Marxism, class and crime

Question 1

Who do Marxists agree with?

Answer 1

Labelling theorists, who say that the law is enforced disproportionately against the working class and that therefore official crime statistics can’t be taken at face value

Question 2

What kind of a theory is Marxism?

Answer 2

A structural theory: it sees society as a structure in which the economic base determines the shape of the superstructure, which is made up of all of the other social institutions

Question 3

Criminogenic capitalism

Answer 3

• Crime is inevitable in capitalism because capitalism is criminogenic- by its very nature it causes crime
• Causes a rise to crime because:
  1. poverty may mean that crime is the only way the w/c can survive
  2. crime may be the only way they can obtain the consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising
  3. alienation may lead to frustration

Question 4

What does Gordon (1976) argue?

Answer 4

Crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and hence it is found in all social classes

Question 5

The state and law making

Answer 5

• Chambliss (1975): laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy
• Example: the introduction of British law into Britain’s East African colonies, where Britain’s economic interests lay in tea, coffee and plantations. Introduced a tax reward for those who worked on the plantations

Question 6

Ideological functions of crime and law

Answer 6

• Laws are passed that appear to be for the benefit of the working class rather than capitalism, such as workplace health and safety laws
• Pearce (1976): laws benefit the ruling class, ie by keeping workers fit for work
• Laws aren’t vigorously enforced: a new law against corporate homicide passed in 2007- in its first 8 years only one case was prosecuted

Question 7

Evaluation of Marxism

Answer 7

• Ignores the relationship between crime and non-class inequalities
• Too deterministic and over estimates w/c crime
• Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates: the homicide rates in Japan are 1/5 of America’s
• CJS sometimes acts against the interests of the bourgeoisie
• Left realists: intra-class crime is ignored