Topic 3 Flashcards
What do Marxists agree with labelling theorists on?
Marxists agree with labelling theorists that the law is enforced disproportionately against the working class and that official statistics cannot be taken at face value.
This suggests that societal labels can contribute to criminal behaviour.
Why do Marxists criticise labelling theorists?
Marxists criticise labelling theorists for failing to examine the wider structure of capitalism within which law-making, law enforcement and offending take place
They believe that economic inequalities play a significant role in criminal behaviour.
What are the three main elements of capitalism that produce crime according to Marxists?
criminogenic capitalism
The state and law making
Ideological functions of crime and law-making
What do Marxists call something which by its very nature causes crime?
Criminogenic
Give three examples of how capitalism can be seen as criminogenic.
poverty may mean crime is the only way the working class can survive
Crime may be the only way they can obtain the consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising
alienation and lack of control over their lives may lead to frustration and aggression resulting in non-utilitarian crimes like vandalism and violence
Which sociologist argues that crime is found in all social classes because it is a rational response to capitalism?
David Gordon
Which sociologist found that British colonies used laws to introduce a money economy in order to criminalise those who didn’t serve their needs for labour on plantations in East Africa?
Chambliss
What does Laureen Snider argue regarding how capitalism benefits businesses?
Snider argues that capitalism benefits businesses because it is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability
What do Marxists mean by selective enforcement by the criminal justice system regarding classes?
Selective enforcement refers to the state’s tendency to ignore crimes of the powerful
How does capitalist society use law-making and crime to keep the working class in a false class consciousness?
By giving capitalism a caring face of one that cares about the health of the work but really intending to keep them fit for work - keeping them in a false class consciousness
Which sociologist argued that workplace and safety laws give capitalism a caring face and keep workers fit for work?
Frank Pearce
Why is the Marxist explanation of crime useful?
The first sociological theory to explain how class affects who gets criminalised by explaining the relationship between crime and capitalist society
Give 4 criticisms of the Marxist approach to crime.
Marxism largely ignores the relationship between crime and non-class inequalities such as ethnicity and gender
it is too deterministic
not all capitalist societies have high crime rates eg Japan
Left realists criticise Marxism for ignoring intraclass crime
Who are Neo-Marxists?
Neo-Marxists are sociologists who have been influencing by many ideas of Marxism but combine it with approaches from labelling theory
Whose neo-Marxist contribution has been the most important to our understanding of crime and deviance?
Taylor, Walton and Young
What is critical criminology?
Critical criminology is the approach that criticise existing theories of crime and deviance
What three arguments made by Marxists do Taylor et al agree with?
(a) capitalist society is based on exploitation and class conflict
(b) the states make laws in the interest of the capitalist at the expense of the working class
(c) capitalism should be replaced by a classless society
Why do Taylor et al criticise the Marxist perspective on crime as deterministic?
Taylor criticises Marxism for ignoring criminals have free will which they choose crime as a way to redistribute wealth
What do we call the idea that we have free will? (hint: opposite of determinism)
Voluntaristic
Why do Taylor et al argue criminals are not passive puppets?
Taylor argues criminals have free will because they commit crimes in striving to change society
What is a ‘fully social theory of deviance’ that Taylor et al aim to create?
It is a comprehensive understanding of crime and Deviance that would help change society for the better
What are the two main sources that Taylor et al’s full social theory of deviance would have?
(a) Marxist ideas about the unequal distribution of wealth
(b) ideas from interactionism on what crime means to the actor
According to Taylor et al what are the 6 aspects a complete theory of deviance needs to have?
Wider origins of deviant act, immediate origins of deviant act, the act itself, the immediate origins of social reaction, the wider origins of social reaction, the effects of labelling
Why do feminists criticise critical criminology?
Feminists criticise critical criminology as being gender blind
