Marxism and crime

Question 1

what are the 3 ways that marxists use capitalism to explain crime

Answer 1

criminogenic capitalism

the state and law making

ideological functions of crime and law

Question 2

define criminogenic capitalism

Answer 2

crime is inevitable in capitalism (Bonger)

Question 3

why do w/c turn to crime in capitalist societies

Answer 3

means to survival

utilitarian crimes like theft allows them to acquire goods that they can’t afford

alienation and lack of control leads to anger and frustration leading to crimes like violence and vandalism

Question 4

what crimes do m/c commit in capitalist societies

Answer 4

corporate crime
white-collar crime

Question 5

why do m/c commit crime in capitalist societies

Answer 5

dog-eat-dog system
driven by greed and self-interest

Question 6

define relativistic view of crime

Answer 6

focuses on conflict of interests in society when determining what is classed as a deviant act
m/c write laws

Question 7

why does state and law making benefit m/c

Answer 7

ruling class prevent introduction of laws that threaten them
eg: laws against homeless squatting but no laws against the rich owning lots of houses

Snider(1993) capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability

Question 8

explain selective enforcement

Answer 8

powerless people like w/c and ethnic minorities are criminalised but police and courts ignore crimes of powerful people

Question 9

AO2 for selective enforcement

Answer 9

Carson found that only 3/200 companies who broke safety laws were prosecuted

despite the large number of deaths of work due to negligence, there’s only been 1 successful prosecution of corporate homicide in 8 years#

corporate crimes are punished less severely with fines instead of jail

Question 10

explain ideological functions of crime and law

Answer 10

performs function for capitalism
laws appear to benefit w/c (health and safety laws and minimum wage laws)
creates false class consciousness

Question 11

how does the ideological state apparatus divide the w/c

Answer 11

crime appears to be a w/c class phenomenon due to selective enforcement
divides w/c and they blame criminals for their problems
media also portrays crime as a w/c phenomenon to distract people from capitalism

Question 12

define ideological state apparatus

Answer 12

when w/c are unaware of their exploitation

Question 13

define repressive state apparatus

Answer 13

coercive power like police and the army
Althusser argues that w/c are controlled through promotion of norms and values through fear of punishment

Question 14

AO3 for marxists explanation of how capitalism causes crime

Answer 14

-ignores relationship between crime and non-class inequalities like gender and ethnicity

-not all capitalist societies have high crime eg: homicide rate in japan and switzerland is 1/5 of the rates in USA

-marxism suggests capitalism causes crime and doesn’t acknowledge the individual choice

-ignores how soemetimes corporate crime is punished

-too deterministic assumes all w/c commit crime

Question 15

define occupational crime

Answer 15

crimes committed by employees for their own personal gain, against the organisation they work for
eg: stealing from the company

Question 16

define corporate crime

Answer 16

crimes committed by employees for their organisation in pursuit of its goals
eg: deliberately mis-selling products to increase profits
tax evasion

Question 17

problems with punishing crimes of powerful people

Answer 17

many harms might not break the criminal law and are seen a breach of regulation

Pearce and Tombs (2003) suggested to widen the definition of corporate crime to include breach of civil and administrative law

Question 18

how do white-collar and corporate crime cause harm

Answer 18

physical harm (death, injury, illness)

environmental (pollution)#

economic (against consumes, workers, taxpayers and the government)

Question 19

explain the five types of corporate crime

Answer 19

financial: tax evasion, bribery, money laudering

crime against consumers: selling unfit goods/false labelling

crime against employees: sexual and racial discrimination, violations of wage laws, rights to join a union

crime against the environment: illegal pollution of air/water/land

state corporate crime: war on terror eg: torture of detainees during american occupation of Iraq

Question 20

Examples of state corporate crime

Answer 20

financial: barclays fraud charge

crime against consumers: horse meat scandal

crime against employees: nike paid 7.6mil to end race discrimination

crime against environment: thames water scandal they were fined as sewage leaks harmed wildlife and people

state corporate crime: Iraq war, torture of the detainees during american occupation of Iraq

Question 21

explain why corporate crimes are invisible

Answer 21

media: doesn’t cover corporate crime

lack of political will: politicians are more likely to focus on street crime

crimes are often complex: law enforcement is understaffed and lack the expertise to investigate corporate crime

de-labelling: corporate crime is filtered out of the process of criminalisation and described a s a civil dispute

under-reporting: victims are society as a whole and not one specific person

Question 22

explanations of corporate crime

Answer 22

strain theory
labelling theory
differential association theory

Question 23

strain theory as an explanation of corporate crime

Answer 23

innovation > corporations accept societal goal and achieve it illegitimately through corporate crime
Clinard and Yeager (1980) found companies were willing to break law when facing financial hardship

Question 24

labelling theory as an explanation of corporate crime

Answer 24

businesses have the power to avoid being labelled as criminal
de-labelling > they can afford expensive lawyers and accountants to help them cover up their crimes

Question 25

differential association theory as an explanation of corporate crime

Answer 25

if a company’s culture justifies committing crimes to achieve goals then the employees are socialised into this
companies may have deviant subcultures eg: promoting competition

Sykes and Matza (1957) people deviate more easily if they can justify behaviour to neutralise moral objections to deviance
eg: white collar criminals say they were following orders or blame victims (read the small print)

Question 26

AO3 for explanations of corporate crime

Answer 26

DAS: law abiding companies are more profitable eg: Braithwaite (1984) pharmaceutical companies followed drug regulations to access lucrative markets

strain theory: can’t explain non-profit crimes like police brutality
over-predicts business crime > all companies experiencing strain don’t commit crime and some companies without strain do commit crime

labelling theory: since financial crisis of 2008 corporate crime is visible and is being labelled

Question 27

explain Neo-marxist view

Answer 27

w/c are aware of exploitation and use crime to fight against the system
sees crimes like theft as understandable
‘Robin Hood’ view > steal from rich to give to the poor
crime is proletariat revenge

Question 28

explain neo-marxist anti-determinism

Answer 28

voluntaristic view: people consciously commit crime
AO2: black panthers 1960s america > crime is part of their activism
1/10 of their goals is: ‘We want an end to robbery by the capitalists of our black community.’

Question 29

explain neo-marxists full theory of deviance

Answer 29

1- the wider social origins of the deviant act (eg how c and d is linked to unequal distribution of wealth)
2 - the immediate origins of the deviant act (the social or economic situation that lead to the c and d act)
3 - the meanings of the actions for the actor
4 - the immediate origins of societal reaction (how family and community react)
5 - the wider origins of societal reaction ( how society and those with power label other)
6 - the impact on the individual (relationship between labelling and the deviant)

Question 30

A02 for a fully social theory of deviance

Answer 30

Stuart Hall (1978) applied this approach to black muggers:
- there was a ‘crisis of capitalism’ ( a recession)
- there was a lot of unemployed black people who didn’t want to do ‘white man’s hit work’ and entered the informal economy (which involved crime)
- m/c sought to divide w/c to prevent anti-capitalist activism and did this by turning white workers against black workers
- lead to moral panic about black street crime which lead to a crackdown by police
- this was one way that revolution or radical political change was prevented

Question 31

A03 for neo-marxists

Answer 31

• feminists criticise it for being ‘gender blind’ and focusing on male crime at the expense of female criminality

-left realists criticise it for romanticising w/c as robin hoods when in reality most w/c criminals commit crime against other w/c people

-Burke (2005) says its too idealistic and impractical

• theory explains political crime but can’t explain crimes like dv and rape which aren’t political
• only a small portion of crime is politically-motivated or part of anti-capitalism; theorists attach this motive to all crime which is inaccurate
• left realists point out that most victims are w/c so marxists should give solutions instead of just understanding crim