Marxist Theories of Crime & Deviance 1
- Created by: Jakeyboy13579
- Created on: 28-09-20 20:56
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- Marxist theories of crime & deviance 1
- Criminogenic capitalism
- Gordon (1976) argues that crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and is found in all social classes even though official stats make it seem otherwise
- Gordon argues crime in inevitable in capitalism as it is criminogenic and by its very nature it causes crime as:
- Poverty may mean that crime is the only way for WC to survive
- Crime is the only way WC can obtain advertised consumer goods
- Alienation and lack of control over their lives can lead to frustration and aggression leading to crimes in the WC
- Gordon argues crime in inevitable in capitalism as it is criminogenic and by its very nature it causes crime as:
- Criminogenic capitalism evaluation
- Strengths
- Unlike functionalists Gordon does account for criminal and deviant behaviour committed by WC and middle class
- Weaknesses
- Theory suggests that crime only occurs due to capitalism which cannot explain why crime occurs in communist society's
- Strengths
- Gordon (1976) argues that crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and is found in all social classes even though official stats make it seem otherwise
- The state and law making
- Marxists only see law making and enforcement serving the interests of the capitalist class
- Chambliss (1975)
- Argues that all laws created ultimately benefit the ruling class
- Studied crime in Seattle (1978) and concluded that crime is committed throughout the social strata but the prisons were largely filled with those who had committed petty offences
- Box (1983)
- Argued that most people convicted of serious offences are young uneducated males who live in poor areas and are often ethnic minorities
- Claims health and safety regs were made to placate workers
- Reiman (2001)
- found that the more likely a crime is to be committed by higher class people, the less likely it is to be treated as a criminal offence by the
- Ideological functions of crime & law
- The law crime and criminals also perform an ideological function for capitalism
- Occasionally laws are passed that appear to be for the benefit of the working class rather than capitalism, such as health and safety regs
- However, Pearce (1976) argues such laws benefit the ruling class by keeping workers fit to work
- Occasionally laws are passed that appear to be for the benefit of the working class rather than capitalism, such as health and safety regs
- Ultimately the ideological function aids the ruling class' ability to manipulate of all members of society. The ruling class control the values of society in two ways:
- Socialisation (people are persuaded by the 'rightness' of capitalism by 'agencies' such as the media and this process creates the belief that criminals are WC
- Threat of force (if socialisation fails working class are threatened with punishments for breaking laws which protect the powerful
- Ideological functions of crime & law evaluation
- Strengths:
- Puts crime in wider structural context of society by focusing on inequalities caused by the capitalist system
- Strengths:
- Ignores relationship between crime and non class inequalities such as ethnicity and gender
- Too deterministic as not all working class commit crime
- Strengths:
- The law crime and criminals also perform an ideological function for capitalism
- Criminogenic capitalism
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