Marxism - Causes of crime

Question 1

What is the acronym for the four causes of crime according to Marxists

Answer 1

MICE

Question 2

What are all the four causes of crime according to marxists

Answer 2

Law Making
Ideological Functions
Criminogenic Capitalism
Law Enforcement

Question 3

Which Marxist spoke about Law Making

Answer 3

Chambliss

Question 4

What is meant by Law Making as a cause of crime

Answer 4

Laws are made to serve capitalism and the ruling class
Government reluctant to pass laws regulating activities of business or threaten their profitability

Question 5

What are 2 examples of the RC being reluctant to change laws

Answer 5

Reluctance to stomp down on tax loop holes with businesses
Liz Trust plan to lift tax cap

Question 6

What are 2 evaluation points of Law making as a cause of crime according to marxists

Answer 6

Some laws do benefit the poor - minimum wage
Laws benefit all and reflect the VC of society opposed to just the RC - Functionalism

Question 7

What is an example from the new budget 2024

Answer 7

Private schools no longer exempt from 20% VAT, private jets increased 50% rates

Question 8

What is meant by Ideological Function as a cause of crime according to Marxists

Answer 8

Pearce: the law justifies and maintains capitalism
Health and safety laws give capitalism a caring face - a small amount of breaches lead to prosecutions and they are used to keep the work force fit to continue working

Question 9

What do statistics show within ideological functions

Answer 9

Most prosecutions involve WC
Creates divide between WC and creates impression that crime is a WC problem causing them to blame each other rather than capitalism - media contributes by reporting on it

Question 10

How does the law maintain false class consciousness

Answer 10

It distracts workers from true causes of crime
e.g headline: ‘Help us stop £1.5bil benefit scroungers’

Question 11

What is one evaluation point for ideological functions

Answer 11

Merton - WC do commit more crime but because they cannot achieve any other way

Question 12

What is meant by Criminogenic Capitalism as a cause of crime according to Marxists

Answer 12

Crime is inevitable as capitalism causes crime and occurs at every level of the class system
WC commit crime to survive poverty, gain consumer goods encouraged through consumer culture and release anger and frustration (non-utilitarian)
RC commit crime to gain more profit due to greed e.g tax evasion/ avoidance

Question 13

What do Marxist-feminists say about releasing anger and frustration

Answer 13

Ansley: Takers of shit - men taking out frustration on wives so they can continue to work and feed into capitalism

Question 14

What is meant by Law Enforcement as a cause of crime according to Marxists

Answer 14

Selective Law enforcement - WC and ethnic minorities more likely to be criminalised by police and courts while the powerful are ignored
e.g WC areas patrolled more looking for crime in WC areas

Question 15

What is an example that evaluations Law Enforcement and shows RC individuals being criminalised

Answer 15

Donald Trump in four criminal cases

Question 16

What is the re-evaluation of the idea that says that RC people are punished by the law equally

Answer 16

Marxists would say that this gives capitalism a caring face and feeds into the ideology that capitalism is fair when in reality the RC are hardly prosecuted successfully

Question 17

What is an overall evaluation for the Law Enforcement as a cause of crime according to Marxists (same evaluation as ideological functions)

Answer 17

Merton - WC do commit more crime but because they cannot achieve any other way

Question 18

What is one positive of the Marxists theory of the causes of crime

Answer 18

Builds on labelling theory - both acknowledges laws and law enforcement are socially constructed but tells us the source of where the power comes from (capitalism and RC)

Question 19

What are 3 overall evaluations of the Marxists theory of crime

Answer 19

Ignores crime links between non-class inequalities and crime - feminism say laws are to benefit men
Labelling theorists say it is too deterministic - not all poor commit crime
Left Realists say it ignores intra-class crime