Marxism

• Why Crime and Deviance Happens:

  > criminogenic capitalism

  > the state and law-making

  > selective enforcement

  > ideological functions of crime and law
• Criminogenic Capitalism (1):

  > crime is inevitable because capitalism is criminogenic - it is based on the exploitation of the WC, who are used as a means to an end (profit)

  > Gordon - crime is a rational response to capitalism so it is found in all classes

  > WC commit crime because it is the only way to get out of poverty - crime is the only way that the WC can get consumer goods that capitalism promotes, and alienation may lead to frustration resulting in violence and vandalism

  > RC commit corporate crime, such as tax evasion, because the American Dream encourages people to get richer
• Criminogenic Capitalism (2):

  > WC crime is also known as GAP crime

  > greed - crime may be the only way to gain consumer goods encouraged by capitalism (can also encourage white collar crime)

  > alienation - lack of control leads to frustration and aggression

  > poverty - crime is the only way the WC can survive
• The State and Law Making:

  > law-making serves the interest of the RC - Chambliss argues that laws to protect private property
• Selective Enforcement:

  > the criminal justice system chooses which crimes to prosecute and which to 'turn a blind eye' to - the WC are criminalised (crimes of the streets), while courts ignore RC crimes (crimes of the suites)

  > Reiman - there is a disproportionately high rate of prosecutions for street crimes

  > CJS may occasionally prosecute RC crime, but this is a smokescreen to make the system appear impartial by hiding selective enforcement
• Ideological Functions of Crime and Law:

  > crime and the law perform ideological functions for capitalism by spreading ideas to help keep workers passive

  > Pearce - some laws benefit workers e.g. health and safety, but these give capitalism a caring face

  > Gordon - this distracts the WC from their exploitation by directing their frustration onto criminals in their own class (selective enforcement distorts statistics)

  > provides a safety valve to release aggression that might otherwise be directed at the RC
• Neo-Marxism and Critical Criminology (1):

  > criticise Marxism for being deterministic - they adopt a voluntaristic approach in arguing that the WC choose their behaviour - crime is a conscious choice with political motive

  > Taylor, Walton and Young - we need to understand where the crime originated and how society has reacted to this crime
• Neo-Marxism and Critical Criminology (2):

  > where the crime originated:

  > wider origins - crime in capitalist societies is related to wider structural factors such as inequality or power

  > immediate origins - the context in which the individual decides to commit a crime - for a WC person, it may be rational to choose crimes relating to poverty, or crimes that increase power for the RC

  > the act itself - why have they decided to commit the crime
• Neo-Marxism and Critical Criminology (3):

  > how society has reacted:

  > immediate origins - the reactions of those around the deviant

  > wider origins - who has the power to define actions as deviant and label others, and why some acts are treated more harshly than others

  > effects of labelling - the process by which a deviant responds to a social reaction