Marxism Flashcards
Marxism
Marxists are critical of capitalism, both as an economic system but also in terms of the social conditions associated with it.
They believe, at the heart of capitalism was a class struggle between the upper class and the working class; The upper class owned the means of production (the factories, etc.) and employed the workers exploitatively. By paying their workers less than the value of their labour (work) they are able to extract profits.
Marxists argue that the working class are persuaded to accept this situation through a combination of coercion (persuasion by force) and ideology (a system of ideas we all follow)
Crime is linked therefore to the capitalist structure of society and closely linked to the economy
Marxism view 1 - The Manipulation of Values
Socialisation; during childhood and adulthood we are socialised by a variety of different agencies (family, education etc); all these agencies are working together to promote capitalist values to ensure the population maintains them. Marxists believe that the ruling class have the power to ensure that certain activities are seen as ok and others are seen as wrong even if they have similar consequences. E.g. badger baiting and fox hunting.
Threat; If socialisation was to fail and it often does, the threat of what will happen if you commit a crime will prevent the working class from rising e.g. Prison sentences for street crimes but not white collar crime.
Marxism view 2 - Law Creation
For Marxists law creation is all based on the ruling classes and what they dictate to be important. They do this through two ways:
Manipulation of values – passing laws to ensure their values are seen as the most important
Pressure Groups – they use covert pressure groups to lobby the government into changing their minds about certain issues
Marxism view 3 - Law Enforcement
The ruling class, according to Marxists have, through official statistics created a stereotypical criminal; that of a young, black, working class male.
This stereotype is allowed to continue because it contains people from less powerful groups.
This stereotypical criminal is also more likely to live in an inner city where there is far more police attention.
Gordon (1976) argues that crime is seen as a working class ‘problem’ and therefore justifies why there are so many arrests in this category
Marxism view 3 - Individual Motivation
Crime is a logical response to ruling class ideology.
The values transmitted through capitalism are competition, greed and selfishness.
Crime is a perfectly normal response to these values.
Marxists are surprised that not more crime is committed.
