Crime 3 - Class, power and crime Flashcards
(20 cards)
Class differences in crime
What are the different sociological explanations for class differences in crime?
Functionalism: Crime is the product of inadequate socialization into a shared culture, lower class has an independent subculture that opposes mainstream culture (Miller)
Strain theory: The class structure denies working-class people opportunity to achieve by legitimate means, so they are more likely to ‘innovate’ (use utilitarian crime).
Subcultural theories: A.K. Cohen sees working-class youths as suffering from status frustration. Cloward & Ohlin (three pupil deviant subcultures)
Marxist Perspective on Crime
What do the structural theories believe?
Society’s capitalist economic base determines its superstructure (institutions like the state, law, and criminal justice system), which serve ruling-class interests.
Marxist Perspective on Crime
What is criminogenic capitalism?
Crime is inevitable in capitalism because its very nature causes crime
-Working class crime: capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working-class for profit, so, in poverty crime may be the only solution, more utilitarian crimes, alienation may causes frustration
-Ruling class crime: more corporate crimes due to competition
Marxist Perspective on Crime
What does Gordon say about crime?
-it is a rational response to capitalism
The State and law making
Chambliss
-criminogenic capitalism - specifically - laws to protect private property are the basis of the capitalist economy
-ruling class introduce laws to protect themselves
Selective enforcement
Reiman
-crimes of the powerful are less likely to be treated as criminal offences and prosecuted
-in contrast, the poor get prosecuted a lot more
Ideological functions of crime
What are the ideological functions of crime?
The criminal justice system sometimes acts against the capitalist class to appear impartial.
-e.g: health and safety laws, also benefit the higher class but give it a ‘caring face’, creating false consciousness (Pearce)
Slapper & Tombs
apply the Marxist view to corporate crime, noting it’s under-policed, rarely prosecuted, encouraging companies to use crime for profit.
Neo-Marxism: Critical Criminology
What do neo-marxists Taylor, and Walton & Young agree with traditional marxists on?
Voluntarism
Taylor et al
-take a more voluntaristic view of crime
-crime is a conscious choice with a political motive
-criminals are deliberately struggling to change society
-aim to create a ‘fully social theory of deviance’ - would help to change to society for the better
Marxist perspective on crime
What are some evaluation of these ideas?
-Feminists: Marxist and Neo-Marxist approaches are ‘gender-blind’.
-Ignores non-property crime and deviance.
-Left realists criticize Neo-Marxism for romanticizing working-class criminals.
-Many harms caused by the powerful do not break the criminal law.
-Media investigations into corporate tax avoidance may now be making CC more visible than in the past.
Differential association
Sutherland
sees crime as behaviour learned from others. If a company socialises its employees into pro-crime attitudes and behaviour, crime will result.
Crimes of the powerful
Sutherland’s defintion of white collar crime?
-crime committed by a person of respectability and high status in the course of his occupation
-creates an abuse of trust, a greater threat than working-class street crime, promotes distrust of key institutions and undermines the fabric of society
Crimes of the powerful
What is occupational crime?
committed by employees for personal gain, e.g: stealing from the company
Crimes of the powerful
What is corporate crime?
committed for the company’s benefit, e.g: to increase it’s profits
Tombs: CC is ‘widespread, routine and pervasive’
-it could include financial crimes or crimes against the environment
-often seen as invisible as the media gives it very little coverage and there is a lack of political will to tackle CC
Crimes of the powerful
What is state crime?
-States define crime and manage the criminal justice system, giving them the power to avoid defining their own harmful actions as criminal.
-National sovereignty makes it difficult for external authorities to intervene against state crimes like genocide and war crimes.
-Examples: Political crimes, economic crimes, social/cultural crimes, and crimes by security and police forces.
-Scale: States can commit large-scale crimes with widespread victimization and easily conceal them.
-Example: The Khmer Rouge government killed up to a fifth of Cambodia’s population between 1975 and 1978.
-Application: State violence used against oppositional groups.
Crimes of the powerful
What is green crime?
-Traditional criminology is criticized for accepting official definitions of environmental problems and crimes.
-Green criminology is criticized for making subjective value judgments about what actions should be considered wrong.
-TNCs and nation-states use their power to define environmental harm in their own interests.
Crimes of the powerful
What are the different explanations of corporate crime?
-Strain theory: if a company cannot achieve its goal of maximising profit by legitimate means, it may employ illegal ones instead, Clinard & Yeager: companies’ law violations increased as their profitability declined
-Differential association: Sutherland sees crime as a socially learned behaviour, if a company’s deviant subculture justifies committing crime, employees will be socialised into criminality
-Labelling theory: An act counts as a crime only if it has been labelled, companies often have the power to avoid labelling
-Marxism: sees CC as resulting from the normal functioning of capitalism, capitalism’s goal is to maximise profits, it inevitably causes harm
