Term 2 Lecture 6- Marxist and Radical Criminology Flashcards
What are the key readings?
Newburn and Becker
What are the key points from Newburn?
There is too much of a focus on proletariat criminality and not Bourgeois
Deviance is due to social protest
The law relates to class dominance and social values
Vold= people are group orientated and develop strong attachments
What is under scrunity?
Crime, law and criminal activity
Who creates laws?
By people who hold power
How should we look at social control?
Within the wider socio-economic order, structure and state
What does Karl Marx say about crime?
No excusing of crimes and suggests that there is reason for criminal acts
Punishment cannot prevent crimes if the society they occur in is based on exploitation, oppression and racism
What are the 2 Marxist elements of society?
Consensus and conflict
How should crime and deviance be linked?
To a general model of class-based society and state
What is crime seen as?
A particular form of conflict
What are the key points from the Communist Manifesto?
Ideas are due to an outgrowth of conditions of Bourgeois production
Character depends on economic conditions and class
The labourers are a commodity
What is commodity production?
A production of commodities who sale products capital which accumulates profit for capitalism
What does commodity production require?
A mass of individuals who must sell their labour power
What is the tie between the capitalist and worker?
The extent they can be used
What are the 2 elements of capitalism?
Structural Inequalities & Structural Conflict
What does Lanier and Henry say about Marxist ideas?
Capitalism causes inequalities of wealth
Owners of large corporations influence decisions of those with political power
What does Marxism say that crime is caused by?
Defects in the social order
Why is crime a feature of capitalism?
It is an expression of basic social inequalities
What context is criminal behaviour in?
Class relations and nature of the law associated with modes of production
What did Willem Bonger observe?
Economic inequalities in capitalism and inherent competition egoism increasing criminal conduct
What did Willem Binger focus on?
Poverty as they are important to understand economic criminality and class as intellectual condition of the proletariat is the reason why the moral plane is not high
What does Chambliss say about radical criminology?
Class contradictions create crime
Capitalism creates the desire to consume and inability to create the capital necessary
There is conflict between owning class and working class
Law is designed against the act of proletariat that threatens the bourgeoisie
Whar does Quinney say about radical criminology?
Criminal law is an instrument of the state and the ruling class to perpetuate social order
Crime control is accomplished by government elite representing ruling class interests
What are the key ideas from Taylor, Walton and Young?
Capitalism shapes social institutions, social definitions, and social actions
Capitalism creates class conflict and contradictions
Crime is a response to capitalism and its contradictions
Capitalism shapes society’s responses by shaping law
What are examples of white collar crimes?
Financial, crimes committed against consumers, employment relationships, crimes against the environment
What does Croall say about white collar crime?
It has low visibility, it is complex, it isn’t easily detected and challenges in prosecution
What is a Marxist theory of crime?
The State is organised to serve the interests of the capitalist state
Criminal law is an instrument of the capitalist state
Capitalist crime control is accomplished through coercive and welfare instructions
The criminal justice system concentrates on detection and processing of minor offences committed by lower classes
Only with the transition to socialism there will be a solution to crime
What is the advantages of radical criminology?
Traces causality to issues and problems in social structures (class and patriarchy)
Sheds light into problems endemic in the administration of justice
It illustrates crime statistics as socially constructed
Brings morality and politics to the ‘table’ (criminology narrative and arena)
What is the limitations of radical criminology?
Teleology: Crime is seen as a product of capitalism and criminalisation maintains capitalism. While it demonstrates why ‘crime’ is considered as functional it does not explain why it exists.
Idealism: a) Places increasing emphasis on a crime-free society, b) crime is seen as a form of resistance, c) too much emphasis on State not on victims
Determinism: a) Heavy focus on structure, b) ‘Boxed into a fixed position’ (actor)
What is Brown et al 4 types of crime?
Crime from labour disputes, from political protest, fro, disputes between nations and from racial disparity
What are Turk’s 4 levels of conflict?
Organised and sophisticated, organised and unsophisticated, unorganised and sophisticated, unorganised and unsophisticated,
What does Turk say about high power imbalances?
There is high criminality
What are Quinney’s 6 propositions?
American society is based on a capitalist economy
The states serve interest to the dominant economy class
Criminal law is an instrument of the state
Crime control is through capitalist society
Contradictions of advanced society
Collapse of capitalist society will save crime
What does new criminology focus on?
Human diversity and breaking down of correctionalism
What does new criminology say about capitalism?
Capitalism shapes social institutions and creates class conflict
Crime is a response to capitalism
Capitalism law conceals crime of domination and repression
Crime is functional to capitalism
Capitalism shapes society’s response to crime
