Selective law enforcement

• Selective law enforcement


  The ruling class use their power to focus the resources of the police and the criminal justice system onto the crimes of the working class rather than focusing on corporate or white-collar crimes
• Ruling class manage the perceptions of criminal behavior

  Makes it appear that working-class crime is more harmful to society
• Police legitimately focusing on crimes such as theft, drugs and violence


  Is more beneficial to society than focusing on corporate crimes, green crimes or state crime
• Comparison between knife crime and accidents at work


  • In 2019, 47,000 incidents of knife or sharp instruments being used were recorded in the UK and there were 70 fatal stabbings, while over 69,000 people were seriously injured at work and 147 people died as a result of work-related injuries
• The police and media target crimes in working-class areas despite the more devastating impacts of work-related crime
• Corporate and white collar crime

  Costs more than working class crimes, but those charged with willful neglect are less likely to receive custodial sentences than those from the working classes
• Grenfell inquiry


  • In order to gain cooperation with the companies and planning officials that had given the buildings cladding thought to be at fault for the tragedy, those who gave testimony were given immunity from prosecution over the deaths of 72 residents of the tower
• Selective law enforcement


  Provides an ideological function for the ruling class by portraying the working class as more criminal, enabling them to pass laws that punish those that deviate from the norms and values of society
• When corporate crimes are punished, this portrays the criminal justice system as being fair and not on the side of the ruling class
• The U.S. justice system is lenient in cases of middle-class crime and biased against the poor and ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans who are over represented in the U.S. prison system
• Military policing styles of officers in working class areas


  Stop and search policies becoming more evident in the wake of knife crime, leading to an over representation of working class and black criminality
• The complex nature of white collar and corporate crimes often means that offenders will go unnoticed or the police will lack resources to bring successful prosecutions against firms and individuals who have financial resources to have the case dismissed
• Fraud, one of the most reported crimes in the UK, cost the private sector an estimated 144 billion pounds in 2015, with individuals being targeted to the cost of a further 10 billion pounds, demonstrating the impact of corporate crimes and how they can be detrimental to so many people's lives