marxism and crimes of the powerful

• marxists on crime


  -capitalism is criminogenic

  
  

  -capitalism requires social -control in order to prevent revolution

  
  

  -laws exist to protect ruling class. law enforcements only care about controlling proletariat

  
  

  -interested in white-collar, corporate crime and state crime
• gordon - criminogenic capitalism

  capitalism will always inevitably lead to crime occurring
• gordon


  marxist

  Crime is a rational response to capitalism
• Chambliss

  law making only serves interests of bourgeoise

  
  

  argues that laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy.

  
  

  e.g Britains interests lay in colonies tea, coffee
• snider


  The capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability- selective enforcement

  
  

  ruling class have power to prevent introduction of laws that threaten their interests
• Pearce


  ideological functions of law

  
  

  pretend to be in favour of wc but actually favour mc

  
  

  studied health and safety laws that provided ruling class with healthy workforce- later studies showed that the laws were more "for show"
• graham


  looked at how the government policed illegal trade in drugs (amphetamines)

  politicians agreed not to greatly restrict amphetamine production
• white collar crime


  Edwin sutherland defined as

  'a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of [their] occupation'.
• occupational crime


  committed by employees simply for their own personal gain, often against the organisation for which they work, e.g. stealing from the company or its customers.
• corporate crime


  committed by employees for their organisation in pursuit of its goals, e.g. deliberately mis- selling products to increase company profits.
• types of corporate crime

  financial crimes

  crimes against consumers

  crimes against employees

  crimes against the environment

  state-corporate crimes
• financial crimes

  tax evasion, bribery, money laundering and illegal accounting.

  Victims include other companies, shareholders, taxpayers and governments.
• crimes against consumers

  false labelling and selling unfit goods (including 'food crime')
• crimes against employees


  sexual and racial discrimination, violations of wage laws, of rights to join a union or take industrial action, and of health and safety laws.
• crimes against the environment

  illegal pollution of air, water and land, such as toxic waste dumping.
• state- corporate crime


  the harms committed when government institutions and businesses cooperate to pursue their goals (Kramer and Michalowski, 2006).
• reasons of invisibility of corporate crime

  media

  lack of political will

  complex crimes

  de-labelling

  under reporting
• media


  give very limited coverage to corporate crime, thus reinforcing the stereotype that crime is a working-class phenomenon.

  -reason for invisibility of corporate crime
• lack of political will

  Politicians who are "tough on crime" are often meaning street crime.

  -reason for invisibility of corporate crime
• complex crimes


  law enforcers are often understaffed, under-resourced and lacking technical expertise to investigate this crime effectively.

  -reason for invisibility of corporate crime
• de- labelling


  corporate offences may be often not labelled as a crime - seen as more civil matters

  -reason for invisibility of corporate crime
• under-reporting


  people may do this as they may be unaware that they have been victimised

  may not regard it as 'real crime'

  -reason for invisibility of corporate crime
• Taylor et al


  created the fully social theory of deviance

  combines ideas of marxism and labelling
• marxists theorists of crime

  • snider
  • Chambliss
  • Pearce
  • Althusser
  • Taylor et al (neo-marxist)