sellin, Vold, and Quinney all focused on what areas of group conflict theory, respectively?

Answer 17

Sellin - cultural group conflict.
Vold - interest group conflict.
Quinney - segments of society.

Question 18

Marxist criminology takes the position that…

Answer 18

… crime must be analyzed in the context of its relationship to the character of society as a whole.

Question 19

Marxists view conflict as rooted in what?

Answer 19

The very structure of capitalist society - particularly capitalist economic relations.

Question 20

What are the forces of production?

Answer 20

The tools, techniques, and raw materials used in production.

Question 21

Marxists believe that capitalist society is based on what?

Answer 21

Class exploitation.

Question 22

What is the mode of production? And what is it composed of?

Answer 22

It is the method through which goods are produced, exchanged, and distributed. It is composed of the forces of production.

Question 23

What does instrumental Marxism state?

Answer 23

That the state is the direct instrument of the ruling or capitalist class. Instrumentalism is based on the notion that the processes of the superstructure are determined by the economic base.

Question 24

What is structural Marxism?

Answer 24

The idea that the state acts in the long-term interests of capitalism as a whole, rather than in the short-term interests of the capitalist class.

Question 25

What would structuralists argue about the relationship of the state and the capitalist class?

Answer 25

That there is a certain degree of independence between the state and the bourgeoisie.

AKA: Relative autonomy.

Question 26

What is anti-combines legislation?

Answer 26

Legislation preventing monopolies.

Question 27

Spitzer used the notion of what to formulate his “Marxian theory of deviance”?

Answer 27

Spitzer used the Marxian notion of “surplus population.”

Question 28

What is Spitzer’s theory of deviance?

Answer 28

Deviance is due to the surplus of labour in the market.

Question 29

How is surplus labour created?

Answer 29

1. New technologies replacing labour, or outsourcing.

2. Contradictions in the institutions that reproduce capitalism.

Question 30

How does Greenberg explain juvenile delinquency?

Answer 30

Youth fall into the surplus population, because of their inability to participate in the labour market.

Youth then turn to delinquency when they cannot keep up with their peers and fund their expensive lifestyles.

Question 31

Which type of crime has greater costs to society? Street crime or corporate crime?

Answer 31

Corporate crime.

Question 32

What is the reasoning Marxists provide to explain corporate crime?

Answer 32

The capitalist system promotes ruthless acquisition of wealth by any means. This need to create profit is motivation to commit crimes.

Question 33

What is structural Marxism most often critiqued for?

Answer 33

It's tautological (circular) character. 
i.e., It assumes class exploitation in order to demonstrate that crime is caused by class exploitation.

Question 34

What did liberal feminists want to achieve?

Answer 34

Equal opportunities for women in the workplace.

Question 35

What did radical feminists want to achieve?

Answer 35

Equality through legal reforms to the existing social system. They believe that gender inequality is a result of a patriarchal society.

Question 36

How did socialist feminists view gender inequality?

Answer 36

They believe that the exploitation of women under capitalism and oppression under patriarchy are interconnected.

Neither is given priority, instead gender and class relations are viewed as mutually dependent.

Question 37

What do Left Realists believe crime is?

Answer 37

“Simply antisocial behaviour involving people who lack values?”

Question 38

What do Marxist criminologists believe crime is?

Answer 38

“Proto-revolutionary activity, primitive and individualistic, but praiseworthy all the same”

Question 39

What do Left Realists emphasize most?

Answer 39

“The Square of Crime.” The offender, the victim, the police, and the public.

Question 40

What are Left Realists’ main critique of Marxist criminologists?

Answer 40

That Marxist criminologists don’t focus enough on the serious effects of street crime.

Question 41

What does it mean when Left Realists say that street crime must be taken seriously?

Answer 41

That criminologists must work to both examine and provide practical solutions for street crime that marginalized people experience.

Question 42

What is the main tool used by Left Realists?

Answer 42

Victimization surveys.