Conflict Theories

Question 1

Types of Conflict Theories

Answer 1

Cultural Conflict Theory, Group Conflict Theory, Marxist Conflict Perspectives, Socialist Feminism, Left Realism

Question 2

Main tenets of the Social Conflict Theory

Answer 2

• The economy is the foundation of every human society
• The rest of society known as the superstructure is built off the infrastructure
• The consequences of your relationship to the means of production/relationship with the economy determines your position in the superstructure
• Assumes societies are more divided by conflict than they are integrated by consensus
• Questions the assumption that our laws represent the interests of society as a whole, instead the conflict perspective argues that the social norms and values codified into law are those endorsed by the more powerful or dominant groups in society

Question 3

Video: Minorettes in Switzerland

Answer 3

In 2009, Protests to build more minorettes in Switzerland by Muslims, there was a referendum: the Gov’t. opposed the building because of the threat that they would bring Shyria law among themselves and threaten Swiss society

Question 4

Cultural Conflict Theory

Answer 4

(Thorsten Sellin) A theory that attempts to explain certain types of criminal behaviour as resulting from a conflict between the conduct norms of divergent cultural groups

Question 5

Conduct Norms

Answer 5

cultural rules that govern appropriate conduct, generally agreed upon by members of the social group to whom the behavioural norms apply

Question 6

In culturally Homogenous societies, conduct norms reflect…

Answer 6

Consensus

Question 7

In culturally heterogeneous societies, conduct norms reflect…

Answer 7

Conflict. There is conflict between the conduct norms of each group, the more complex a society, the greater the probability of culture conflict

Question 8

Criminal Norms

Answer 8

The conduct norms of dominant groups will be enacted into criminal law. Therefore, crime is an expression of culture conflict when individuals who act based on the conduct norms of their own cultural group find themselves in violation of the conduct norms that the dominant group enacted into law

Question 9

Honour Killing

Answer 9

Honour related violence, up to and including murder, is a family-initiated, planned, violent response to the perception that a woman has violated the honour of her family by crossing a boundary of sexual appropriateness

Question 10

Honour Killings include…

Answer 10

• Almost always involve the killing of a women by a male in her family
  
  • The killer does not usually act alone, with the approval/encouragement of other members of the family
  • Suspicion or rumour of an alleged impropriety is usually enough to justify an honour crime
  • Most experts insist an essential characteristic is that it is premeditated
  • Differs from spousal abuse/femicide in that in honour killings, females and the family is often involved

Question 11

Stats of Honour Killings

Answer 11

• Most perpetrators are men
  
  • All perpetrators are immigrants
  • Average age of victims is 21 years
  • 1954-1983: 3 honour killings
  • 1999-2012: 12 honour killings
  • However, on average, every 6 days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner
    Of the 89 police reported spousal homicides in 2011, 76 (over 85%) of victims were women

Question 12

Group Conflict Theorists

Answer 12

George Vold & Richard Quinney

Question 13

Group Conflict Theory

Answer 13

A theory that attempts to explain certain types of criminal behaviour as resulting from a conflict between the interests of divergent groups

Question 14

Group Conflict Theory for Vold:

Answer 14

• Vold focuses on crime as conflict between diverse interest groups
  
  • Sees conflict group theory as an explanation for certain types of criminal behaviours
  • He sees society as a collection of groups in a constantly shifting equilibrium of opposing group interests
  • Assumes that humans are “group-involved” beings whose lives are oriented toward group associations, groups form when members have common interests that are best furthered through collective action
  • Law results from politics and the interest groups that can marshal the greatest number of votes will have the most influence in passing new laws: what ends up in law is not necessarily the most important issues or what people want but what those who are elected want
  • The whole process of law making/breaking/enforcing becomes a direct reflection of deep-seated and fundamental conflicts between interest groups and their more general struggles for the control of the police power of the state
    Conflict between interest groups is a normal social process and one of the fundamental principles of organized political society

Question 15

Conflict can lead to Crime in 2 General Ways:

Answer 15

1.) A result of Minority Group Behaviour (the lesser not ethnically but politically/criminally)
- Conflict between the behaviour of minority groups and the legal norms, rules and regulations of the dominant majority which are established in law
- A delinquent gang is a minority group whose interests are in opposition to majority adult values
“Conscientious objectors” refuse compulsory military service during wartime & opt for prison sentences

And 2.) Conflict between competing interest groups
- “A successful revolution” – Political revolution makes criminals of those who previously held power, an unsuccessful revolution makes its leaders into traitors subject to immediate execution
- Strikes may escalate into violence or other offences like property damage
- Crimes may result from jurisdictional disputes
Law is not a naturally occurring phenomenon, they are made by people with specific interests

Question 16

Limits of Group Conflict Theory

Answer 16

limited to instances where criminal behaviour arises from the conflict between interest groups and does not try to explain other types of criminal acts (narrow scope of explanation)

Question 17

Group Conflict Theory for Quinney:

Answer 17

• Sellin focused on cultural group conflict, Vold on interest group conflict
  
  • Quinney on ‘segments’ of society or types of ‘social groupings’ (segments are social groupings)
  • Saw Criminality as the result of conflict between groups
  • The more powerful segments are able to secure and protect their own interests by influencing the formulation, enforcement and administration of the law
  • Quinney emphasizes unequal distribution of power, especially as related to the formation of public policy
  • Some groups are never able to influence policy
    While Vold would view society as existing in a relatively stable equilibrium of opposing group interests where all groups are able to make themselves heard in policy decision making, Quinney argues that only some interest groups are sufficiently powerful to influence policy, because power is unequally distributed due to the “structural arrangements of the political state”

Question 18

Quinney’s 6 Propositions

Answer 18

1. ) Crime is a definition of human conduct that is created by authorized agents in a politically organized society
2. ) Criminal definitions describe behaviours that conflict with the interests of the segments of society that have the power to shape public policy
3. ) Criminal definitions are applied by the segments of society that have the power to shape the enforcement and administration of criminal law
4. ) Behavioural patterns are structured in segmentally organized society in relation to criminal definitions and within this context persons engage in actions that have relative probabilities of being defined as criminal
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 constructed by the formulation and application of criminal definitions, the deviance of behavioural patterns related to criminal definitions and the construction of criminal conceptions

Question 19

Unequal Distribution of Power: Ferguson, Missouri

Answer 19

• Ferguson exemplifies the impact of unequal distribution of power on what counts as “crime”; enforcement and interpretation of the law
  
  • The department of Justice (DOJ) released a report about Ferguson on March 4, 2015 following the unrest over the killing of Michael Brown on August 9 2014
  • Slightly over 67% of residents are black
  • The report shows that 85% of traffic stops, 90% of citations, 93% of arrests and 88% use of force incidents involved African-Americans
  • Over-policing of the whole population: 16,000 people have outstanding arrest warrants in a community of 21,000
    In other words, 3/4 persons of 76% would be considered fugitives

Question 20

Marxist Conflict Perspectives

Answer 20

• Assumes that crime can only be understood in relation to the social, political and economic structures of the society in which it occurs
  
  • Criminal behaviour is not viewed in isolation as an individual pathology - must be analyzed in the context of its relationship to the character of society as a whole
  • Crime is rooted in the structure of capitalism, especially in capitalist economic relations
  • Political and Economic structures under capitalism promote conflict and in turn provide the precipitating conditions for crime to occur
  • Capitalism in and of itself is criminogenic because it rests on the notion of laissez-faire which leads to social conditions and economic relationships that are crime producing
  • Focus on relations between crime and the social arrangements of society, especially the way in which societies organize their political, legal and economic structures
    A critique of the logic of the existing capital social order

Question 21

Mode of Production

Answer 21

economic system whereby goods are produced, exchanged and distributed in society = Forces of Prod. & Social Relations of Prod.

Question 22

Forces of Production

Answer 22

the tools, techniques and raw materials used in production

Question 23

Social Relations of Production

Answer 23

the relationships with respect to ownership of the means of production

Question 24

The Role of Production

Answer 24

• Capitalist society is based on class exploitation because capitalists extract the value of labour as profit – land concentration in the hands of few citizens
  
  • Organization plays a role in crime - social relationships (how people relate with themselves)
  • Inequalities among those who work and those who don’t as much but get paid more
  • Surplus of what you’ve contributed is declared as your profit
    –> Gave rise to the Bourgeoisie (economically dominant) and the Proletariat (economically subordinate)
  • Class is not a an attribute or characteristic, rather it refers to a position in a relationship
    The economic base of capitalism is the foundation upon which various super-structural institutions of society are built – aka, the economic base of capitalism has a determining influence on the super-structural institutions of society

Question 25

Instrumental Marxism

Answer 25

The state is viewed as the direct instrument of the ruling or capitalist class. Based on the notion that the processes of the superstructure are determined by the economic base.

Question 26

Points of Instrumental Marxism

Answer 26

• The state and its legal and political institutions directly serve the interests of the capitalist class
  
  • The economic structure of society determines the nature of that society’s political & legal superstructure
  • Law is equated with class rule - capitalists use the state to dominate society
  • Marx & Engels: “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the bourgeoisie”
• • Plague wiped out part of the population - women could not work. Certain law allowed the state to arrest certain people for things like loitering so they could take you to work in factories showing that law reflects the interests of the few with power and capital

Question 27

Criticisms of Instrumental Marxism

Answer 27

• The ruling class has factions (not unified, they can’t operate as authoritatively as many think)
  
  • There has been a lack of analysis concerning how structural factors may shape the actions of ruling class members
  • The position does not account for the fact that some legislation is contrary to the interests of the ruling class
    It is deterministic (causality: economic infrastructure & superstructure [entire society minus the economy, economy shapes superstructure and NOT vice versa])

Question 28

Structuralist Marxism

Answer 28

The state is viewed as acting in the long-term interests of capitalism as a whole rather than in the short-term interests of the capitalist class

Question 29

Relative Autonomy

Answer 29

The state has a certain amount of independence from the capitalist class and is therefore enable to enact laws that are not in the immediate interests of the capitalist class

Question 30

Social Reproduction

Answer 30

laws that seem to work in favour of the upper class

Question 31

Role of state according to Structuralist Marxism

Answer 31

• The state ensures the reproduction of Capitalism as a whole – “A great deal of state action concerns not the enhancement of profit for a particular faction of the ruling class, but the maintenance of relations of production that make capitalism possible”
  Thus the state and its inquisitions have a certain degree of independence from specific elites in the ruling or capitalist class

Question 32

Consent in Structuralist Marxism

Answer 32

• Enacted laws that benefit the less powerful reflect an ideological need to develop a widespread consent for the existing social order
  
  • When we pass into law things like minimum wage it gives people the idea that the Government is working in their interest but in reality the system stays the same and nothing changes - this is meant to ensure the consent
    “Equality before the law” masks substantive inequalities –> law functions as an ideological means of domination

Question 33

Crimes of the Powerless: Stephen Spitzer

Answer 33

> The criminalization of much behaviour is directed at the “surplus population,” who are surplus to the labour market. These populations are created in 2 ways:
- Directly through the contradictions in the capitalist mode of production: new technologies replace labour or production is outsourced - those who have graduated not being able to find jobs is relatively new, lots of jobs being done by machines
Indirectly, through contradictions in the institutions that help reproduce capitalism, such as the schools eg: while mass education provides a means for training future wage labourers, it also provides youth with critical insight into the alienating and oppressive character of capitalist institutions leading to dropouts and student radicals that become candidates for deviance

Question 34

Students become candidates for deviance when they disturb, hinder, or call into question any of the following:

Answer 34

1. ) Capitalist modes of appropriating the product of human labour (ex: when the poor ‘steal’ from the rich)
2. ) The social conditions under which capitalist production takes place (ex: those who refuse or are unable to perform wage labour)
3. ) Patterns of distribution and consumption in capitalist society
4. ) The process of socialization for productive and non-productive roles
5. ) The ideology that supports the functioning of capitalist society

Question 35

Crimes of the Powerless: David Greenberg

Answer 35

• Argues that juveniles have a class of their own because they share a common relationship with the means of production
  
  • Young people are excluded from economically productive activity in a capitalist society but are required to undergo training for their future productive role in it
  • They can be considered part of the “surplus population” because they are excluded from lawful sources of income
  • Parents may be unable or willing to meet their needs – if they’re old enough to have their own job, this is also a source of juvenile delinquency among youth as they must find alternative ways to finance their leisure activities and purchasing of material goods
  • Adolescent theft occurs because of a conflict between desire to participate in activities valued by peer culture and the lack of legitimate resources to fund these activities
    A class in and of itself and for itself is conscious and aware of it’s independence and relationship to the means of production and takes action to improve condition

Question 36

Marxism and Crimes of the Powerful

Answer 36

• Corporate crime is important because of its immense cost to society which far exceeds the losses to street crime
  
  • Marxist scholars argue that the structure of capitalist economies and need to maximise profit create motivation for corporations to break the law
    –> For instance, in 2012, HSBC Holdings Plc. Agreed to pay a record $1.92 Billion in fines to U.S authorities for laundering drug money for Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Columbia’s Notre del Valle cartel
    Also looks at the contradictory role of the state in capitalist economies: State must create laws and regulate the criminal activities of corporations but also must protect the overall interests of the capitalist economy by reproducing the conditions necessary for capitalism to continue

Question 37

Critiques of Structuralist Marxism:

Answer 37

criticized for presenting a circular argument: assumes class exploitation under capitalism in order to demonstrate that crime, in turn, is caused by capitalist class exploitation

• • Also critiqued for emphasizing structure at the expense of human agency
• • Exclusive focus on class relations has precluded other considerations from entering into analysis such as gender and racial oppression

Question 38

The Crux of the Marxist criticism of Capitalism

Answer 38

Capitalism is inherently exploitative unless it is harnessed by the weight of Government regulation and a corresponding willingness to detect and prosecute offenders

Question 39

Liberal Feminism

Answer 39

men control power and privilege, boys and girls are socialized into gendered adult roles - boys encouraged to explore while girls are assigned domestic duties in the home to prepare them for the societal roles assigned

Question 40

Radical Feminism

Answer 40

views the problem of gender inequality and subordination of women in society as rooted in patriarchy, happens even in embryonic stages

Question 41

Socialist Feminism

Answer 41

Views women’s exploitation under capitalism and oppression under patriarchy as interconnected. Neither the class structure of capitalism nor patriarchal gender relations are given priority, rather gender and class relations are viewed as mutually dependent.

Question 42

Points of Radical Feminism

Answer 42

• Emerged as a critique of Liberal feminism and its focus on changing gender inequality through legal reforms to the existing system
  Argued that simply concentrating on “equal opportunities” for women would not address the fundamental structural inequalities between men and women. Instead radical feminists locate and the fundamental conditions of women’s oppression in the institution of patriarchy, defined as “a systematic expression of male domination and control over women which permeates all social, political and economic institutions”

Question 43

Critiques of Radical Feminism

Answer 43

Radical Feminism has been criticized for assuming universality of women’s subordination and failing to recognize power difference among women, as well as replacing capitalism with patriarchy as the primary system of oppression (not intersectional)

Question 44

Points of Socialist Feminism

Answer 44

• Critics said that radical feminism did not recognize the additional disadvantages of class and race
  
  • Women of different class distinctions navigate gender effects differently
  • Women’s exploitation under capitalism and oppression under patriarchy are interconnected and cannot be considered separately
  • Gender and class relations are mutually dependent
    Looks at both productive labour (wage is received) and reproductive labour (no wage received, in the home: childbearing, cooking, cleaning, shopping)

Question 45

Left Realism

Answer 45

• A response to the perception that Marxist theories had ignored the serious harm from street crime/working class crime
  
  • Many of the victims were working class themselves, many crimes are intra-class crimes (within same social class)
  • Leftists need to get real and look at the reality of crime
  • Emphasizes the relationship between the offender, victim, police and public – “the square of crime” - 4 sides, all are drawn from society
  • Crime is a real problem for working class and other people on the margins of society and must be “taken seriously” – which means developing a working class criminology that both examines and offers practical solutions to the street crime that marginalized people experience
  • Used the crime survey in low-income communities as a means of measuring working class victimization
    Advocates for human crime control policies (such as alternatives to prison) and for making the justice system more accountable to the people

Question 46

Critiques of Left Realism

Answer 46

• Fails to take into consideration that political, economical and cultural history of the society in which crime occurs (Ahistorical)
  
  • Advocacy for greater crime control may ultimately have the effect of “widening the net of social control” and amount to little more than increasing state powers over the marginalized and disenfranchised groups
    Makes use of common sense notions (crime is really a problem) but neglects to transform these notions into a defensible theoretical account.