marxism + crime Flashcards
sociologists ?
- bonger
- gordon
- chambliss
- box
- althusser
bonger believes ?
that crime is inevitable in capitalist societies as capitalism creates the potential for crime as it encourages the persuit of profit and greed. capitalism brings out selfishness and egoism in people. causing the rich to commit crime for more money and the poor to commit crime due to oppression
bonger - the poor’s response to capitalism
crime on the streets is a result of miserable conditions in which workers lived in. crime is caused by capitalist values such as
- induvidualism and competition
- materialism
- racism
bonger - the rich response to capitalism ?
the rich will often commit just as much crime as the poor but they will protect themselves by passing laws that control working class crimes such as petty crime and antisocial behaviour rather than white collar crimes
gordon?
capitalism was the cause of most criminal behaviours as it is amplified structural inequalities in society between upper and working class
- capitalist societies are ‘dog eat dog societies’ where everyone and companies look after their own interests
- the system recommends that we engage in the self interested pursuit of profid is good and its acceptable to harm others
chambliss ?
argues that most laws in US and UK are property lay and protects people who own property. he found that the CJS was not there to catch out the upper class, and that universal laws were pplied selectively
chambliss saints and roughnecks ?
he studied 8 children from white upper middle class backgrounds who were one of the most delinquent boys named the saints in high school, he then compared their treatment to the roughnecks who were lower class white boys who were constantly in trouble with the police and were treated more harshly
box ?
supports the theory of selective law, one rule for the rich and another for the poor. the CJS mainly concerns itself with policing and punishing the marginalised not the wealthy and this performs ideological functions for the elite classes.
Althusser ?
people are controlled through ideological state apparatus and repressive state apparatus
strengths of marxism ?
- useful explanation between crime and capitalist society
- shows link between law making and enforcement
weakness for marxism ?
- very deterministic not all WC commit crime
- Switzerland and Japan are capitalist but have low crime rates
- not all laws are for the ruling class many seem to benefit everyone such as traffic laws
what are Neo Marxists ?
marxists who adapt Marx ideas who take on board some of the criticisms and recognise the WC criminals made an active choice to break the law
neo marxist sociologists and evidence ?
- Taylor Walton and young
- hall
- CJ and public order act
Taylor Walton and young ?
they believe any theory of crime should challenge the capitalist ideology and look critically at the role of the state and police in the creation of crime.
- people may be motivated by their class position and feelings of frustration and want to fight back against the capitalist system.
hall - black muggers ?
he argued that theres a crisis of capitalism which results in unemployment which impacts black people some who chose to enter the informal economy rather than do white man shit work
- ruling class slights to divide the WC to prevent anti capitalist political activism
criminal justice and public order act ?
some groups targeted :
- travellers: unauthorised campers
- ravers: gathering of 100+
squatters: violence to secure entry on property on behalf of residents is lawful
