Neo + Subcultural Marxism - Crime Flashcards
How do Neo-Marxists criticise traditional Marxism?
- Victims of crime are ignored. Marxists are sympathetic towards the offenders of blue collar crime.
- View on CJS and law creation/enforcement are one-dimensional, ignores other influences on law making
What is ‘New Criminology’?
Combined a Marxists critique of capitalism with an Interactionist understanding of the agencies and ‘actors’ involved in the process of ‘becoming criminal’
Why does New Criminology combine Marxism and Interactionism?
Believe it is crucial to take into account societal factors from a Marxist perspective but that sociologists should also take an interactionist approach to consider the behaviour of the victim, offender, media and CJS and how they interacted to influence the response of the crime.
What does Taylor et al provide to analyse crime?
A ‘fully social theory of deviance’
What 6 steps are Taylor’s method?
1) The wider origins of the deviant act - what was happening in society as a whole
2) The immediate origins of the deviant act - the trigger
3) The actual act
4) The immediate and wider origins of the social reaction - response by media, CJS and government
5) The outcome of the social reaction on deviant’s further action - how society views the offender or anyone from their social group
6) The nature of the deviant process - conclusion
How did Hall create a fully social theory of deviance?
By looking at the idea of the ‘black mugger’ in the 1970s as a scapegoat for other social ills of the period
- By making young black men someone to fear it united a fractured UK society
How can a fully social theory of deviance analyse the London Riots of 2011?
1) There was unemployment in the UK, economic downturn and growing anger at police
2) The death of Mark Duggan
3) Riots
4) Social networking used to spread the work and get others to riot
5) Media and public showing disgust at those carrying out the riots
6) Sense of injustice but communities deciding to work together to create better opportunities
7) CJS did not operate fairly as the real crime of the inequality was not dealt with such as Mark Duggan’s death and those who were angry were punished
What are 4 criticisms of Neo-Marxism?
1) Traditional Marxists: New Criminology moves too far away from Marxists tradition, over-emphasising the independence of the capitalist state and CJS from the economy
2) Feminists Criminologists: NC has continued the omission of women from criminological discuss, ignoring the power of patriarchy in the analysis
3) Left Realists: NC ‘romanticise’ the view of criminals. Seen as those angry at capitalism so make mistakes. Little discussion of the victims of street crime
4) Methodologically: model remains extremely complex and difficult to apply. May not always be useful.
How did Neo-Marxism help to develop Left Realism?
Due to their critique of traditional Marxism’s economic determinism
What does Marxist Subcultural Theory try to explain?
The existence of subcultures amongst the working class
How does he Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies (CCCS) claim capitalism maintains control over the majority?
1) Ideological dominate through the media
2) Economic pressure
How do working class youth offer resistance to capitalism?
They are on the margins of society and are not ‘locked in’ by ideology and finance
What does Brake suggest?
- Resistance is expressed by working class youth subcultures through the clothes they wear and the language they use which show their disdain for capitalism and their awareness of their position within it.
- This resistance is ‘magical’ as it is an illusion which appears to solve problems but in reality these groups will soon have to be exploited by the ruling class
How does Willis’ study of The Lads apply to subcultural theory?
Because the Lads showed resistance through failing class and being class ‘hero’ by targeting teachers. However they will be exploited why the R/C once they get dead end jobs due to failing at school.
What does Stan Cohen suggests about methodological problems of subcultural theory?
- Writers are biased in their analysis. They wanted to prove that working class youth cultures were an attack on capitalism so they fixed evidence to support this.
- The interpretation Marxists writers put on the group was just one way of explaining it.
- They extracted what they needed to prove their theory and ignored what did not fit
