Topic 4 - Marxism

Subdecks (1)

Cards (14)

  • Snider - Marxist

    • Overemphasis on street crime to distract away from the white collar and corporate crime that the bourgeoisie commit
    • The upper class use agents of social control to construct laws to control the working class
    • 2008 many MPs claimed for expenses they were not entitled to- led to public outcry over abuse of tax payers' money
    • What is considered legal/illegal reflects the interests of the bourgeoisie- they commit the same amount of crime but their power allows them to avoid prosecution
  • 2008 National Fraud Authority

    Benefit fraud costs the UK public over £1b yet tax evasion cost £15b
  • Functionalists, such as Durkheim, argue that our laws are a reflection of value consensus and the examples Snider gives, like using an offshore account, are not actual crimes.
  • Gordon - Marxist

    • Selective law enforcement - prosecutions of the upper class are rare compared to working class
    • Individuals are deemed social failures, blaming them instead of the institutions of capitalism
    • Allows capitalism to remain unquestioned as threats are locked up in prison
  • Durkheim criticised Gordon's theory, arguing that the whole community decides who is prosecuted, reflecting value consensus.
  • Radical criminology combines marxist views with interactionism
  • Hall et al- radical criminology

    • There was a moral panic about crime and mugging - despite there being no evidence of increase
    • Media reporting led to concern for public safety which led to an excess of police
    • Drew attention away from economic problems of capitalism such as industrial and social unrest
  • Merton rejects Hall's notion that high crime rates for the working class are fiction or political acts. It is merely a response to strain.
  • Chambliss - Marxist

    • Capitalism promotes 'criminogenic' values
    • Individualism and competition leads to stealing
    • Basing status on money leads to fraud
    • Oppression leads to public disorder and violence
  • Chambliss's theory is critiqued as non-capitalist societies, such as communist, socialist, and tribal experience crime