Marxist Theories Flashcards
Introduction to Marxism
Based off of Karl Marx’s socio-economic theory, often described as the base of communism.
Used the idea that Capitalism is the cause of all crime, since it leads to exploitation, opression, alienation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. The capitalist ideology is maintaining a set of shared ideas/beliefs/norms that social inequality is normal.
The opressive capitalist state
The Government are the ultimate oppressors, excersising their control over the people to maintain power. Police/military are the state armory, enforcing the opressors.
Traditional Marxist views on Crime
Capitalism is the main cause of crime. There is a ‘hidden agenda’ behind most laws that protect the rich and keep Capitalist interests at heart. Snybody can break the law, but only the poor get caught. The rich use their cultural and social capital to get put of trouble. Crime will dissapear once Capitalism crumbles.
Grenfell Tower 2017
An apartment building burnt down after many pleas and complaints from residents to make safer installations. 80 people died, there was no suitable health and safety equipment.
Marxism Criticisms
Capitalism can’t be blamed for non-utilitarian crimes. Marxism is also quite deterministic - not every working class person commits crime. Some capitalist countries (a lot of Scandinavian countries) have low crime rates. Some communist countries (Cuba, China, Russia) have crime too. Over £1.3 billion has been spent by the UK government in recent years to regenerate the poorest areas in the country.
The Saints vs. the Roughnecks
The saints were 8 promising young men from good, stable, upper-middle class white families, and some of the most delinquent boys in Hannibal High School, often commiting their deviant acts out of town and not getting into any trouble. They were loved by their community, 7/8 graduated college, became doctors, lawyers, researchers and took up managerial and executive positions. The roughnecks were 6 boys of the same age as the saints, but coming from poorer, rougher families. They committed the same amount of deviant acts as the saints, but were doing so in their own town. They got in trouble often, and their community had a poor view on them. 2/6 of them became teachers since they were skilled at football, and the rest became serious criminal offenders or simply ‘bum around’ on the margines of trouble.
Ernest Burgess - The Zone of Transition
The working class live in the zone of transition, cloest to the central buisness zone. the ZoT usually has run down buildings, buildings taken over by companies, ‘slumhousing’. Its socially disorganized and over-political. Recorded offences are highest in urban low-income council estates; they have the most bulgary, most violent crime, most vehicle crime. The majority of bulgary offences happen within 2 miles of d’s home. This is because this is where d has the confidence zone and have cognitive mapping. Crime is not committed in the suburbs, as there is strong informal social control that helps keep crime away, eg. neighbourhood watch.
Ernest Burgess - Criticisms
Whilst there are some similarities, most major cities dont follow exactly the same crime mapping as Burgess suggested, like London. The richest live in the inner city (ZoT).
Marx’s predicitions
Working-class people’s dissatisfaction will spiral out of control, creating a Proletariat Revolution. Anti Capitalist protests will occur.
Marx’s predicitions - events
Occupy 2011 - defeated by the repressive state apparatus.
Luigi Mangione - December 2024, ‘assasinated’ Brian Thompson, an American healthcare insurance CEO. Mangione was potrayed as a strong anti-capitalist by the media, but the response was primarily in favour of him.
White collar crime
A nonviolent crime often characterised by deceit or concealment to obtain or avoid losing money.
Sutherland - white collar crimes
Usually committed by the more affluent in society, who abuse their positions within their middle class occupations or use their higher social standing for criminal activity, for personal benefit and to escape detection.
White collar criminals
- Harvey Weinstein
- Jeffery Epstein
White collar crime is usually non violent, but by using social standing, power and reputation to get away with it, that’s what makes it white collar crimes.
White collar criminals don’t fit the image of a usual offender
Dr Harold Shipman was found guilty of 15 murders on the 31st of January, 2000, however, possibly killed around 250 patients in total. 80% of his victims were women, and he used a very fine needle to inject his patients with diamorphine. This crime was very specialised and he managed to escape detection for a long time.
White collar criminals don’t fit the image of a usual offender 2
11th November 2022, during the second lockdown, Shaun Bailey of the Tory party had a work Christmas party - following no safety Covid guidelines.
Hazel Croall - ‘typical crime’
White collar crime doesn’t fit the social construction of what ‘typical’ crime is. They are under-represented in official crime statistics because:
- they are hard to detect, ‘invisible’, with no ‘blood on the streets’
- indirect victimisation
- hard to investigate
- lack of awareness that crime has taken place
- companies often ‘cover up’ white collar criminals.
Capitalism benefits from white collar crime, since it keeps people’s attention firmly on the poor, therefore keeping them in their place.
The ‘millionaire’ win!
August 1st, 2002, an army major, his wife, and a third party, were charged with deception and conspiracy after cheating on ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ and winning the jackpot prize.
Janice Goldstraw - White - “It’s not like I’m a real criminal!”
Conducted interviews with convicted, white collar criminals - a sample of 41 offenders (32 men and 9 women), who had committed crimes such as conspiracy, defraud, false accounting, tax evasion and theft from an employer. White collar criminals occupy a fine line between perfectly legal business practices and criminal activity.
One solicitor flatly denied inflating invoices to his clients - complex knowledge of the legal system does not make it easy for a jury to make sense of what they experience during a trial. Many offences are ‘invisible’.
Victims are not always readily identifiable. In many cases, the victim is a business or a company rather than an individual. This only makes detection even harder. Some offenders felt morally justified in committing white collar crimes, claiming that no one had actually been harmed.
White collar offenders consider themselves a ‘breed apart’ from ‘proper criminals’. “It’s not like I’m a really criminal,” one senior bank manager pointed out.
Janice Goldstraw - White - criticisms
Social desirability effect, interviewer effect, makes the findings less accurate and less valid. Quite a small sample-doesn’t represent all white collar criminals.
False class conciousness
Pretending to care/understand the social class inequalities in society.
New taskforce launched to combat fraud across the UK
A new taskforce consisting of police,banks and governement officials was set up by Theresa May to combat fraud across the UK. Will publish a list of the 10 most-wanted fraudsters and improve intelligence sharing between police and banks. 2015- fraud was included in the Crime Survey of England and Wales for the first time- suggested there was 5.1 million frauds the previous year, including frauds comitted over the phone/online, with just over half involving some financial loss.
Corporate crime
Crime committed by corperations to benefit them. A type of white collar crime, usually done to maximise profits.
Sweatshops
A factory/workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions.
Sweatshops example
2020 - Boohoo was discovered using a number of factories in Leicester were workers were paid £3-4 per hour.
Corporate crime - Marxist views
Corporate crime remains ‘invisible’ compared to street crime - arent taken as seriously and thees a much greater liklihood of offenders escaping justice. This is because of:
- Media coverage: not talked about often, not taking it seriously
- A lack of political will: capitalism’s interest to persecute crimes of the poor and overlooking crimes of the wealthy, ‘crimes of the streets not crimes of the suites’
- A lack of awareness: members of public arent aware that they’re victims of crime, corporate crime doesnt feature in the crime survey.
BBC News 2021 - NatWest money laundering charges
Deposits were made into a UK account totalling £365 million between 2011-16, £264m were in cash. The FCA alleges NatWest’s systems and controlls have failed to adequetly monitor and scrutinise this activity. This is the first time the FCA persued cirminal charges against a bank - fine could be unlimited. No individuals were charged.
June 2018 - Elizabeth Holmes
Convicted of fraud through a fake invention claiming to help millions of people worldwide (Theranos). She had a $9 billion net worth by lying to investors, started this company and ‘invention’ in 2003. She had a very wealthy and prestegious background and education. Was convicted for 11 and a quater years in prison starting on 30th May 2023 and a $452 million fine.
Elizabeth Holmes - criticisms
She still got punished and caught by the criminal justice system.
March 2022 - P&O Ferries scandal
Company announced via pre-recorded video that 786 employees would be made redundant with immediate effect. They planned to replace workers with agency staff, offering to pay below UK’s national minimum wage and no prior consultation with employees/Unions/Councils. No legal action was taken despite the outrage.
Victims of Corporate crime
1) Consumers = misleading advertising, faulty products
2) Employees = unfair dismissals, health and safety issues, poor working conditions
3) Public = pollution from environmental crimes can have an effect on health, could also consider cuts to public spending due to tax evasion.
Laureen Snider - Corporate crime
Corporate crimes do more harm than street crimes, costing more in money and lives. In the USA, approximatly 20,000 people are murdered every year (21,570 in 2021). Approximatly 14,000 die from industrial accidents, 30,000 from ‘unsafe’ products and 100,000 from job related diseases or injuries. In the UK, approximatly 600 peolpe die due to workplace-related injuries (malpractice of health and safety laws). in 2023-24 583 people were murdered.
2011 - French Government reccomendations
Recommended that women with breast implants take them out from the manufacturer Poly Imlpant Prothese due to health and safety fears.
May 2013 BBC News article - The rise of ‘tax shaming’
Starbucks, Google, Amazon managed to avoid paying taxes on British sales.
- Starbucks: sales of £400mil in UK 2012, paid no corporation tax
- Amazon: sales in UK 2011 were £3.35bil, only reported ‘tax expense’ of £1.8mil
- Google: UK unit paid £6mil to the treasury in 2011. Had a UK turnover of £395mil
This is legal, seen as avoindance not evasion. Simon Walkers (Director General of Institute of Directors): ‘If these firms are immoral to take advantage of tax loopholes, then politicians are surely immoral for creating the loopholes in te first place’.
The rise of ‘tax shaming’ - criticisms
People are shaming, the public is aware, change is clearly needed. The BBC article is brutally honest, not gentle or underplaying the company’s crimes.
1984 - Bhopal Gas Disaster
Industrial disaster and environmental pollution. The plumes of posionous gas leaked from the Natural Gas company - people died on the streets, no one was warned, 5000 died, 25,000 sick and later killed. Water contaminated, had really long term effects, including higher rates of children born with disabilities and abnormalities. No proper compensation was given, no organisation took responsability - this was an American company that had sites in the US following health and safety regulations. £3bil would’ve been proper compensation for the damages, the company only gave £400mil.
Bhopal Gas Disaster - criticisms
The media does cover corporate crime, the government are doing things to try and stop it. Big corporations are good for the economy (without the tax evasion) and companies do face consequences and pay fines.
Neo-Marxism/Radical Criminology
By itself, Marxism cannot help us to fully understand why crime occurs. Marxism needs to be combined with the idea of labelling theory to provide a ‘fully social theory of crime’. The state does indeed create conditions that result in the poor comitting crime, but they are not forced to do so (response to deterministic criticisms). Crime is an active choice that is made and can be a form of political resistance.
2011 - London riots
Protesting against poor living conditions and an unequal British society.
December 2024 - Luigi Mangione
Assasination of healthcare insurance CEO.
Taylor, Walton and Young - Radical Criminology (Neo Marxism), The New Criminology
Believed that Marxism could not provide a fully social theory of deviance. Social class inequality does contribute to high crime rates, people from poorer backgrounds are not inevitably propelled into crime. Crime committed by poorer members of society acts as a form of political resistance, a symbolic defiance to an unjest system. In order to form a comprehensive understanding of why crime occurs, it is important to draw upon labelling theory alongside Marxism.
`Stuart Hall - Policing the Crisis
The state often criminalises the poor in order to prevent them from challenging Capitalism. During the 1970s, the media reported of increase of muggings taking place. The main culprits were identified to be young black men in working class areas targeting the more well off. A moral panic started to spread - police forced to act fast through more ‘stop and searches’ taking place involving young black males. The negative labelling was a way for the Gorvernment to distract people’s attention from the real crisis; high unemployment. Black, wokring class males were a convenient scapegoat. Since working class criminals target working class people, the perception that middle class people need to fear the working class is a distortion and illusion.
Moral panic
Intense fear and worry about the behaviour or morality of others, usually exacerbated by fear-mongering.
Stages of Moral panic
1) Labelling: media labels
2) Stigma, moral panics, fear and over-policing
3) Artificial increase in crime statistics
Neo-Marxism Criticisms
- Fails to provide a realistic solution to crime
- Crime driven be emotions are not a rational choice or premeditated
- Is crime always political resistance? Most crimes are against the working class
- Little evidence to back up Hall’s view: did the public really ‘panic’ in the 1970s and identify young black men as criminals? Maybe newspapers just wanted to sell newspapers and not stop revolutions
- Does well in linking Marxism and Labelling theory
Neo-Marxism Criticisms - Counterpoint
Summer 2016:
Brexit vote to leave EU, following prolonged negative headlines about immigration.
