Marxism And Crime

Question 1

Marx

Answer 1

Capitalism is the most serious crime in society

Question 2

Snider

Answer 2

White collar crime is ignored by the sociologits (Merton etc), costs more money and lives

20k murders annually in USA - 14k industrial deaths annually in USA

30k accidents from unsafe consumer goods
100k cases of occupational disease

Hundreds of thousands of cancer caused by legal/illegal pollution

600 murders and 600 industrial deaths annually in the UK
12k workplace accidnets yearly in UK

Question 3

Criminogenic capitalism

Answer 3

Capitalist society divided into 2 classes (macro theory)
Structure of capitalist society explains crime

CAPITALISMS NATURE CAUSES CRIME
Poverty means the only way to survive is through criminal means
Crime may be the only way to obtain consumer goods

Question 4

Alienation

Answer 4

Capitalist society divided into 2 classes (macro theory)
Structure of capitalist society explains crime

Leads to frustration and agression and thenm causes crime

Question 5

Box

Answer 5

Mystification: capitalists convince the public via media that corporate crime isnt serious, offical stats underestimate white collar crime —> creating a false view that crime is committed by the w/c

Question 6

Gordon

Answer 6

Crime can be found in all classes

Question 7

White collar crime

Answer 7

Crime committed by a person of high social status (MP expenses scandal)

Question 8

Corporate crime - UNION CARBIDE STUDY

Answer 8

American owned the multi national company
Chemical plant set up in india due to less pollution controls in india
1984 - gas leak - 3000 deaths

Question 9

Chambliss (State and Law making)

Answer 9

Laws protecting private property are the cornerstone of capitalist society

Ruling class also have power to prevent laws that threten their interetss such as outlawing tax havens

Question 10

Selective enforcement (State and Law making)

Answer 10

All classes commit crime, but the w/c and ethnic minorities tend to be criminalised the most

The police tend to ignore the crimes of the rich and powerful

Question 11

Reiman (State and Law making)

Answer 11

The rich get richer and the poor get prison

Question 12

Pearce (Ideological fucntions of crime and law)

Answer 12

Laws are passed that appear to benefit the w/c (health and safety laws) actually benefit the r/c as they ensure the w/c are fit to work

Gives capitalism a caring face and creates a FCC in the w/c

Selective enforcement serves to divide w/c to blame another rather than the r/c (benefot fraud puts focus onto underclass)

Question 13

Critiques of Pearce

Answer 13

Ignores gender differences
Marxists romantacise crime rates
Criminal Justice System does act against interests of r/c (MPs guilty of fraud)

New Left Realists: Marxists ignore intra-class crime such as mugging

Question 14

State Crime

Answer 14

Crimes committed by a government to further their ideolgy

E.g. Sergei Skripal

Question 15

McLaughlin (State Crimes)

Answer 15

4 types of crime

Cultural: institutional racism
Political: corruption
Economic: breaking health and safety laws
Crimes by security forces: war crimes - breaking geneva convention

Question 16

Schwendinger

Answer 16

Crime shoudl be defined in terms of human rights not legal rules

2 types of human rights:
Natural rights: rights to life, liberty and free speech
Civil rights: rights to vote, privacy and education

Govts. That practice racism, sexism and economic exploitation are criminal

Crime is political (nazis attacked the human rights of the jews)

Its our job to defend human rights, this is an example of transgressive criminology

Question 17

Cohen

Answer 17

Western governments have to justify their crimes (Spiral of denial)

Question 18

Spiral of denial (Cohen)

Answer 18

1. Claims something never happened
2. Try to play it off as collateral damage
3. Try to justify their actions (Matza - neutralisation)

Question 19

Kellman and Hamilton

Answer 19

Individuals follow and obey the r/c to commit state crimes (crimes of obedience)

Authoristaion: duty to obey
Dehumanisation: the enenmy is seen as subhuman
Routinisation: if state crimes are repeated, they become normal

Question 20

Neo-Marxism

Answer 20

Criticises traditional marxism for romanticising crime

Focusses on process by which the state defines crime and therfore criminalises certain groups

Question 21

Hall (Neo-Marxism)

Answer 21

mugging moral panic, government lost the people’s trust due to economic recession (crisis of hegemony), labelled young black males as the cause of the moral panic, diversion tactic was successful, government regained hegemony.

Question 22

Downes and Rock (Critique of Hall Neo-Marx)

Answer 22

Moral panics arent only created in a crisis of hegemony, also occur in times of economic boom e.g. Teddy Boys ‘50s