Class, Power & Crime

Functionalism

• Not everyone is equally well socialised into society's shared culture
• W/c subculture has norms & values that clash with mainstream, hence higher crime rate

Strain Theory

• W/c are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve society's shared goals, so they turn to illegitimate means
• Explains w/c untilitarian crime

Subcultural Theories

• Merton: Status Frustration - w/c suffer from blocked opportunities. Failures puts them at the bottom of the status hierarchy, causing status frustration. Delinquent subcultures invert mainstream values & offer alternative status hierarchy. Explains w/c non-utilitarian crime
• Cloward & Ohlin: Illegitimate opportunity structures - Criminal, conflict & retreatist subcultures. Explains utilitarian & non-utilitarian crime.

Labelling Theory

• Reject official stats as a useful source

Criminogenic Capitalism

• Capitalism causes crime by its very nature
• Encouragement of competition leads to white collar crime
• Gordin: Crime is a rational response to capitalism. Stats made to look like it is a w/c problem

The State & Lawmaking

• Chambliss: Laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy
• Snider: Capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businessmen or threaten their profitability
• Selective enforcement: powerless groups are criminalised, whilst crimes of the powerful are ignored

Ideological functions

• Laws are passed that appear to be for the benefit of the w/c rather than capitalism
• Lack of enforcement of laws against businesses

Evaluation

• Ignores ethnicity & gender
• Too deterministic
• Not all capitalist societies have a high crime rate
• CJS sometimes acts in the interests of the w/c
• Ignores intra-class crimes

Taylor, Walton & Young: The New Criminology

• Follows most Marxist principles, but adds that Marxism is too determinisitc.
• Takes a volunturistic view (people have free will)
• Crime is a meaningful action & a conscious choice. Often has a political motive

A Fully Social Theory of Deviance (Taylor et. al)

• Wider origins of the deviant act
• Immediate origins of the deviant act
• The act itself
• The immediate origins of the societal reaction
• The effects of labelling

Evaluation

• Ignores gender
• Ignores the fact that crime is usually against the w/c
• Ignores the impact on victims
• Too general to explain crime & too idealistic to tackle it

White Collar & Corporate Crime

• Sutherland: "Crime committed by a person of respetability & high social status in the course of his occupation"
• Fails to distinguish between ocupational & corporate crime
• Harm caused by the powerful often doesn't break the law
• Corporate crime includes: financial crime, crime against consumers, crime against employees, crime against the environment, state-corporate crime
• Abuse of trust - more damaging than street crime because it undermines society's institutions

Invisibility of Corporate Crime

• Media coverage, lack of political will to tackle the problem, complexity, de-labelling, under-reporting
• After the 2008 crash, corporate crime has become more visible due to increase in whisle-blowers, media & pressure groups

Strain Theory

• Box: Companies turn to illigitimate means of meeting targets when legitimate means fail

Differential Association

• Company employees face shared problems of achieving corporate goals & may adopt deviant means to do so. New members socialised into this & learn ways of justifying actions.

Labelling Theory

• Cicourel: Corporations are able to afford skilled lawyers & accountants to help them avoid being labelled as criminal & have charges reduced

Marxism

• Capitalism makes corporate crime look less widespread / harmful than w/c crime. occassional prosecutions mantain the illusion that it is the exception, rather than the norm

Evaulation

• Strain theory & Marxism over-predict the amount of corporate crime
• Doesn't explain crime in non-profit state agencies