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Crime and Deviance - Marxist Approach
Citation preview
CRIME
DEVIANCE&
Capitalism and Crime
• Marxist views on deviance adopt a conflict-structuralist stance.
• The economic base or infrastructure determines the precise nature of the superstructure, i.e. the way the economy is organised will determine the norms, values and what is defined deviant.
Capitalism and Crime
• Classical Marxists contend that– Capitalism itself is a crime, and– It also causes crime.
Capitalism and Crime
• According to Marxists capitalism is based on oppression and economic exploitation of the majority.
• It creates a dog eat dog world in which greed, violence and corruption flourish.
• Marxists state that crime happens as a result of inequality and poverty.
Deviant for Whom?
• Marxism suggests deviance means to stray from the norms and values of the ruling classes since they control the means of production, and are therefore the intellectual rulers in society.
• They have the power to define working class activities as deviant, and in doing so control them.
• …parallels with labelling theory...
Power and Control
• The rich make the laws in order to protect their wealth and power – therefore property theft and benefit fraud is punished more harshly than embezzlement and tax evasion
Power and Control
• According to Marxists, the real criminals are the rich people who exploit the rest of us and make us poor.
• Criminals are just rejecting the society we live in.
David Gordon (1991)
• Suggests that most working class crime is a realistic rational response to inequalities.
• He claims – considering the nature of capitalism we should not ask
– ‘why the working class commit crime?’,
but instead
– ‘ why they don’t commit more crime?’
Gordon
• Gordon argues that the ideology of capitalism encourages criminal behaviour in all social classes.
• The need to win at all costs ,or go out of business, encourage capitalists to commit white collar crime and corporate crimes such as tax evasion.
• Capitalism also encourages a ‘culture of envy’ among poorer sections of society that may encourage a criminal reaction.
Louis Althusser
• Argues that the law is an ideological state apparatus which functions in the interests of the ruling class to maintain and legitimate class inequality in the following ways:
1.It is concerned with protecting the major priorities of capitalism wealth, private property and profit. Snider notes that the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses.
2. Box notes that the powerful kill, injure, maim and steal from member of society but these acts are not covered by law and health and safety is a civil rather than criminal offence.
3. Law enforcement favours the rich. Benefit fraud attracts prosecution and prison, yet tax fraudsters rarely get taken to court and prosecuted. Think Starbucks, Gary Barlow
4. White collar crime is under policed and under punished.
White Collar Crime
• Fraud• Accounting offences• Tax evasion• Insider dealing• Computer crime
• Largely undetected
Corporate Crime
• Selling dangerous goods to consumers• Between 1965 and 1995 25,000 people were
killed in the workplace in the UK with 70% of deaths due to employer violation of the HSE
• Environmental offences – e.g. BP Oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
• False accounting / share price fixing / money laundering
• .....the case studies are endless!!!
The Penalties
• Hazel Croall notes that despite the fact that the costs of corporate crime far out stripping working class crime, they are not regarded a serious problem:– Offences are invisible– Responsibility is delegated so it difficult to see
where the blame lies– Many regulatory bodies warn offenders rather
than punish them.
Criticisms of Traditional Marxism
• It ignores the relationship between crime and important non-class variables such as ethnicity and gender
• The criminal justice system sometimes acts against the interests of the capitalist class (MPs expenses scandal)
NEO MARXISM – THE NEW CRIMINOLOGY
The New Criminology
• Taylor, Walton and Young published The New Criminology in 1973.
• Much of their work agrees with classical Marxism in that they agree that inequalities lie at the root of crime and they support a radical transformation of society.
• However, as opposed to being driven to crime, these sociologists insist criminals choose to commit crime
Taylor, Walton and Young
• They reject all theories that see behaviour as driven by external forces.
• They see the individual as turning to crime as the meaningful attempt to construct his own self-conception.
• They deny that crime is caused by biology, anomie, or being a member of a subculture, by environment, by labelling or by poverty.
Crime is a Political Act!
• They stress that rimes are often deliberate and conscious acts with political motives.
• Thus the Women’s Liberation Movement, the Black Power Movement and Gay Liberation Front are examples of people fighting back against the injustice of capitalism.
• Thus vandalism is a symbolic attack on society’s obsession with property (Banksy)
Robin Hood
• They also state that many crimes against property involve the redistribution of wealth – poor stealing from rich.
• They hope for a socialist, not communist, society with a greater emphasis on freedom where deviants are accepted.
• They also wanted to see a fully social theory of deviance which looks at deviance from a number of angles simultaneously.
Further studies
• A number of sociologists including Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy have investigated the relationship between race and crime and see much crime as being politically motivated.
Further studies
• They claim that the mass media creates a view that black criminals are pathological.
• This creates a moral panic and black and Asian youths became heavily policed and also lead to divisions between black and white working class diverting people from the real issues.
Criticisms of New Criminology
• Over-romanticizing working class criminals as Robin Hoods
• The reality is that many victims of crime are working class
• It is difficult to imagine a political motive underpinning crimes such as domestic violence, rape and child abuse.
• It is too idealistic to tackle crime practically
Summary Clip
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb42CkSK9tk