Crime and Deviance - Marxism and Neo-Marxism Flashcards
Marxism in relation to crime
- Society is divided into two classes - ruling classes (bourgeoisie) who own the means of production and the working class (proletariat) who sell their labour and are exploited by the bourgeoisie
- Marxism takes a structural view of society, seeing society as having an economic base (capitalist economy) which determines the superstructure, which is made up of all other social institutions, including the state, law and criminal justice system
Types of crime
White collar crimes:
- Fraud
- Corporate manslaughter
- Breaking health and safety
- Bankrupting a nation
- Tax evasion
Both:
- Domestic violence
- Murder
- speeding
Blue collar:
- Benefit fraud
- Shoplifting
- Assault
Key terms in Marxism and crime
- Blue collar crime - w/c crime
- White collar crime - m/c crime
- Organisational crime - crime committed within and because of being in an organisation
- Occupational crime - crime enabled by an occupation; abusing your position in a workplace
- Corporate crime - crime committed by and for the benefit of a corporation
- Street crime - quicky, cheap, low skill, crimes in public
- State crime - crime committed by a government / ruling party
Traditional Marxism (Marx) on crime
- Crime is linked back to the structure of society and closely linked to the economy - they continue their ideas of the ruling classes and the power they hold within society
- Transgressive criminology - not just interested in acts against the law, but also in legal acts that cause harm
- Revolutionary activism - legal acts may be harmful but some sections of society may consider some technically illegal activity harmless or even admirable
- Particularly interested in white-collar crime, corporate crime and state crime and the ways in which these crimes are controlled less than petty crime and ASBO
The ruling class’s control of the state gives it the power to -
1) Make and enforce the law to its own advantage
2) Protect its privileged position within the class structure
3) Criminalise any threat to its property
The Marxist theory of crime and deviance - 1) Criminogenic capitalism
- Marxists argue that crime is inevitable in capitalism because it is criminogenic - it grows and causes crime, because it causes status frustration, strain and their lack of means for the goals creates utilitarian and non-utilitarian crimes - capitalism is a crime
Capitalist society values - working, submissiveness, material assets, greed, consumerism and competition, zero sum society:
1) Utilitarian crimes come from - greed / materialism
2) Non-utilitarian crimes - frustration at exploitation
3) Corporate crime - demand for more money and power
4) State crimes - to maintain control
Eval - not all capitalist societies have high crime rates - Japan and Taiwan have low crime rates; however, it explains utilitarian crime well
Criminogenic capitalism cont.
- The superstructure socialises people to consume goods which entices people to want things which they cannot afford, causing people to commit crime
- Capitalism causes poverty - the desperation of being poor may cause you to turn to crime
- Alienation and lack of control over their lives may lead to frustration and aggression, resulting in violence and vandalism (Cohen - status frustration)
- Gordon - crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and so it is found in all social classes, even if the statistics make it appear to be a largely working-class phenomenon; capitalism creates greed, competition, materialism, consumerism etc, all of which are values that drive crime
Eval - does it drive all types of crime? - what about drug use, vandalism and domestic violence
Marxist theory of crime - 2) State and law breaking; selective enforcement
- Unlike Functionalists, who see the law as reflecting the value consensus and representing the interests of society as a whole, Marxists see law-making and law enforcement as only serving the interests of the capitalist class
- The ruling class also have the power to prevent the introduction of laws that would threaten their interests, and as a result there are few laws that seriously challenge the unequal distribution of wealth
- Snider (1993) - argues that the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of business or threaten their profitability
- Focus of burglaries over a crime like tax evasion - there is more benefit to solving crimes that protects their material goods and make people feel safer in their communities and less likely to challenge institutions that seem to be helping them, than something that is not always noticeable
State and law making cont - Reiman
- Reiman (2001) - street crimes such as assault and theft are more likely to be reported and pursued by police than fraud or insider trading (blue collar is more likely to be noted than white collar) and therefore the more likely a crime is to be committed by higher-class people, the less likely it is to be treated as a criminal offence
- In addition, certain groups in the population are more likely to be on the receiving end of law enforcement; as crime is regarded as most common among the working class, the young, black communities there is a much greater police presence among these populations than elsewhere, and the approach the police adopt towards them is also said to be more confrontational
- Evidence of law enforcing - a select committee was formed to find out if the taxman was doing enough to deal with an estimated two million people defrauding an estimated £2bn a year from the revenue
> MP - if one of my constituents was caught stealing £50 from a post office, they would undoubtedly be prosecuted and there would be consequences of publicity, but if a barrister steals several hundred by avoiding his tax then there is no publicity and he is allowed to carry on regardless
> Taxman - they cannot prosecute everyone
Marxist theory of crime and deviance - 3) Ideological functions of crime and law; false class consciousness
- The law and crime and criminals also perform an ideological function for capitalism - laws are occasionally passed that appear to be for the benefit of the working class rather than capitalism, such as workplace health and safety laws
- However, Pearce (1976) argued that such laws often benefit the ruling class too as they keep the workforce fit for work - by giving capitalism a ‘caring’ fare, these laws create a false consciousness among the workers - makes them feel looked after, making them less likely to revolt
- Furthermore, because the state enforces the law selectively, crime appears to be largely a working class phenomenon - this divides the working class by encouraging workers to blame the criminal in their midst for their problems, rather than capitalism - prevents revolution
- Pearce did suggest that the occasional prosecution creates a false consciousness that all are equal.
- The media as an agent of secondary socialisation help to create a false class consciousness by portraying criminals as disturbed individuals, thereby concealing the fact that it is the nature of capitalism that makes people criminals (96% of violent crimes are not committed by people with a diagnosed mental health condition) - something wrong with the person not the system
Box (1983) - Ideological function of crime and law
- White collar crime furthers Marxist arguments that crimes are on the whole committed by the ruling classes but go uncovered
- The ruling classes have promoted the idea that corporate crime is less serious and less harmful than normal crimes such as muggings and robbery, and that we should stop looking to government and the ruling elite to protect us and begin to accuse them of being the protecting and being the main criminals
Hughes and Langan (2001) - why is white collar crime undetected?
1) Low visibility - street crimes such as rape and burglary are highly visible, the media and the law ensures we are aware of these ‘epidemics’ of crime and their consequences. White collar crimes occur mainly within offices and are hidden from the public gaze
2) Complexity - large scale fraud is complex and very hard to unravel and allocate blame - teams of experts spend years finding who is to blame and it often involves a range of companies, parties, departments and transactions
3) Diffusion of responsibility - it is difficult to apportion blame; Thalidomide and Nestle scandals; so many people to blame it is hard to convict one
4) Diffusion of victimisation - this refers to victimless crimes; without an obvious victim, it is less likely people will pursue claims
Chambliss (1976) - traditional / classical Marxism in selective law enforcement
- Most law in the UK and US is property law and this is primarily people who own property who are protected
- Study of 1978 Seattle led to the conclusion that the ruling class were all members of a crime syndicate that allowed them to use their wealth and influence to bribe officials and avoid punishment
- He stated this included politicians and business owners, and that the criminal justice system was not really there to catch the middle class - nominally universal laws were applied selectively to control the working class whilst protecting the rich
Graham (1976) - Classical Marxism
- Followed Chambliss’s point further by looking at how the government policed the illegal trade in drugs, particularly amphetamines
- Even though there was a war on drugs in the US at the time, Graham found that politicians agreed not to greatly restrict amphetamine production and distribution because most of it was made and sold by large pharmaceutical companies rather than ‘criminals’
- There was a ‘war on drugs’ but only on those drugs that didn’t make a profit for the bourgeoisie
Advantages of classical Marxism in explaining crime
1) Does explain why w/c commit more crime (the laws are stacked against them!)
2) Suggests that there is a solution to crime - communism.
3) Looks at both causes of crime and at the criminalisation of the individual
4) Big capitalist countries serve as evidence to support the Marxist view
Disadvantages of the classical Marxist explanation of crime
1) Too deterministic - other factors are ignored (e.g. political)
2) Over emphasize class inequality in relation to crime - what about ethnicity and gender?
3) Some capitalist countries have very low rates of crime: Japan and Switzerland for example, Jones argues.
4) Communist states have not eradicated crime (USSR/China)
5) Over emphasize property crime and crime to make money
6) Ignore the victims of crime - most victims are w/c
7) Many laws are in the interest of society eg: speeding
