Marxism, Class and Crime
- Created by: lauren.glendenning
- Created on: 02-05-17 19:57
Marxist argue that law is mainly enforced against the working class and that official statistics are flawed.
But they criticise labelling theory for ignorning the structure of capitalism within which law making enforcement and offending exists. Marxist explanations of crime flow from their analysis of the nature of capitalist society.
Marxist theory sees society as dividing into the ruling capitalist class (bourgeoisie) and the exploited working class (proletariats)
Crimonegenic Capitalism:
Crime is inevitable in capitalism as capitalism is criminogenic - its very nature causes crime.
Working-class crime - Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class and as a result:
- Poverty may mean crime is the only way some people can survive.
- Crime may be the only option for some people to gain the consumer goods which are encouraged within a capitalist society.
- Alienation may lead to frustration and agression, leading to non-utilitarian crimes e.g. vandalism and violence - e.g. 2011 riots.
Ruling-class crime - Capitalism is a win-at-all costs system of competition, while the profit motive encourages greed. These high competition levels and high levels of greed encourages members of the capital ruling class to commit corporate crimes such as tax evasion and breaking health and safety laws.
Gordon - crime is a rational response to capitalism which means that it occurs in all classes, not just the working class.
The…
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