Marxist Explanations Of Crime And Devience Flashcards
Althusser
Control of Protetariat is maintained for two sets of institutions:
-Repressive State Apparatus
-Ideological State Apparatus
Combined, creates false consciousness, prevents challenge. Bourgeoisie don’t commit crime, Proletariat does.
Repressive State Apparatus (RSA)
-Directly and obviously controls proletariat
-Through formal agents of social control e.g. Government, CJS, Police
-Agents use coercion and violence to control. It scares the P so they don’t challenge the B
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Scared of punishment, prevents revolution
Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)
Finish
-Controls P more subtly
-Socialises us into accepting capitalist ideology
-Informal agents of social control e.g. family
-ISA used to show who is ‘deviant’ as a warning and keep us scared to justify the use of RSA.
Gordon (Marxism)
Crime is a rational response to capitalism and is found in all social classes despite official statistics suggesting it’s found more in the working class
Neo-Marxism: Chambliss
Two high school gangs, WC+MC. Stereotypes and police/public perception of boys deviant behaviour was impacted by their social class.
Bourdieu (Supports Chambliss)
MC not caught because had cultural capital (knowledge, skills etc) to negotiate way out of punishment. Use status to find loopholes to benefit them. WC forced to crime.
Box (Marxism)
Capitalist society exploits individuals in WC for own benefit so when released from direct control, more likely to commit crime so can commit crime because the system is unfair.
Marxist explanations for crime
Capitalism is a competitive system which encourages personal gain as well as economic system which focuses on private ownership of means of production which is done by the bourgeoisie. It can be seen as explorative where gain is received at the expenses of others; Marxism suggests that the proletariat are being exploited by the bourgeoisie.
Example of the Bourgeoisie exploiting the Proletariat
Jeff Bezos and Amazon workers
