Marxism, class and crime Flashcards
What do Marxists say about laws?
The law is enforced disproportionally against the working-class
For Marxists, is crime inevitable in capitalism?
Yes because capitalism is criminogenic - its very nature causes crime
What does a profit motive by the capitalist class encourage?
A mentality of greed and self-interest
What is Gordon’s view on crime?
Crime is a rational response to capitalism and hence is found in all social classes
In what ways is capitalism damaging to the working-class?
- Causes poverty
- Crime may be the only way they can obtain consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising
- Alienation and lack of control over their lives may lead to frustration and aggression
What does Chambliss argue?
Laws to protect private property are the corner stone of the capitalist economy
How does the study of East Africa by Chambliss support the Marxist view of crime?
- By showing how the British law imposed was used to coerce the population into working on the British colonists’ plantations
- Made tax payable by cash, if you did not work you were labelled a criminal
Identify two ways in which crime and the law perform an ideological function for capitalism.
- Some laws (e.g. health and safety) appear to benefit the working class, giving capitalism a ‘caring face’ (Pearce)
- Occasionally prosecuting capitalists makes it seem as if there is not one law for the rich and one for the poor
What are 2 criticisms of Marxism?
- Too deterministic, over-predicts crime in WC
- The criminal justice system does sometimes act against the interests of the capitalist class
Explain the difference between deterministic and voluntaristic views of behaviour.
- A deterministic view of behaviour suggests that crime is caused by external factors, such as subcultures or poverty
- A voluntaristic view of behaviour sees the criminal as having free will and their crime is therefore the result of choice.
Who comes up with the idea of deterministic and voluntaristic behaviour?
Taylor et al
What was Taylor et al’s ‘fully social theory of deviance’?
- Wider origins of the deviant act
- The immediate origins of the deviant act (particular context)
- The act itself
- The immediate origins of social reaction (police, family and community)
- The wider origins of social reaction (who has the power to define actions as deviant)
Explain why critical criminology has been accused of being too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime.
Because it romanticises working‐class crime as revolutionary, ignores the victims and does not suggest useful ways to tackle crime
What is meant by the ‘correctionalist bias’ in some theories of crime?
The assumption made by some theories that the purpose of the sociological study of crime is to find ways of correcting criminal or deviant behaviour
What is Sutherland’s definition of White Collar crime?
Crime committed by persons of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupations
Explain the difference between occupational crime and corporate crime
- Occupational refers to crime committed by employees simply for their own personal gain, often against the organisation for which they work
- Corporate crime is committed by employees for their organisation in pursuit of its goals
Name 5 types of Corporate crime
- Financial crimes
- Crimes against consumers
- Crimes against employees
- Crimes against the environment
- State corporate crime
What did Carrabine et al say about abuse of trust?
We entrust high status professionals with out finances, security and our personal information, however their positions gives them the opportunity to abuse this trust
What was one of the most notorious case of abuse of trust?
- GP Harold Shipman, convicted of the murder of 15 of his patients and is believed to have murdered at least another 200 through falsifying prescriptions
- He received only a warning from the General Medical Council
Identify 5 reasons for the invisibility of Corporate crime.
- The media
- Lack of political will
- The crimes are often complex
- De labelling
- Under reporting
What was the main reason for the introduction of partial invisibility?
Campaigns against corporate crime
What are 4 explanations of corporate crime?
- Strain theory
- Differential association
- Labelling theory
- Marxism
What is differential association?
The less we associate with people who hold attitudes favourable to the law, the more likely we are to become deviant ourselves
How does Box use strain theory to explain corporate crime?
If a company cannot achieve its goals of maximising profit by legal means, it may employ illegal ones
How does Nelken use the labelling theory to explain corporate crime?
Lawyers use de-labelling to conceal crimes
What are 2 criticisms of Marxism?
- Unrealistic to assume all businesses commit crime
- If capitalist pursuit of profit is a cause of corporate crime, this doesn’t explain crime in non-profit state agencies
What type of sociologist was Taylor et al?
Neo Marxist, critical criminologist
Why did Taylor et al create a ‘fully social theory of deviance’?
To create a comprehensive understanding of crime and deviance that would help change society for the better
What did Taylor et al argue?
- Marxism is too deterministic, sees workers as driven to commit crime out of economic necessity
What is the scale of corporate crime?
One estimate puts the cost of white collar crimes in the USA as over ten times that of ordinary crimes
What does Tombs say on the costs of corporate crime?
- Has enormous costs of physical, economic and environmental
- It is ‘widespread, routine and pervasive’
What type of system does Gordon describe capitalism?
A ‘dog eat dog’ system of ruthless competition amongst capitalists
What is selective enforcement?
- When it comes to the application of the law by the criminal justice system, powerless groups such as the WC are criminalised whilst ignoring the crimes of the powerful
- Making crime appear to appear as a WC phenomenon
