Neo-Marxist Theories of Crime

Question 1

What is Neo-Marxism?

Answer 1

• Neo-Marxism is an update of traditional Marxism and addresses the limitations of Marxism in a modern more complex society

Question 2

What are similarities to Marxism?

Answer 2

1. Capitalism is the root cause of criminal behaviour due to exploitation and class conflict
2. The state creates and enforces law to benefit the ruling class
3. Capitalism being removed would dramatically reduce crime

Question 3

What are differences to Marxism?

Answer 3

1. They believe crime is voluntarist and people make a conscious effort to commit crime
2. Criminals are not passive puppets of capitalism
3. Crime is politically motivated

Question 4

What is New Criminology?

Answer 4

• Taylor et Al argues that Marxism is too deterministic as they see workers needing to commit crime out of economic necessity, however they reject this view of an external factor causing crime
• They emphasize that crime is a voluntary and conscious choice by the individual

Question 4

What does New Criminologists believe about crime?

Answer 4

1. Crime is politically motivated
2. Criminals are not passive puppets and they have made a deliberate choice to commit crime to make a change
   - They believe that crime is working class people fighting back

Question 4

What are the six aspects of the fully social theory of deviance?

Answer 4

1. The Structural Origins of the Crime = The structure that creates inequality
2. The immediate cause of the act = What made them make that decision at that time
3. The act itself and the meaning behind it = A symbol for the structural cause
4. The immediate social reaction to the act = Police and media reaction
5. The wider origins of the social reaction = How society reacts to the crime such as division
6. The outcome of the social reaction = What happened to the person who committed the crime and society facing the crime

Question 4

What is the Fully Social Theory of Deviance?

Answer 4

• Believes that in order to understand why people commit crime, there is 6 different aspects of crime to look at which provides an explanation for the crime

Question 5

What is an example of the social theory of deviance?

Answer 5

• Stuart Hall’s Policing the Crisis 1978
• Ruling class hegemony is the dominance in society of the ruling class set of ideas

Question 6

What is an evaluation of Neo-Marxism?

Answer 6

• Mainly focused on male criminality so does not explain female criminals
• This theory romanticizes criminals as they make it seem similar to Robin Hood crime.
• Not all crime is politically motivated such as domestic violence
• Burke argues it is too general and idealistic to explain crime