Neo - marxists theories of crime

Question 1

What do neo-marxists believe?

Answer 1

• have been influenced by many of the ideas that have been put forth by traditional marxism
• however they combine the ideas with other ideas from other approaches e.g the labelling theory
  believe in ‘new criminology’ which is the idea that when approaching crime, a marxist perspective must be taken and looking at wider capitalist society that is helping to generate the circumstances of crime
  also believe it is important to use interactionist ideas to see how the behaviour of the victim, media and the CJS all interact to influence how the situation develops

Question 2

New criminology (Ian taylor)

Answer 2

• the author outlines a model which they term a fully ‘social theory of deviance’ - the model has seven dimensions

1) Wider origins of deviant acts
- context of crime i.e distribution of wealth and power
2) Immediate origins of social reaction
- how do other people react to the deviant?
3) Wider origins of deviant reaction?
- how does wider society act?
4) The deviant process as a whole
- all aspects need to be connected together to provide a full social theory of deviance

Question 3

Application of the stages by Ian Taylor, Paul Walton and Jock Young

Answer 3

-Stuart hall did a study of mugging in London and how the media focused on this crime and a publicity forced this problem to the top of the policing and political agenda

• seen to be carried out by those from African Carribean backgrounds
• media outrage at the extent of muggings - linked to racism among the police
• sense of injustice among ethnic minorities
• real causes of crime were not addressed and were hidden by the CJS ( 1970s was a time of social crisis e.g city riots, conflict, strikes and police needed a scapegoat)
• they found scapegoats through young men of an African Caribbean background

Question 4

Evaluation of the new criminology

Answer 4

• ‘gender blind’ theory that only focuses on male criminality
• left realists believes that it romanticises crime by saying that crime is fighting capitalism and re-distributing wealth but actually the poor still suffer the most - does not look into the the wider effects crime has on the w/c
• Burke says it is too general to explain all crime and it is too idealistic in tackling crime

positives

• asks people to have a greater tolerance of diversity and to avoid labelling and prejudice of certain groups
• combines a number of different perspectives to provide a social theory of crime