Class

• Explaining class differences - Functionalists

  • Not everyone is equally socialised into society's shared culture
  • Miller - lower class had developed an independent subculture with its own distinctive norms and values that clash with mainstream
• Explaining class differences - strain theory

  • Merton - America's class structure denies WC people the opportunity to achieve, so they seek illegitimate means to gain it
• Explaining class differences - subcultural theories

  • Cohen - WC youth are culturally deprived as they have not been socialised into the mainstream
  • This pushes them to turn to each other and form gangs, who aim to reject the mainstream
  • Cloward and Ohlin - three subcultures are conflict, criminal and retreatists
• Explaining class differences - labelling theory

  • Reject the official statistics
  • Stereotypes held by the law enforcers leads to more arrests of the WC
• Marxism - criminogenic capitalism

  • Capitalism is criminogenic, by its very nature it causes crime
  • Poverty may mean crime is the only way to survive
  • Capitalist advertising pushes a need for consumer goods
  • Alienation from mainstream may lead to violence
  • Gordon - crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and is therefore present in all social classes
• Marxism - the state and law making

  • law making an enforcement only serves the elite
  • Chambliss - laws that protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy
  • Snider - capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability
• Marxism - ideological functions of crime and law

  • Laws are occasionally passed that appear to be for the benefit of the WC, such as workplace health and safety laws
  • Pearce - they benefit the RC too, as it keeps the workers healthy so they can work for the corps for longer
  • Selective enforcement makes crime appear to be a WC phenomenon, it keeps them blaming themselves rather than the system
• Marxism - criticisms

  • Ignores race and gender
  • Over-predicts that all WC commit crime
  • Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates, the homicide rate in Japan and Switzerland is 1/5 of the US
  • Ignores intra-class crime, when both the criminal and victim are WC
• Neo-Marxism - anti-determination (Taylor et al)


  • Deterministic view - Marxism sees workers as driven to commit crime out of economic necessity
  • Voluntaristic view - NM see crime as a conscious choice out of free will
  • Criminals are not passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism, rather they are deliberately striving to change society
• Neo-Marxism - a fully social theory of deviance (Taylor et al)


  Should include:

  • The wider origins of the deviant act
  • The immediate origins of the deviant act
  • The act itself
  • The immediate origins of social interaction
  • The wider origins of social interaction
  • The effects of labelling
• Neo-Marxism - criticisms

  • Feminists - only focuses on male criminality and crime at the expense of females
  • Left realists - romanticises WC criminals as 'Robin Hoods' fighting for political change
  • Burke - it's too general to explain crime and too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime
• Crimes of the powerful - white collar (Sutherland)


  • Occupational crime - committed by employees for personal gain, like stealing
  • Corporate crime - committed by employees for their organisations gain, like mis-selling products for profit
• Crimes of the powerful - corporate crime (Pearce and Tombs)

  • Financial crimes - tax evasion or money laundering
  • Crimes against customers - false labelling or selling unfit goods
  • Crimes against employees - discrimination of violation of rights
  • Crimes against environment - pollution or toxic waste dumping
  • State-corporate crime - supply gov for war
• Crimes of the powerful - the abuse of trust

  • Carrabine - we entrust professionals with our finances, personal information and security, however their position gives them an opportunity to abuse this
  • Accountants and lawyers can be employed by criminal organisations
  • Dentists have claimed payments from the NHS for treatments that have never been carried out
• Crimes of the powerful - invisibility

  • The media limit its coverage to reinforce it as a WC phenomenon
  • Lack of political will to tackle it
  • The crimes are often too complex for local law enforces
  • De-labelling - these crimes are filtered out of criminalisation
  • Under-reporting - individuals may be unaware of their victim status
• Crimes of the powerful - strain theory explanation

  • Box - if a company cannot achieve its goal of maximising profit by legal means, it may employ illegal ones instead
  • Clinard and Yeager - law violations by large companies increased as their financial performance deteriorated
• Crimes of the powerful - differential association


  • If a companies culture justifies committing crimes to achieve corporate goals, employees will be socialised into this criminality
  • Geis - individuals who joined companies where illegal price-fixing was practised, were socialised into contributing
  • Sykes and Matza - individuals will deviate more easily if they can produce a justification
• Crimes of the powerful - labelling theory explanation


  • Nelken - companies have the power to avoid labelling, as they can afford high quality lawyers and accountants to help them
• Crimes of the powerful - Marxist explanation

  • Capitalism's control of the state means that it is able to avoid making laws that conflict with its interests
• Crimes of the powerful - criticisms of explanations

  • Nelken - it is unrealistic to assume all businesses would commit without the threat of punishment
  • Doesn't explain crime in non-profit organisations, like the police, army civil services
  • Braithwaite - law abiding may be more profitable than law breaking