marxist theories of crime

Question 1

capitalism is crimogenic

Answer 1

• crime is inevitable in capitalism- by its very nature it causes crime
  -poverty may mean crime is the only way to survive
• crime may be the only way they can obtain the consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising
• alienation and lack of controls over their lives results in non-utilitarian crime

Question 2

gordon

Answer 2

argues crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and hence it’s found in all social classes - even though the official statistics make it appear to be a largely wc phenomenon

Question 3

selective law enforcement

Answer 3

agree with labelling theorists that although all classes commit crime, when it comes to the application of the law by the CJS, there is selective law enforcement
- powerless groups e.g WC and EMs are criminalised, police and courts tend to ignore the crimes of the powerful

Question 4

reiman

Answer 4

crimes that are likely to be committed by the higher classes are accepted and less likely to be treated as a criminal offence

Question 5

selective law making

Answer 5

• law making only serves the interests of the capitalist class e.g protection of private property
• ruling class also have power to prevent the introduction of laws that would threaten their interests

Question 6

chamblis

Answer 6

argues that laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of capitalist economy
- shows that with case of introduction of english laws into east africa colonies - britain needed local labour, introduce a tax payable in cash which could only be earned on plantations

Question 7

snider

Answer 7

argues that the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of business or threaten their profitability

Question 8

the ideological functions of crime

Answer 8

laws are occasionally passed that appear to be for the benefit of the wc rather than capitalism, such as workplace health and safety laws
- crime appears to be a largely wc phenomenon— divides the wc by encouraging them to blame criminals rather than capitalists

Question 9

pearce

Answer 9

argues that such laws often benefit the ruling class too e.g by keeping workers fit for work. by giving capitalism a ‘caring’ face, such laws also create false consciousness among the workers

Question 10

evaluation of marxist theories of crime
- reductionist

Answer 10

largely ignores the relationship between crime and non-class inequalities, such as ethnicity and gender

Question 11

evaluation of marxist theories of crime
- deterministic

Answer 11

too deterministic and over-predicts amount of crime in the wc; not all poor people commit crime, despite the pressures of society

Question 12

evaluation of marxist theories of crime
- not all capitalist societies have high crime rates

Answer 12

e.g homicide rates in japan and switzerland is only about a fifth of that in the united states

Question 13

evaluation of marxist theories of crime
- sometimes against interest of capitalist class

Answer 13

• the cjs does sometimes act against the interests of the capitalist class e.g prosecutions for corporate crime do occur

Question 14

evaluation of marxist theories of crime
- ignores intra class crimes

Answer 14

left realists argues that marxism ignores intra class crime such as burglary and muggings which cause great harm to victims

Question 15

taylor, walton and young agree with marxists that;

Answer 15

• captialist society is based on exploitation and class conflict and characterised by extreme inequalities of wealth and power. understanding this is key to understanding crime
• state makes and enforces laws in the interests of the capitalist class and criminalises members of the wc
• capitalism should be replaced by a classless society. this would greatly reduce the extent of crime or even rid society of crime entirely

Question 16

anti-determinism

Answer 16

taylor et al reject marxists deterministic view that sees workers as driven to commit crime out of economic necessity, along with other theories that claim crime is caused by other external factors such as anomie, subcultures or labelling etc

Question 17

voluntaristic view - taylor et al

Answer 17

they see crime as a meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actor. in particular, they argue that crime often has political motive, for example to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor
criminals are not passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism; they are deliberately striving to change society

Question 18

a fully social theory of deviance

Answer 18

two main sources;
1. marxist ideas about the unequal distribution of wealth and who has the power to make and enforce the law
2. ideas from interactionsim and labelling theory about the meaning of the deviant act for the actor, societal reactions to it, and the effects of the deviant label on the individual

Question 19

six aspects of a fully social theory

Answer 19

1. the wider origins of the deviant act
2. the immediate origins of the deviant act (context)
3. the act itself and the meaning for the actor
4. the immediate origins of social reaction (the reactions of those around the deviant e.g police, family and community to discovering the deviance
5. the wider origins of social reaction in the structure of capitalist society - especially the issue of who has the power to define actions as deviant and to label others, and why some acts are treated more harshly than others.
6. the effect of labelling on the deviants future actions e.g why does labelling lead to deviance amplification in some cases but not others?

Question 20

feminist criticisms of critical criminology

Answer 20

‘gender blind’, focusing excessively on male criminality and at the expense of female criminality

Question 21

left realist criticisms of critical criminology

Answer 21

• critical criminolgy romanticises wc criminals as ‘robin hood’ whp are fighting capitalism by re-distributing wealth from the rich to the poor. however, in reality these criminals mostly prey on the poor
• taylor et al do not take such crime seriously and they ignore its effects on wc victims

Question 22

burke

Answer 22

argues criminal criminology is both too general to explain crime and too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime. however, hall has applied taylors et al approach to explain the moral panic over mugging in the 1970s