Neo-Marxism: Critical Criminology

• Neo-Marxism: Overview

  Sociologists who are interested in the ideas put forward by Marxists, and combining these with other approaches like Interactionism.
• Neo-Marxism: Contributions to Crime & Deviance (1)

  'The New Criminology' by Taylor et al. They agree with Marxists that: capitalist society is key in understanding crime due to the exploitation and extreme inequalities of wealth and power; the state makes and enforces laws which interest the capitalist class and criminalise the working class; and that capitalism should be replaced by a classless society.
• Neo-Marxism: Contributions to Crime & Deviance (2)

  However, views of Taylor et al differ slightly from Marxists, as the majority of their book critiques existing theories of crime and deviance, including both Marxist and Neo-Marxist contributions. They describe their approach as critical criminology.
• Neo-Marxism & Critical Criminology: Anti-Determinism

  Taylor et al argue that Marxism is deterministic (by seeing workers as driven to commit out of economic necessity). They reject this, along with other theories which argue crime is caused by other external factors (like anomie, subcultures, labelling) or by biological/psychological factors.
• Neo-Marxism & Critical Criminology: Voluntaristic View

  They take the view that we are voluntaristic, we have free will. Seeing crime as a meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actor. They see that crime is often has political motive, e.g. to redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor. Taylor et al then claims that criminals aren't passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism: they are deliberately striving to change society.
• Neo-Marxism & Critical Criminology: A Fully Social Theory of Deviance

  Taylor et al aims to create a comprehensive understanding that can help change society for the better. This theory has 2 main sources: Marxist ideas about the unequal distribution of wealth, and who has the power to make and enforce law; and ideas from Interactionism, about the meanings of the deviant act for the actor, societal reactions to it, and the effects of the deviant label on the individual.
• Neo-Marxism & Critical Criminology: A Fully Social Theory of Deviance


  A complete theory of deviance needs to unite 6 aspects:

  1 Wider origins of the deviant act (unequal distribution of wealth and power in capitalist society); 2 Immediate origins of the deviant act (context in which individual decides to commit the act); 3 The act itself (its meaning to the actor); 4 Immediate origins of social reaction (police family and community); 5 Wider origins of societal reaction (the structure of capitalist society); and 6 Effects of Labelling (deviant's future actions). Aspects are inter-related.
• Evaluation of Critical Criminology- Perspectives

  Feminists criticise it for being 'gender blind', focusing excessively on male criminality at the expense of female criminality. Left Realists argue that it romanticises working class criminals as 'Robin Hoods' who are fighting capitalism in the aims to redistribute wealth, when in reality they are preying on the poor; and they claim that Taylor et al doesn't take such crime seriously, which then ignores the effects on working class victims.
• Evaluation of Critical Criminology

  Burke argues that it is both too general to explain crime, and too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime. Though Hall et al has applied Taylor et al's approach to explain the moral panics over the 'muggings'.
• Evaluation of Critical Criminology

  Since the book, many of the sociologists have changed their views, though Taylor and Young still defend some aspects, arguing: by calling for greater tolerance of diversity in behaviours, the book combatted 'correctionalist bias' in most existing theories- the idea that sociology's role is to find ways to correct deviant behaviour; and the book laid foundations for later radical approaches which seek to establish a more just society (like Left Realists and Feminists).