Topic 3a: Marxist explanations Flashcards
The law benefits the ruling class - Mannheim
Marxists say that as an instrument of the ruling class, the State passes laws which support ruling-class interests, Mannheim wrote: 'the history of criminal legislation in England and many other countries, shows that excessive prominence was given by the law to the protection of property'. (laws benefiting the ruling class)
The law benefits the ruling class - Chambliss
such laws were largely unnecessary in feudal society, where land was the main source of wealth, and landowners were ‘the undisputed masters of the economic resources of the country’ with laws benefiting them. The heart of a capitalist economic system is the protection of private property, which is, by definition, the cornerstone upon which capitalist economies function. It is not surprising, then, m find that criminal lows reflect this basic concern.
Crime is a rational response to living in an unequal and unfair capitalist society
Many Marxists see crime as a natural outgrowth of capitalist society. They argue that a capitalist economic system generates crime for the following reasons:
•The economic infrastructure is the major influence upon social relationships, beliefs and values. The capitalist mode of production emphasizes the maximization of profits and the accumulation of wealth.
• Capitalism is based on the private ownership of property. Personal gain rather than collective well being is encouraged.
Crime is a rational response to living in an unequal and unfair capitalist society - Chambliss
Chambliss says that Members of each stratum use whatever means and opportunities their class position provides, to commit crime. Thus, in low-income areas, the mugger, the pimp and the prostitute use what they have got to get what they can. In higher ¬income brackets, business people, lawyers and politicians have more effective means at their disposal to grab a larger share of the cake.
Selective enforcement of the law takes attention away from the unfair nature of capitalist society - Gordan
Gordon argues that the practice of law enforcement in the USA supports the capitalist system in three ways:
- By selecting members of the subject class and punishing them as individuals, it protects the system which is primarily responsible for their criminal deviance. So blame is directed at the individual rather than the institutions of capitalism.
- The imprisonment of selected members of the subject class ‘legitimately’ neutralizes opposition to the system. American and British black people are heavily over-represented among those arrested for ‘street crimes’ such as robbery and aggravated assault.
Selective enforcement of the law takes attention away from the unfair nature of capitalist society - Gordan 2
- defining criminals as enemies of the state, provides a justification for incarcerating them in prisons. In this way the most embarrassing extremes produced by the capitalist system are neatly swept under the carpet.He concludes that the selective enforcement of the law serves to maintain ruling-class power and to reinforce ruling-class ideology.
Marxist eval
Feminist sociologists have argued that traditional Marxist theories put undue emphasis upon class inequality and ignore the role of patriarchy in influencing the way the criminal justice system operates. Stephen Jones points out that capitalism does not always produce high crime rates. For example, in Switzerland, which has long embraced a capitalist system, crime rates are very low. Left Realists argue that crimes such as burglary, robbery and other violent crimes cause greater harm than Marxist theories seem to imply. The victims of such crimes are usually working class, and the consequences can be devastating for them.
Neo Marxists - Crime and deviance as acts of rebellion - Phil Cohen
studied 1970s skinheads and proposed that the skinhead style was a symbolic reaction to the decline of working class communities. For example, their dress exaggerated working-class masculinity and aggression whilst their anti-immigrant stance was a reaction to the decline of their exclusively white working-class neighbourhoods.
Neo Marxists - Crime and deviance as acts of rebellion - Brake
argues that the ideological resistance to the dominant adult value system from subcultures is a form of illusion that appears to solve their problems, he calls it magical, but in reality it does no such thing. Each generation of working-class youth face similar problems (dead-end jobs, unemployment), but in different circumstances Each generation expresses itself through different choice of clothes, slang, music. But each will eventually be trapped like the generation before them.
Neo Marxists - Crime and deviance as acts of rebellion evaluation
Left Realists criticize this view for being what they call ‘left idealism’. That is, it is unrealistic and impractical. Most crime is not progressive or taking from the rich to give to the poor. Instead crime victimizes thousands and thousands of ordinary people. For the most part, crime is poor people victimizing other poor people. It must be taken seriously and not seen as ‘rebellion’.
New criminology-Ian Taylor, Paul Walton and Jock Young (neo- Marxists)
They argue that crime can only be understood by looking at:
the wider social origins of the deviant act, the immediate origins of the act, to investigate the meaning given to the act by those who react to it, the historical context of this reaction must also be examined and the impact of the social reaction.
New criminology - Hall et. al (neo Marxist)- Policing the Crisis
He argues that there was a ‘moral panic’ about mugging – a crime associated with black youth. Mugging was presented as a key element in the breakdown of law and order. Hall says the mugging moral panic helped capitalism in two ways. Firstly the public were persuaded that society’s problems were caused by ‘immigrants’ rather than the faults of the capitalist system. Secondly the government was able to justify the use of force to suppress the groups that were challenging them. The societal reaction led to the labelling of large numbers of young blacks as deviants.
New criminology - Hall et. al- Policing the Crisis (neo Marxist) - eval
Downes and Rock argue that Policing the Crisis claims that black street crime was not rising quickly while at the same time arguing that it was bound to rise as a result of unemployment and it fails to show how the moral panic over mugging was instigated by the state to deflect attention from the a crisis of British capitalism.
Young argues that the study provides no evidence that the public were panicking about mugging, nor does it show that the public identified the crime with blacks.
Intro
The Marxist analysis of society is best understood by examining the process whereby the majority of the population (proletariat) are exploited by the owners and controllers (bourgeoisie) of commerce and industry. This exploitation creates crime and deviance Or social class and crime intro to Marxists
Conclusion
anything not used
