Social class

• Marxist theory 


  Criminogenic Capitalism.

  Selective law enforcement - more lenient with m/c crime.

  Ideological function of selective law enforcement and media portrayal of criminals - criminalises w/c to cause them to fear each other, distracting from capitalist issues. Laws portrayed as being made to protect w/c creating false consciousness.
• Merton

  Strain theory
• Cohen


  Status frustration.

  W/C boys -> face barriers in education -> less likely to achieve -> seek others in the same position -> criminal subculture.

  Alternative status hierarchy - gain status through deviant means.
• Lea & Young

  Left realist

  Inequality within society leads to social class differences in crime.

  W/c experience more relative deprivation and marginalisation, leading to crime.

  Unemployment leads to a lack of a voice (don’t have a union advocating for them) leading to deviant subcultures.
• New right / right realists 


  Socialisation & underclass

  Murrary - lone parent families lead to an underclass of inadequately socialised children who are more likely to deviate.
• Sutherland


  Challenged the view that crime is mainly a working class problem, claiming that the financial cost of white collar crime was probably several times greater than the cost of working class crime.
• Hughes & Langan

  White collar crime has a lower rate of detection and prosecution, and more lenient punishments. Because:

  Low visibility

  Complexity

  Diffusion of victimisation

  Diffusion of responsibility