Marxist View Of Crime Flashcards
Why do Marxists criticise interactionists
Because they ignore the wider structure if capitalism
Marxists believe
Law is forced disproportionately against the w/c and that we cannot therefore take the statistics at face value.
Capitalism is a ‘dog eat dog’ competition, profit encourages greed/self interest
Need to win all, m/c commit white collar crimes- corporate crimes e.g. tax invasion
Rich people don’t feel rich compared to other rich people
Criminogenic capitalism
Capitalism main aim is to make profit, so they need people to buy goods. Those that can afford goods are fine, those that can’t might just steal
So it is inevitable
Poverty may mean that crime is the only way the working class can survive.
Crime may be the only way they can obtain the consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising.
Alienation and lack of control over their lives may lead to frustration and aggression, resulting in non-utilitarian crimes such as violence and vandalism.
State and law making
Chamblis points out that it’s the ruling class who make the law to benefit the interest of the ruling class, in early days it was about protecting the land, now it’s about tax loopholes
He illustrates this with the example of the introduction of English law into Britain’s East African colonies. Britain’s interests lay in the colonies’ tea, coffee and other plantations which need plentiful supply of local labour.
Ideological functions of crime and law
If the ruling class need changes to the economy, they may change laws that in fact criminalise the w/c. Link to Aluthusser
Laws are occasionally passed that appear to be for the benefit of the W/C rather than capitalism. E.G: Workplace health and safety laws.
However, Pearce (1976) argues that such laws also benefit the R/C too. E.G; by keeping workers fit for work. By giving capitalism a ‘caring face’, such laws also create false class consciousness among the workers!
Evaluations
Ignores the relationship between crime and non-class inequalities such as gender and ethnicity
To deterministic, over predicts the amount of crime. Not all poor commit crimes
Not all capitalist society have high crime rates e.g Japan and Switzerland homocide rates are 1/8th of the USA. However the USA don’t have good welfare provision and that could be a reason
Criminal justice system sometimes works against capitalist class
Cooperate crimes get punished
Intra class crimes- Marxism ignores when both the victim and criminal are w/c
What is a white collar crime
A white-collar crime is a nonviolent crime that involves deceit or concealment to gain money or avoid losing it
For Marxists, the structure of capitalist society explains crime. Their view has three main elements:
Criminogenic capitalism
The state and law making
Ideological functions of crime and law
Not just the w/c (Gordon)
Gordon (1976) argues, crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and hence it is found in ALL social classes- even though the statistics make it out to be a W/C phenomenon!
Capitalism is a ‘dog eat dog’ system of ruthless competition between capitalists, while the profit motive encourages a mentality of greed and self-interest.
The need to win at all costs or go out of business, along with the desire for self-enrichment, encourages capitalists to commit white collar and corporate crimes such as tax evasion and breaches of health and safety laws.
Selective enforcement
The R/C have the power to prevent the introduction of laws that would threaten their interests.
E.G: There are few laws that seriously challenge the unequal distribution of wealth. Snider (1993): The capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability!
Jenabi
Some laws are not rigorously enforced because of selective law enforcement, crime appears as mainly w/c phenomenon which divides the W/C by making them blame each other rather than capitalism!
E.G: despite a new law against corporate homicide being passed in 2007, in its first 8 years there was only one successful prosecution of a UK company!
