Traditional Marxist Theories

• •Law reflect the ideology of the ruling class.•Laws allow social control… if you don’t conform, you will be punished.•The bourgeoisie are able to keep their power through their ability to use the law to criminalise the working class.
• Crimonogenic Capitalism

  •For Marxists, capitalist society is criminogenic – it causes crime by its very nature.••Marxists see crime as a rational response to capitalism, present in all classes (Gordon).•
• WC Crime

  •Exploitation of working class leads to poverty, which in turn leads to crime for survival (e.g. shoplifting food).•Desire for consumer goods leads to property crimes (e.g. shoplifting consumer goods such as trainers).•Alienation and exploitation leads to frustration and aggression, which leads to non-utilitarian crimes like vandalism and assault.
• •Utilitarian Crimes are crimes that are things such as fraud, money laundering and robbery.
• •Non-utilitarian crimes are crimes such as vandalism, and property crime (not based around money).
• Capitalist Class Crime


  •Desire for profit leads to competition, greed and self interest.•This encourages white collar crimes like tax evasion, embezzlement or breaches of health and safety laws.•
• LAWS ARE MADE AND ENFORCED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE RULING CLASS

  •For Marxists, laws serve the interests of the capitalist class.•Chambliss (1975) argues laws protecting property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy.•He uses the example of laws in colonial East Africa, but more recent laws (e.g. copyright laws) can also be applied.
• Selective Enforcement

  Though all classes commit crime, Marxists such as Reiman argue the criminal justice system tends to overlook crimes of the rich and powerful:

  –The more likely a crime is to be committed by higher-class people, the less likely to be treated as a criminal offence.–Street crimes have disproportionately high rates of prosecutions–The justice system is more forgiving of ‘high class crimes’ like tax evasion or health and safety breaches.