marxism + crime

• what is criminogenic capitalism?

  capitalism causes crime - crime is inevitable in a capitalist society

  capitalism is based on the exploitation of working classes and therefore is damaging to them.

  GAP - capitalism creates crime through greed, alienation and poverty
• how can capitalism cause crime?

  capitalist societies encourage an endless pursue of wealth - leads to crimes like fraud and white collar crimes

  working classes are frustrated with their position in a capitalist society leading to violent crimes, vandalism or counter-cultures

  working classes are paid low wages and driven into poverty leading to crimes like drug-dealing, theft, homelessness/vagrancy
• evaluation of criminogenic capitalism

  deterministic - ignores peoples free will to live legitimately in a capitalist system

  crime still occurs in communist countries so there must be factors other than capitalism that cause crime
• the state and law making

  law making only serves the interests of the capitalist class

  laws are made to protect the private property of the capitalist economy.

  the government is reluctant to pass laws that threaten business and profitability.

  vagrancy act

  No laws on the number of property you can own
• evaluation of law making

  wrong to assume that only the bourgeoisie benefit from laws and policies. many laws hold the bourgeoisie to account e.g laws against discrimination in the workplace.
• selective law enforcement

  the law is selectively enforced against working classes and not ruling classes. powerless groups such as the proletariat and ethnic minorities are criminalised and crimes of the powerful are ignored

  e.g lavinia woodward

  box - most people convicted of serious offences are young uneducated males, often unemployed who live in impoverished neighbourhoods

  crimes of the powerful e.g white collar and corporate often go unreported in the media
• evaluation of selective law enforcement

  have examples of working class people who have been given unduly lenient sentences for crimes which counter-argues selective law enforcement
• ideological functions of crime and law

  laws such as health and safety act as ideological functions - seem like they are benefitting the working class but are really benefitting the ruling class to prevent prosecution

  crime appears to be a largely working class phenomenon due to the selective law enforcement - encourages workers to blame the criminals in their midst for crime rather than capitalism

  ideological function aids the ruling class's ability to manipulate the working class and prevent revolution
• what two ways do the ruling class control the values of society?

  socialisation - people are persuaded of the 'rightness' of capitalism by 'agencies' such as school and the media - creates the belief that most criminals are working class

  threat of force - working classes are threatened with harsh punishment for breaking the laws which protect the powerful
• evaluation of ideological functions

  criticised for being closed to criticism/challenge as marxism argues health and safety laws are benefitting the ruling class but it would be seen as oppressive to remove them.
• neo-marxism - critical criminology

  argues that marxism is deterministic - believe that crime is voluntary, conscious and meaningful and committed by individuals who are striving to change society rather than caused by external factors such as subcultures, biological factors or labelling.

  e.g riots, protests, looting
• evaluation of neo-marxism

  only useful at explaining politically motivated crimes and cannot account for crimes like white collar crimes or sexual offences

  gives criminals a 'robin-hood' status and attempts to legitimise their deviant actions
• crimes of the powerful

  white collar crime - a crime committed by a person of respectability

  corporate crime - crime committed by employees

  sutherland - crime is committed in all levels of society often by persons operating through large and powerful organisations

  tombs - white collar and corporate crimes do more harm than 'ordinary' or 'street' crimes - corporate crime has enormous costs e.g deaths and injuries, pollution, economic costs to consumers, workers etc
• types of corporate crime

  financial crimes e.g tax evasion, money laundering

  state-corporate crime e.g private military company crashing into people's cars + running members of the public over

  crimes against the environment - e.g volkswagon rigged 11 million vehicles to cheat emissions test

  crimes against employees - e.g rana plaza building collapsed killing 145 people and injuring over 600

  crimes against consumers - e.g found horsemeat in beef lasagna/burgers in tesco, iceland + lidl that was advertised as beef
• the abuse of trust

  high status professionals occupy positions of trust and respectability. people entrust professionals with their finances, health, security and personal information - gives them the opportunity to abuse this trust. white collar crime violates the trust that society places in professionals. lose faith in professionals when they commit crimes
• evaluation of corporate crime

  marxist view of white collar crime can be argued to be an over-representation about how much white collar crime actually occurs. most crime will be committed by less powerful groups in society
• what are the reasons for the invisibility of corporate crime?

  the media - give very limited coverage to corporate crime

  lack of political will to tackle corporate crime

  complexity of crimes - law enforces often lack expertise to tackle corporate crime effectively

  de-labelling - corporate crime consistently filtered out of the process of criminalisation, punishments often fines

  under-reporting - victim often society itself, may be unaware they have been victimised

  partial visibility - corporate crimes starting to be seen, companies set up to highlight corporate crimes e.g miselling of PPI
• evaluation of the invisibility of corporate crime

  emergence of social media companies investigating white collar crime shows us that it is becoming visible in society
• explanations of corporate crime

  strain theory - if companies cannot maximise their profits legally they may be tempted to innovate and break the law

  differential association - if a company's culture justifies committing crimes to achieve corporate goals, employees will be socialised into criminality

  labelling theory - avoid labelling corporate crime which makes corporations more inclined to commit crime - often given fines

  marxism - corporations are greedy and will commit corporate crime to increase profits or cut expenses leading to more money for the business e.g ford pinto