marxist theories of crime

• key marxist ideas

  capitalism is criminogenic

  capitalism requires social control in order to prevent revolution

  laws exist to protect the interests of the ruling class and law enforcement are only interested in controlling proletariats
• marxist view of capitalism and crime

  they argue that the capitalist system itself causes crime

  it is expected that the exploited working class will express their frustration through crime

  the values of capitalism are potentially criminal values
• chambliss

  argues that most law in the UK/US is property law

  he found that the ruling class use their wealth to bribe officials and avoid punishment
• what did chambliss say about the CJS?

  he argued that the CJS wasn't there to catch them but to selectively control the proletariats
• snider (1993)

  concluded that laws weren't enforced strongly anyway; the laws appearing to be in the interests of the w/c were more for 'show' while those that protected the ruling class were rigorously enforced
• what do marxists take an interest in?

  take an interest in white collar crime, corporate crime and state crime and how they are controlled less than petty crime
• evaluation of classical marxism

  the theories present working class criminals as passive and that they can't help but commit crime

  neo-marxists would argue that crime is a conscious choice
• neo marxism and critical criminology

  neo marxists recognised that w/c criminals made an active choice to break the law

  however, they argued that this was sometimes a positive political act on the bourgeoise
• young and taylor's new criminology

  tried to establish a 'fully social theory of deviance' that marxists should consider
• three factors that marxists should consider according to young and taylor

  the societal reaction of the act

  the immediate cause of the deviant act and the act itself

  the structure of society and where power resides
• what do young and taylor show in their approach?

  shows the clear influence of interactionism on their approach eg. labelling
• Hall (1978)

  applied the critical criminology approach to black muggers in the 1970's UK
• findings of Hall

  there was an economic recession

  the resulting unemployment impacted black people and some chose to move to the informal economy (aspects that involved crime)

  a moral panic about street crime was fostered by black people leading to harsher policing
• evaluation of neo-marxism

  left realists would point out that may victims of crime are working class

  therefore, marxists should produce solutions to the problem of crime rather than trying to understand it
• overall evaluation of marxist explanations

  marxist explanations of crime are criticised for being reductionist because they reduce everything down to economics