MARXISTS ON CRIME Flashcards
1
Q
Marxist Perspective of Crime
A
- The economic base of society is the capitalist economy and it is this that determines the shape of the superstructure.
- This structure explains crime as traditional Marxists believe that crime is inevitable in a capitalist society as it is criminogenic (by its very nature it causes crime). Capitalism exploits the working class and used as a means to an end (profit), whatever the human cost.
- Similar to the Functionalist argument crime is explained through the idea of strain. However, Marxists argue that this strain is due to capitalism.
- However, crime is not confined to the working class; capitalism is a ‘dog eat dog’ system of ruthless competition among capitalists.
2
Q
Marxist strain theory
(Working-class crime)
A
Crime may be the only way the working class can obtain the consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising, resulting in utilitarian crimes such as theft. Alienation and lack of control over their working class lives may lead to frustration and aggression, resulting in non-utilitarian crimes such as violence and vandalism.
3
Q
Gordon
A
- Utilitarian crime is a rational reaction to capitalist foci and non-utilitarian crime is a reaction to the frustration of exploitation.
- Viewing crime as a rational response to the capitalist system helps to explain why crime is found in all social classes - despite the common notion that crime is largely a working-class phenomenon, as depicted by crime statistics.
4
Q
Ruling class crime
A
- Profit encourages a mentality of greed and self-interest.
- The need to win at all costs (or go out of business) encourages capitalist to commit white collar and corporate crimes such as tax evasion and breaches of health and safety laws.
5
Q
Snider
A
- Corporate crime is far more harmful than street crime but is less regulated.
- The capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability
- E.G arguably cigarettes are not prohibited because of the profit that they provide
6
Q
Marxism and selective enforcement
A
- Capitalism causes crime due to selective law making (laws reflecting the interests of the ruling class).
- Marxists agree with labelling theorists that although all classes commit crime, when it comes to the application of the law by the criminal justice system, there is selective enforcement.
- Powerless groups (such as the working class and ethnic minorities) are criminalised, whilst powerful groups commit invisible crime that the police and courts tend to or are even bribed to ignore.
7
Q
Pearce
A
- Only laws which on the surface protect the working class but still benefit the bourgeoisie are passed.
- For example, workplace health and safety laws could be seen as a method to ensure that workers will not have days off due to illness.
- By giving capitalism a ‘caring’ face, such laws maintain false class consciousness among workers.
- Even though many of these laws are beneficial for workers, they are not always rigorously enforced.
- For example, despite a law against corporate homicide being passed in 2007, in its first 8 years there was only one successful prosecution of a UK company - despite large numbers of deaths at work estimated to be caused by employers’ negligence.
- Marxists would conclude from this that the law is biased towards the ruling class.
8
Q
Marxism: ideological functions of crime
A
- The law enforces law selectively and therefore misrepresenting crime as a largely working-class phenomenon.
- This divides the WC by encouraging workers to blame criminals in their midst for their problems, rather than capitalism
- The media is thought to contribute by portraying criminals as disturbed individuals, thereby concealing the fact that it is the nature of capitalism that makes people criminal
9
Q
Marxist Perspective of Crime
EV.
A
+ Marxism offers a useful explanation of the relationship between crime and capitalist society e.g. it shows the link between law making and enforcement and the interests of the capitalist class
+ The Marxist perspective also puts into a wider structural context the insights of labelling theory regarding the selective enforcement of the law.
- It largely ignores the relationship between crime and non-class inequalities such as ethnicity and gender
- It is too deterministic and over-predicts the amount of crime in the WC: not all poor people create crime, despite the pressure of poverty (stereotypical)
- Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates e.g. the homicide rate in Japan and Switzerland is only about 1/5 of that in the US (although Marxists point out that societies with little or no state welfare provision such as the US tend to have higher crime rates).
- The CJS does sometimes act against the interests of the capitalist classes e.g. prosecutions for corporate crime do occur (however Marxists argue that such occasional prosecutions perform an ideological function in making the system seem unbiased).
- Left realists argue that Marxism ignores intra-class crimes (where both the criminals and victims are WC) such as burglary and ‘mugging’ which cause great harm to victims.
10
Q
Neomarxist Perspective of Crime
A
- Influenced by many of the ideas put forward by Marxism, but they combine these with ideas from other approaches such as labelling theory.
- Agree that society is based on exploitation, the law is selective and getting rid of capitalism would greatly reduce, if not eradicate crime but Taylor, Walton and Young (1973) argued that Marxism is too economically deterministic.
11
Q
Taylor et al
A
- Argued that the Marxist approach to crime is deterministic in seeing workers as driven to commit crime out of economic necessity.
- They take a more voluntaristic view (considering free-will), seeing crime as a voluntarist, conscious choice made by the actor and a meaningful action.
- Crime is often politically motivated e.g. To redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor.
- Criminals are not passive puppets; they are deliberately striving to change society. A contemporary example of this is the riots in Hong Kong where citizens are protesting against governmental policies.
- Argued that the Marxist approach to crime is deterministic in seeing workers as driven to commit crime out of economic necessity.
- From these ideas they attempted to create a fully** social theory of crime: a combination of traditional Marxism and interactionalism, uniting 6 elements to create a fully social theory of crime.**
12
Q
Taylor et al
6 elements of criminal theory
A
- The wider origin of deviance
- The immediate origin of deviance
- The act itself
- Immediate impact of the act
- The wider societal reaction
- The effects of labelling
13
Q
Hall: Policing the Crisis, 1978
A
- The 1970s was a time of social and economic crisis (wider origin)
- Inner city riots, conflicts and strikes (immediate origin)
- A mugging (act itself)
- Media outrage at muggings and the police’s racial profiling (immediate impact)
- Moral panic surrounding black men as criminals and dangerous (wider societal reaction)
- Institutional racism. Sense of injustice amongst ethnic minorities who had a huge loss of confidence int the criminal justice system (effects of labelling)
14
Q
Neomarxist Perspective of Crime evaluation
A
- Feminists criticise their approach as ‘gender blind’, focusing excessively on male criminality and at the expense of female criminality
- Left realists make two related criticisms.
- First, that critical criminology romanticises working class criminals as ‘robin hoods’ who are fighting capitalism by re-distributing wealth from the rich to the poor.
- However, in reality these criminals mostly prey on the poor.
- Secondly, they argue that Taylor et. al. do not take such crime statistics seriously and they ignore its effects on working class victims.
- With a more valid picture of the criminals and the factors that led them to crime, this can help tackle initial crime but also help to lower re-offending rates.
- Burke (2005) argues that critical criminology is both too general to explain crime and too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime
+ Theory can be used to explain moral panics (Hall) - Taylor, Walton and Young have all changed their views since the New Criminology was published. However some aspects are still defended.
+ In calling for greater tolerance of diversity and behaviour, the book combated the ‘correctionalist bias’ in most existing theories - the assumption that sociology’s role is simply to find ways of correcting deviant behaviour instead of understanding its cause.
+ The book laid some of the foundations for late radical approaches that seek to establish a more equitable society, such as left realist and feminist theories.
