Neo Marxists Perspective (concern 4) Flashcards
What neo Marxism
‘New Marxism’
Late twentieth century Marxists who seek to develop and advance traditional ideal
Marxists = capitalism is responsible for all social problems
Neo Marxists = regard criminal behaviour as being partially influence by wider social forces and partially a personal choice
What are the two issues that Neo Marxists are interested in the duel of crime and devidence
1) why do people choose to commit crime
2) does the bourgeoisie deliberately negatively label and criminalise particular groups within society to heighten out fear of crime and dive and rule the working class
How came up with the fully social theory?
Taylor, Walton & young
What is the fully social theory
Taylor young and Walton believe that to understand crime why is happens and how it is dealt with we need to understand much more about the processes in which a criminal action occurs
What are the six stages of the fully social theory
1) what are the wider social factors which could explain the origin of the deviant or criminal act?
2) in what personal or economic context did the deviant or criminal act occur
3) what does the act mean for the individual involved
4) ho dose wider society initially react
5) what wider social factors may have caused society to react in the way it did to the act
6) what impact does society’s reaction have upon the person who committed the act in long end short term
Explain the first step of the fully socially theory ‘ what are the wider social factors which could explain the origin of the deviant or criminal act?’
Societies with class inequalities may drive some to commit crime e.g in some societies with large wealth divide financially motivated crimes may be more common
Explain the second step of the fully social theory ‘ in what personal context did the deviant or criminal act occur’
The perpetraters values or personal circumstance may have driven them to commit the crime e.g people who are desperately poor may feel they gave no choice but to commit crime
Explain the third step of the fully social theory ‘ what does the act mean for the individual involved’
Some perpetrators may feel that their actions are justified e.g people who are poor may see themselves as taking what they are owed from the rich
Explain the forth step of the fully social theory ‘ how does wider society initially react to the act?’
- different individuals such as the police fairly end the public may respond in various ways to the discovery of the deviant act.
Explain the fith step of the fully social theory ‘ what wider social factors may have caused society to react in the way it did to the act’
In a capitalist society some typed it crimes and criminals are more likely to be targeted and controlled e.g working class offenders are more likely to be harshly punished and labelled
Explain the sixth step of the fully social theory ‘ what impact does societies reaction have upon the person who committed the act, in the long and short term’
Some people resist labels and reform themselves others live up to the label and devience amplification occurs
Explain the median role in shaping people’s reaction to crime
‘Hall’ =’interested in the power of the media when it comes to influencing people’s attitudes towards criminality. He points out in the 1970s the media was responsible for the development of anti-black attitudes in the UK society. Negative stories were written creating s moral panic about mugging and other street crimes
What is a moral panic
When the media creates an exaggerated fear of crime
Evaluation of Neo Marxists
1) feminists criticise the theory for being gender bling as it fails to consider the different experienced and oppressions experienced by women and does not make any reference to the fact that far fewer women commit crime.
2) left realists would argue it over romanticises Woking class criminals as robin hoods who are fighting capitalism by stealing for the rich and giving ball to the poor.
