marxism and crime and deviance
- Created by: athinaP
- Created on: 12-05-16 09:49
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- marxism
- society is divided by R.C + W.C
- marxists believe the economic base of society determines all other structures of society
- criminogenic capitalism
- capitalism causes crime- criminogenic capitalism
- capitalism is based on exploiting W.C crime may be the only option for poor people
- utilitarian crime is the result of the W.C obtaining material goods encouraged by capitalist society through advertising
- non utilitarian crime may be caused by the frustration caused by the alienation felt by the poor W.C
- capitalist society encourages crime among R.C as the desire to make profit leads to greed
- this leads to corporate crimes such as tax evasion, fraud and breaking health + safety laws
- capitalism is based on exploiting W.C crime may be the only option for poor people
- capitalism causes crime- criminogenic capitalism
- the state + law making
- law making only serves the interests of the R.C
- Chambliss argues that laws to protect private property are the basis of the capitalist economy
- R.C have the power to prevent laws which would harm their own interests
- few laws are passed that challenge inequality in society
- law making only serves the interests of the R.C
- selective enforcement
- crime rates show a higher rate of prosecutions among W.C
- corporation crimes are far less likely to be prosecuted
- carson found in 200 firms that had broken health + safety laws only 1.5% were prosecuted
- ideological functions of law
- some laws appear to benefit W.C eg health + safety laws but actually benefit R.C by creating a false class conscious-ness
- selective enforcement appears to show most crimes are committed by W.C
- this encourages workers to blame their own rather than rebel against the capitalist system
- evaluation
- disadvantages
- theory criticised for being overly deterministic as it predicts all W.C people will turn to crime
- some laws e.g trafficking laws don't benefit R.C- challenges marxist views on law making
- not all capitalist societies have such high crime rates (japan) challenges the idea that capitalism is criminogenic
- advantages
- challenges the use of official statistics which other theories too readily accept
- marxism does offer a solution to crime although it's a poor solution.
- disadvantages
- society is divided by R.C + W.C
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