Class, power and crime

• Functionalism


  Sees crime as the product of inadequate socialisation into a shared culture
• Miller's subcultural theory


  The lower class has an independent subculture opposed to mainstream culture, which explains their higher crime rate
• Strain theory


  The class structure denies working-class people opportunity to achieve by legitimate means, so they are more likely to innovate (use utilitarian crime)
• A.K. Cohen's subcultural theory

  Working-class youths are culturally deprived and unable to achieve in education, leading to status frustration and the formation of delinquent subcultures
• Cloward and Ohlin's subcultural theory

  Identifies three deviant subcultures: criminal, conflict and retreatist
• Labelling theory


  Rejects the view that official statistics are a valid picture of which class commits most crime, and focuses on the role of law enforcement agencies in labelling the working class as criminals
• Marxism


  Agrees that the law is enforced mainly against the working class and that official statistics are flawed, but criticises labelling theory for ignoring the structure of capitalism within which law making, enforcement and offending take place
• Marxist view of capitalist society

  Divided into the ruling capitalist class, who own the means of production, and the working class, whose labour capitalists exploit for profit
• Marxist view of the state and law


  The state, law and criminal justice system serve ruling-class interests
• Criminogenic capitalism


  Crime is inevitable in capitalism because its very nature causes crime, such as through poverty, the pursuit of consumer goods, and alienation leading to non-utilitarian crimes
• Ruling-class crime


  Capitalism's win-at-all-costs system of competition and the profit motive encourage capitalists to commit corporate crimes like tax evasion and breaking health and safety laws
• Selective enforcement of the law


  Crimes of the powerful are much less likely to be treated as criminal offences and prosecuted, while there is a much higher rate of prosecutions for the crimes of the poor
• Ideological functions of crime and law


  Crime and the law perform ideological functions for capitalism, such as creating a 'caring' face for capitalism and distracting attention from more serious ruling-class crime
• Neo-Marxist critical criminology


  Agrees with traditional Marxists that capitalism is based on exploitation and inequality, but criticises determinism and takes a more voluntaristic view of crime as a conscious choice to struggle to change society
• White-collar crime


  Crime committed by a person of respectability and high status in the course of their occupation, including occupational crime and corporate crime
• Corporate crime


  Crimes committed for the company's benefit, such as financial crimes, crimes against consumers, crimes against employees, and crimes against the environment
• Abuse of trust by professionals

  Professionals in positions of trust and respectability can violate this trust, making white-collar crime a greater threat to society than working-class 'street' crime
• Invisibility of corporate crime

  Corporate crime is often invisible or not seen as 'real crime' due to limited media coverage, lack of political will to tackle it, complexity, de-labelling, and under-reporting
• Explanations of corporate crime

  Strain theory, differential association, labelling theory, and Marxism all provide explanations for why corporate crime occurs
• Criminogenic capitalism


  Crime is inevitable in a capitalist society because capitalism itself causes crime, making it criminogenic. It is based on exploiting the working class, which gives rise to crime.
• Poverty


  Crime may be the working class's only way to survive
• Utilitarian crime


  May be the only way for the working class to get consumer goods capitalist ads show
• Non-utilitarian crime


  May be the only way for the working class to deal with alienation and lack of control over their lives
• Capitalism is a competitive system, so crime isn't confined to just the working class
• The need to win no matter what/stay in business


  Encourages capitalists to commit white-collar and corporate crime
• Gordon (1976): 'Crime is a rational response to the capitalist system, which is why it's found in all classes'
• Ideological functions of crime & law

  The law, crime and criminals perform an ideological function for capitalism
• Laws may be passed to look like they benefit the working class instead of capitalists, like workplace health and safety laws
• Pearce (1976): 'These laws DO benefit capitalism by keeping us fit for work and giving capitalism a 'caring' face and ensuring false class consciousness'
• Health & safety laws aren't rigorously enforced-the 2007 corporate homicide law had 1 prosecution in the first 8yrs despite negligent employers being responsible for many deaths
• Selective enforcement ensures false-class consciousness by making a crime a working class issue, where workers turn against criminals instead of capitalism
• The state & law making

  Marxists see law making and law enforcement as serving the interests of the capitalist class
• Chambliss (1975): 'Laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy. Britain needed labour on their colonies' plantations, but the local economy wasn't one of money. To get workers, a tax payable by cash was made, and the only way to get cash was by working therefore making the law serve the economic needs of plantation owners.'
• Snider (1993): 'The state is reluctant to pass laws that would regulate the activities of businesses/threaten their profitability'
• Selective enforcement


  Marxists believe that the application of law is unequal, even though all classes commit crime. They argue that while powerless groups like ethnic minorities and the working class are criminalised, crimes of the powerful are ignored- meaning we can't take official stats at face value
• Marxism completes what labelling theory missed- puts it into a wider structural context by discussing selective enforcement and why it happens
• Marxism explains the relationship between crime and capitalist society as well as how laws link to the interests of the ruling class
• Marxism ignores the relationship between crime and other inequalities like gender/ethnicity
• Marxism is deterministic-over-predicts working class crime and ignores that not everyone in poverty turns to crime
• Left realists say Marxists ignore intra-class crime where the offender and victim are working class, and the harm this causes victims