Neo-Marxism

Taylor, Walton and Young agree with Marx on the idea that to work out why people are criminal, we have to understand how the economy of a society is organised. In the UK, we have a capitalist system where some people have a lot of wealth and power and most have a lot less. They also agree that the inequalities between rich and poor are the root of crime.

But where traditional Marxists say capitalism forces people to be criminal, they take a voluntarist view and they think that people have freewill and crime is a meaningful action that often has a political motive e.g. redistribute wealth from rich to the poor.

Although we should aim to create a classless society we should also celebrate liberty and diversity.

Deviance needs to unite 6 aspects 

1. Wider origins of the deviant act-unequal wealth and power distribution.

2. Immediate origins of the deviant act- context in which individual decides to commit the act

3. Act itself- meaning for the actor e.g. was it rebellion against capitalism?

4. Immediate origins of social reaction- reaction of those around the deviant e.g. police, family and community

5. Wider origins of social reaction- structure of capitalism society who has the power to define actions and label others

6. Effects of labelling- the deviants’ future actions e.g. why does labelling lead to deviance amplification in some classes but not in others.

• Feminists say they are gender blind focusing excessively on male criminality and at the expensive of female criminality

• Left realists say that critical criminology romanticises working class criminals as Robin Hood who are fighting for wealth distribution to the poor. Taylor et al don't ignore the effect on working class victims

• Burke argues that critical criminology is too general and idealistic

• Walton and Young call for greater tolerance of diversity in the behaviour and they want to establish a more just society