Marxism And Crime

Question 1

What is the overall view for Marxism and Crime?
(Intro)

Answer 1

• Marxists concentrate on the use of the criminal justice system by the ruling class to maintain their position of power, as well as seeing capitalism as the root of all crime.
  -argue against functionalist view that the working class predominantly commit crime and instead argue that there is a considerable amount of white collar corporate crime

Question 2

What does Marxist Bonger say that the capitalist system is based on ? What dos this lead to ?

Answer 2

Greed
Selfishness
Exploitation
This ultimately shapes individual attitudes to life

Question 3

How is crime an endemic characteristic of society ?

Answer 3

There is a combination of increased poverty and increased consumerism.

Question 4

What is the reason Bonger recognises to why the working class commit crime ?

Answer 4

Simply due to the desperation of their circumstances.

Question 5

What crimes were the working class expected to commit?

Answer 5

Theft robbery and shoplifting to achieve what they needed - utilitarian crimes

Question 6

Give an example of factors that make crime inevitable for the working class

Answer 6

• not having enough money for basic necessities - they may feel pressured to steal just to suffice themselves in order to have good standard living.
  -seeing ads for luxury consumer items they cannot afford - keeping up with joneses
• feeling like they have no control over their lives pr on their workplace - displace this frustration through crime.

Question 7

How do the fundamental capitalist values lead to increased crime amongst the ruling class ?

Answer 7

The success and wealth they gain is never enough , they are concerned with increasing and maintaining their wealth power and status.

Question 8

Summarise Bonger’s ideas

Answer 8

• crime is a natural outcome of capitalist society and so it is inevitable.
• asked upon exploitation of the working class and protecting of the ruling class.
• to overcome crime we must shift to a communist society

Question 9

How has Bonger’s theory been useful ?

Answer 9

• explains why both opposing classes commit crime rather than focusing on one class (like functionalists)
  -takes a more critical view on society.

Question 10

Limitations of Bonger

Answer 10

• New Right Realist Clarke would be critical and would argue that crime is rational and a personal choice (rational choice theory ) cost / benefit analysis is carried out by offenders prior to offence.
• Bonger mainly focuses on utilitarian crime - incentivesed by money - fails to account for non-utilitarian crime.

Question 11

Who spoke about law creation ?

Answer 11

• Snider

Question 12

What dies Snider state there is an illusion within society about ?

Answer 12

Law creation process is deemed to be neutral , democratic and based on agreed consensus.

Question 13

Who is responsible for this illusion ?

Answer 13

Created by agencies within society (media, education system ).

Question 14

What do criminals laws operate based upon ?

Answer 14

To protect the interests and the property of the ruling class.

Question 15

How do governments pass laws according Snider ?

Answer 15

-Governements are often reluctant to pass laws that threaten the profitability of large companies - owned by the bourgeoise
- instead they create laws to guard the financial interests and prevent businesses owned by y the ruling class falling to the hands of the masses -w/c

Question 16

How did the ruling get laws in their favour ?

Answer 16

• ## used connections within elected officials to pass laws that protected their private property.

Question 17

What are lobbying groups and how did they benefit the ruling class ?

Answer 17

• interest groups / advocates who aimed to influence public opinion and legislation or other gov decisions.
  -they pass laws in the interest of the ruling class.

Question 18

What is the link between the ruling class and the free press ?

Answer 18

• the ruling class would utilise their ownership of the free press (media) to make the working class appear deviant and lawless.
• would shift regulation of the activities of private business would not be regulated in the same way as w/c.

Question 19

Why is the state reluctant to pass laws that harm the big businesses ?

Answer 19

• government are in need of these businesses to hire individuals and prevent the high rates if unemployment amongst the w/c.
• needed to maintain social control.

Question 20

Give an example of the law that is seemingly beneficial to the working class is actually in favour of the ruling class ?

Answer 20

• Health and Safety laws give capitalism a caring face yet thee actually protect the business from expensive litigation.

Question 21

What does Snider highlight about comparison in crime between classes? Provide an example

Answer 21

• Most serious acts of deviance are committed by the ruling class.
• the cost of corporate crime (finances and loss of life)outweighs the cost of burglary and robbery.
• the smiler incident at Alton Towers whereby and individual lost their leg
• collapse of a factory in Bangladesh 2-13 killing 362 people due to poor working conditions which had been highlighted by workers on several occasions.

Question 22

How has Snider’s law creation theory been useful ?

Answer 22

• critical of the functionalist belief in value consensus. By explaining what values we are socialised into are the values of capitalist class contradicts their view that we agree on norms and values that are beneficial to everyone in society.
• • link b tween law creation and high rates of crime show us that stats of crime on w/c are due to the structure and inequality in society nit individual ppl

Question 23

Evaluation of law creation

Answer 23

• Gov policies such as universal credit directly benefit the working class and aim to reduce poverty. This means that the nature of law creation is changing and is no longer solely focused on promoting the interests of the capitalist ruling class. -in recent years there has been evidence of the working class rejected ideologies of the ruling class and protesting for equality and change in law
  -BLM

Question 24

Who spoke about selective law enforcement ?

Answer 24

Chambliss

Question 25

Where did his study of crime occur ?

Answer 25

• ## Seattle

Question 26

What did Chambliss discover ? Provide an example

Answer 26

Discovered a web of connections between organised crime and politicians,senior police officers and businessmen. For example police officers took bribes for the cover up of crimes and drug activity.

Question 27

What did this lead to ?

Answer 27

• widespread corruption and inequality , whereby illegal activities of these wealthy people were infrequently ignored.

Question 28

Where was policing policy concentrated ?

Answer 28

• concentrated upon criminal actions of the w/c and w/c areas rather than suspect activities of social elites.

Question 29

How does the example of David Beckham link to Chambliss’ theory of selective law enforcement ?

Answer 29

• David Beckham was accused of driving his Bentley at 59mph in a 40mph zone.
• celeb lawyer Nick Freeman represent him against this case and initially had. A steal when a judge dismissed his submission seeking to dismiss the charge.
• Freeman entered a not guilty plea saying lack of admissible evidence meant Beckham had no case to answer.
• he was thus convicted.
• less harsh regimes imposed on wealthy

Question 30

Evaluation positive

Answer 30

• the study of law enforcement is useful when explaining why working class crime features so heavily in official crime statistics - shows w/c is not criminally inclined but are policed more heavily and more severely by the capitalist authorities.
• helped raise awareness of immoral practices of corrupt officials through the law enforcement.

Question 31

Evaluation negative

Answer 31

• other theories would argue that these theories excuse and minimise the impact of working class crime. Left realists in particular are more keen to highlight the plight of victims to w/c such as theft and violence.
• Marxism is over reliant as an explanation of criminal behaviour. Feminists point out they overlook the nature of personal crime such as rape and gender diff in crime.

Question 32

Who coined the phrase white collar crime ? How did it come about ?

Answer 32

Sutherland
He coined this phrase while studying large capitalist corporations in the USA.

Question 33

What did Sutherland define the phrase as?

Answer 33

“Crime committed by a person of respectability and Hugh social status in the course of his occupation”

Question 34

According to Sutherland how did businesses avoid persecution ?

Answer 34

• the sort of crimes they committed were difficult to detect , as capitalist businesses know hoe to use loopholes and cover them tracks with legitimate businesses
• victims of white collar crime often do not know that they are victims and so they never inform authorities, this means that white collar crimes are invincible and are far less likely to appear in official statistics.

Question 35

Evaluation negative

Answer 35

• nelken arues it is unrealistic to assume that all businesses would offend. Some may not due to the risk of punishment , or to maintain goodwill with other companies that they do business with.
• even if capitalist pursuit of profit is a cause of corporate crime, it does not explain crime in non-profit making state agencies.
• Braithwaite argues law abiding can be more profitable than law breaking.

Question 36

What’s issues did Tombs have with Sutherland definition?

Answer 36

• definition failed to distinguish between crimes employees made against their organisation (occupational crime) and crimes made for their organisation (corporate crime)

Question 37

What types of new crime did Tombs encompass in ‘White collar crimes’

Answer 37

Financial crime
Crimes against consumers
Crimes against employees
Crimes against env
State and corporate crime

Question 38

Explain the 5 reasons why white collar crimes are invisible

Answer 38

• businesses find loopholes
• victime if wcc dont know they are victims so it stays unreported
  Difficult to detect
  Middle class white men