Marxist Theories

• Althusser suggested the ruling class controlled the proletariat through ideological state apparatuses and repressive state apparatuses
• Ideological State Apparatus - passive control that influences people's thoughts so they won't rebel. Institutions like education and the family teach obedience and hard work
• Repressive State Apparatus - some people reject the ISA and so social control must be maintained through force. Police and legal system go against a person's will to maintain the status quo
• Police responses to the 2011 riots and BLM protests are examples of RSA
• Althusser's ideas were entirely theoretical and not based on evidence - he was an armchair theorist
• Some people reject ruling class ideology but continue to conform
• Bonger said that capitalism was inherently criminogenic
• Capitalism promotes goods and services that it says everyone should have, but keeps wages low to maximise profit, creating false needs that people cannot afford - and so they turn to crime
• Chambliss found that crime was present in all social classes, but the means to commit them were different
• The working class have limited means so turn to release frustration through violence and targeting weaker individuals
• The ruling class have unlimited means and can utilise these for more subtle types of crime, like false accounting or embezzlement
• Gordon said capitalism created a 'dog eat dog' society where everyone turned to crime to try and get ahead - it is a rational response to competition
• Mankoff said there were lower rates of crime in Europe than in the USA due to higher spending on the welfare state
• Snider said the pressure on constant growth encourages corporate crime - companies will break the law to post higher profits
• Snider also found that corporate crime cost the US $325 billion per year, compared to only $4 billion from street crime, and yet the former was invisible in the public eye
• Criminogenic capitalism does not explain why working class criminals do not exclusively target the ruling class
• Chambliss said a key function of law was to protect private property from the masses
• Many large companies lobby to have laws passed that act in their interests
• Criminalising theft, trespass and copyright means the ruling class can continue to make profit - eg Disney lobbying to extend copyright to 95 years
• Snider says the state is reluctant to pass laws that harm businesses, because unemployment is unpopular with voters
• Pearce says legislation that protects employees is a smokescreen that presents a caring face of capitalism
• Gordon says occasional prosecution of corporate crime gives the impression that the justice system is fair
• Taylor et al in The New Criminology proposed that crime was influenced by both structural forces and individual agency
• Fully Social theory outline 6 factors when considering a crime
• Origins of the deviant act: immediate, meaning particular circumstances for an individual, and wider, meaning power structures and inequality in society
• Actual act of deviance: what meaning did the individual have for the act
• Origins of social reaction: immediate, meaning how those connected to the individual react, and wider, meaning how the rest of society reacts
• Impact of reactions on future behaviour: will the person become labelled or influenced by reactions?
• Fully Social theory is idealistic and suggests crime is revenge against inequality, and also might be overly complicated