MARXISM AND CRIME AND DEVIANCE

Question 1

What is the Marxist view of Crime and Deviance?

Answer 1

• capitalism is criminogenic as it is based on the exploitation of the working class, leading to ever-increasing wealth of the ruling class.
• society’s structure is made of the state, the law, and the criminal justice system.
• all of these institutions serves the interest of the ruling class and maintains the capitalist economy.

Question 2

What is meant by Criminogenic Capitalism?

Answer 2

• the exploitation of working class damages them, which may give rise to crime
• poverty may mean that crime is the only way people can survive as it might be the only way to obtain food.
• alienation and lack of control over their own lives may lead to frustration resulting in non-utilitarian crime.
• however, white collar crime also occurs because people feel the need to make more profit.

Question 3

What is meant by the State and Law Making?

Answer 3

• law is created by the ruling class to serve their own interest and further exploit the working class
• selective enforcement of laws is present. the police and courts tend to ignore the crimes of the powerful.

Question 4

What does Chambliss and Snider and Graham suggest about state and law making?

Answer 4

• Chambliss argues that laws that protect private property are the cornerstones of capitalist economy.
• for example, british colonies in africa were forced to pay a tax therefore they had to work in the plantations and serve the economic interest of the colonial ruler.
• Snider argues that the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate their activities and threaten
  their profits.
• Graham illustrated Chambliss point further by looking into the war on drugs in US. he found that the politicians agreed not to greatly restrict certain drug production and distribution as they were sold by pharmaceutical companies.

Question 5

What are the Ideological functions of crime and law?

Answer 5

• occasionally laws that appear to benefit the working class are passed such as workplace health and safety law.
• however Pearce argeus that such laws often benefit the working class by providing a healthy workforce
• this also creates false consciousness among the workers

Question 6

Evaluation of Marxism

Answer 6

• ignores relationship between crime and non-class inequalities such as ethnicity and gender
• too deterministic and over-predicts the amount of crime in the working class
• not all capitalist states have high crime rates
• criminal justice system does act against the interest of the ruling class