crit crim Flashcards
history of crit crim?
-1960’s rose to prominence along other social/political movements (civil rights, anti-war, feminism, etc..)
-Such movements questioned role of power and inequality in society
-Referred to as:
–> Conflict crim (focus on societal conflict)
–> Radical crim ( focus on creating radical, real change)
-Some assumptions in common those of the Chicago schools
-Crime as a construction, macro level analysis, role of social disorganization..etc
-Orig rooted in marxist interpretations of class, power and inequality
marxism
-Karl marx (1818-1883): most influential thinker/philosopher of modern history in terms of academic, political, and historical influence
*The capacity to engage in rational, purposeful labor distinguishes humans from animals and provides meaning in our lives (meaningful labor)
-ruined by industrialization + capitalism
-Marx believed that the working class would gain awareness of their exploitation (class consciousness) and revolt against the ruling class
-Critique of capitalism → mode of production or as an economic system
what is crit crim?
-understand crime and the CJS through lens of social/structural inequality
-Discrepancy between those w/ power and those w/o
-Extend analysis beyond class to include other disempowered groups
-Women, racial minorities..etc
-a direct challenge to imperial authoritarian, and oppressive power structures in society
-Challenging dynamics of power by CJS and how ‘crime’ was used by the powerful as a tool of control and protection
-CJS protects the powerful and locks away the powerless
assumptions of crit crim
-Criminals are not born, they are made (labeled) through socialization and through (inequal) structural conditions
-Focusing instead on macro-level structural conditions that create crime in the first place
-Society is organized around lines of class, race, gender, etc..in ways that benefit one group while disadvantaging the other
-Crime, laws, and the CJS are not neutrally or evenly applied to everyone
-The main goal of CJS is not to fight crime or uphold the law or protect society
-Maintain existing class dynamics between those w/ power and those w/o
wealth and crime
-Inequality under modern capitalism has led to a growing and unfathomably large gap between the richest and poorest
-The poor are criminalized at a much higher rates than the rich
-Crit theorists argue this is by design
-CJS targets lower class ppl
-Recall on strain theories, economic deprivation, labeling theories, social disorganization
the role of laws
-Laws are flexible tools used and created by the ruling class to maintain their positions of power
-Consider:
-Who writes the laws?
Parliament, politicians, lawyers, ppl that come from wealth
-Who upholds them (and when?)
-Who is ‘above’ the law?
the role of prisons
-Since mid 1980’s the # of incarcerated americans have been sharply rising
-Many of those incarcerated are serving time for non-violent offences, drug related offences (possession) or mandatory minimum sentences (3 strikes)
-The US now has the largest prison pop in the world (by quite a large margin) “land of the free”
-Conflict theorists have dubbed this the prison industrial complex (capitalism)
-Refers to the ongoing privatization and running of for-profit prisons in America
-Billions made through exploitation of extremely cheap prison labor
-While at the same timing incarnating and disempowering poor/minority communities
-Private prisons are NOT the norm in canada (thought some are trying) → slavery (w/ exception for the punishment of crime and exploit ppl in a modern way)
-Cjs not doing what its supposed to do but in order to PROTECT the powerful and make money
Critical Race Theory
-Examines the interplay between race, power, and discrimination in society (including CJS)
-Challenges structural racism and White supremacy that are believed to be embedded within social institutions
-Overrepresentation of racial minority groups in CJS
-Critiques and challenges
–> Racial profiling, stop and frisk policing, media portrayals of race/crime, other forms of institutionalized racism
Reform based appr
-view the current CJS as ‘broken’ and in need of major reform and repair
‘Reform’ usually focussed on
-Policing
-The prison system
-Offender rehab
-Sentencing policies
-Drug policies