Neo-Marxist Perspective

Question 1

Why neo-marxism was developed

Answer 1

Attempted to establish a full social theory on crime
- Took a macro background to deviance
- Marxism = too simplistic
- Interactionist = didn’t take wider consequences of a criminal act into account
Blended by Taylor, Walton & Young

Question 2

Neo-Marx views on crime

Answer 2

CRIME = POLITICAL MOTIVATION
People make active decisions to commit crime based in response to their situation
- Feeling oppressed by capitalism / patriarchy
E.g. Black Panthers commiting violent acts - response to be labelled as criminal (fighting against black segregation)

Question 3

Taylor, Walton & Young Theories

Answer 3

W/c crime is a form of resistance against the injustices of capitalism
Criminal activity = political
- Act of class consciousness with people fighting back agaisnt the unfairness of capitalism
- E.g. w/c stealing from a shop = engaging in redistribution of wealth

Question 4

Taylor, Walton & Young Evaluation

Answer 4

:( - Ideological (Young: Work is closer to left idealism)
:( - Fails to understand the nature of power in capitalism
:( - Don’t study deviants (major aspect of society)

Question 5

Hall Study

Answer 5

POLICING THE CRISIS:
Applied Neo-Marx approach to black youth
Newspaper article: street crime = new craze amongst black youth ‘mugging’
‘mugging’ = moral panic
Gov & media promote racism & demonise black youth to distract from political problems & poor performing economy
Black men = protesting against racism & capitalism & criminal labelling

Question 6

Gilroy Study

Answer 6

Black criminality = myth
Police stats ≠ reality of crime
Attributed stat differences in recorded criminality between ethnic groups being caused by the police & racist labelling
Media & police = operating on the stereotype that young black men are more criminal than others

Question 7

Lea & Young and Gilroy views

Answer 7

Lea & Young: Rioting could be an act of protest against marginalisation
Gilroy: Sees most crime by black people as essentially political and a part of the general resistnace to ‘white rule’

Question 8

Gilroy Evaluation

Answer 8

:( - Most crime is against people of the same ethnic group
:( - Asian crime is lower than white (assumes police are only racist towards black people)
:( - Most crime is reported to the police, not discovered by them (difficult to suggest racism is within the police itself)

Question 9

Neo-Marxist Evaluation

Answer 9

:( - Ideological (Young - more left idealism than nmx)
:( - Left Realism - Over romantises w/c crime