Marxism crime

• Criminogenic capitalism (Gordon) - Marxist


  nature of capitalism causes crime to happen and makes it inevitable

  Nature of competition

  - w/c commit crimes to get ahead

  - corporate crimes - to keep company ahead of others
• Critique: Criminogenic capitalism (Gordon) - Marxist


  Not all crimes are committed because of capitalism - e.g. revenge + hate crimes
• State and Law Making - Marxist


  Law making + enforcement = serves interest of ruling class

  Chambliss - private property protection law only applies to those who own property - r/c

  Pearce - health and safety laws keep w/c healthy so they can work for bourgeoise

  Snider - laws to protect the w/c are not enforced (apart of the 'caring face of capitalism') whereas laws to protect r/c are
• Critique: State and Law Making - Marxist

  Functionalists see the law as reflecting the value consensus and represent the needs of society

  There are laws that benefit the working class, including safety laws

  There are always going to be laws that don't apply to everyone
• Reinman and Leighton - Marxist


  Selective enforcement -

  people in higher position aren't held as accountable for their crimes as people in lower positions

  
  

  Critique: Rich people don't get away with everything and are charged of crimes
• Negatives - Marxism on Crime

  Doesn't explain non-utilitarian crime

  Ignores crimes from non-class inequalities (e.g. race/gender)

  Not all capitalist societies have large crime rates (Japan, Switzerland) so there must be other factors

  Ignores intra-class crime - crimes against people in the same class
• Critical criminology - neo-Marxist


  Critical criminology

  Marxism = too deterministic

  Voluntaristic - idea that we have free will

  Crime is a conscious choice, criminals aren't passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism
• Taylor et al - neo-Marxist


  6 key aspects of crime

  Wider origins of the deviant act - what from wider society contributes to the act e.g. inequality

  Immediate origins of the deviant - what is the context of the crime, what caused it e.g. someone firing them

  Act and its meaning - what they did, was it reasonable?

  Immediate social reaction - police, were they arrested? people who saw the event + community reaction

  Wider social reaction - was it publicised, did society have a reaction?

  Effects of labelling - what label has been put on the crime and criminal
• Critique: neo-Marxist

  Feminism - 'gender blind' - neo-marxists focus excessively on class inequality + ignore gender

  Left realists - argue they ignore intra-class crime and romanticise w/c criminals who are fighting capitalism 'Robin Hoods
• Tombs - Marxist, corporate crime


  Financial crime - e.g. money laundering

  Crimes against consumers - e.g. identity theft

  Crimes against employees e.g. health and safety breaches

  Crimes against environment - e.g. waste mismanagement

  Corporate crime = worst, people don't recognise they're victims as it isn't inter-personal crime
• Box - Marxist, corporate crime


  Mystification of corporate crime

  w/c people have been convinced that corporate crime is less wide spread and impactful than blue collar crime
• Sutherland - Marxist, corporate crime


  Differential association - if you associate with people who commit crimes, you are more likely to commit them yourself.

  You become part of that culture and crime becomes normalised
• Invisibility of corporate crime

  Media - limited coverage of corporate crime reinforces the stereotype that crime is mainly w/c

  Lack of political will - politicians being tough on crime is focused on street crime

  De-labelling - fines for corporate crimes rather than prison time = makes it seem less of a crime

  Under reporting - when the victim is society or environment the crime often goes unreported. Due to delabelling by the media, victims may not recognise it as a crime

  Critique: Organisation Greenpeace reports corporate crimes against the environment
• Critique of corporate crime

  If capitalist pursuit of profit causes corporate crime, why do non-profit making state agencies (e.g. police, army) commit crimes as well