Class & power

Question 1

Class, Power & crime:

Answer 1

• Marxists believe crime is inevitable in a capitalist society because it encourages poverty, competition and greed.
• All classes commit crime
• The working class are largely criminalised for their action because the ruling class control the state and can make and enforce laws in their own interests
• In this case, white collar and cooperate crimes are ignored.

Question 2

Marxism:

Answer 2

• Criminogenic capitalism
• The state and law making
• Selective enforcement:
• Ideological functions:

Question 3

• Criminogenic capitalism

Answer 3

• Marxists believe that capitalism is CC, by its very nature it causes crime
• Poverty (caused by capitalism) may mean that crim is the only way the working class can survive
• Resulting in utilitarian crimes such as theft
• Alienation and lack of control may lead to frustration and aggression, resulting in non-utilitarian crimes e.g. violence and vandalism.

Question 4

• The state and law making

Answer 4

• Chambliss state that laws protect private property are a cornerstone of the capitalist economy
• Snider argues that capitalist state is reluctant to change laws or regulate activities of these businesses or threaten their profitability.

Question 5

• Selective enforcement:

Answer 5

• Although classes commit crime, when it come to the application of the law by the criminal justice system, there is selective enforcement
• Powerless groups (working class and ethnic minorities) are criminalised
• Police and court ignore crimes of the powerful
• This divides the working class because of how it encourages workers to blame criminals for their problems rather than capitalism.

Question 6

• Ideological functions:

Answer 6

• Pearce theorises that laws give capitalism a “caring” face, and create a false conscience amongst workers
• This is because the state enforces the law selectively, crime seems to be mainly a working-class problem

Question 7

Neo - Marxism:

Answer 7

• Taylor argues that crime often has a political motive (e.g. to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor)
• Criminals are not passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism, they are deliberately trying to change society
• He produced a ‘fully social theory of deviance’ to understand crime in society

Question 8

White collar & corporate crime:

Answer 8

• Reiman and Leighton argue that the more likely a crime is to be committed by high class people, the less likely it is to be treated as an offence.
• Also, there is much higher rate of prosecutions for the typical ‘street crimes’ that poor people commit (such as burglary and assault)
• Crime committed by the higher classes (e.g. tax evasion) are more likely to get more forgiving view from the justice system
• Tombs notes that corporate crime has enormous costs (physical – deaths and illnesses, environmental – pollution, and economic – consumers/ taxpayers/ governments.

Question 9

Invisibility of corporate crime:

Answer 9

• The media
• Lack of political will to tackle corporate crimes
• Crimes are complex
• Delabelling
• Under reported

Question 10

• The media

Answer 10

give very little coverage which reinforces the idea that crime is a working-class phenomenon

Question 11

• Lack of political will to tackle corporate crimes

Answer 11

politicians only focus on being ‘tough on crime’ on street crime

Question 12

• Crimes are complex

Answer 12

law enforcers are often understaffed, under resourced and lack technical expertise

Question 13

• Delabelling

Answer 13

corporate crime is consistently filtered out from the criminalization process

Question 14

• Under reported

Answer 14

people not even aware they are a victim

Question 15

Explanations of corporate crime

Answer 15

• Box
• Differential association

Question 16

• Box

Answer 16

argues that if a company cannot achieve its goal of maximising profit by legal means, it may employ illegal ones instead

Question 17

• Differential association

Answer 17

• Sutherland sees crime as behaviour learned from others in a social context.
• The less we associate with unfavourable people and the more we associate with people with criminal attitudes, the more likely we are to become deviant ourselves.

Question 18

• Labelling theory:

Answer 18

• Cicourel argues that working class are more like to have their actions labelled as criminal
• The middle class are more able to negotiate non-criminal labels for their misbehaviour