Marxism Flashcards
AO1 and AO2 for crimogenic capatalism
Crime is inevitable because capitalism is criminogenic and it causes crime by nature. This is because capitalism is based from exploitation of the working class. The working class commit crime because it’s the only way they can survive and the types of crime they commit are robbery and vandalism. And the rule in class commit crime because they want to become more wealthy and the types of crime they commit is tax evasion and breaking health and safety laws.
Ao3 for criminogenic capitalism
Marxism is deterministic not all poor people commit crimes despite poverty and alienation
Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates . For example, Japan has a much lower crime rate than America which undermines the view that capitalism is cause of crime.
Ao1 state and law making
Marxist believe law only benefit capitalism because the real class has power to prevent laws that harm their interests. Chambliss illustrates this with the introduction of English law into the British east African colonies. This is when the British economy required workers to to labour on the tea and coffee plantations, but the African population were reluctant to work on these so the British created tax.
Tax requires money to be paid off and the Africans had no choice, but to work on these plantations, so they can pay off their tax. This benefited capitalism since they got their workers and they got money from them
Ao3 the state and law making
The criminal justice system does sometimes help others. For example, there are safety laws and the NHS is a way for everyone to have access to free health care.
Ao1 selective enforcement
While all classes commit crime there is selective enforcement of the law. This means that the criminal justice system choose which crimes to prosecute and which they will turn a blind eye towards. Ethnic minorities and the working class are criminalised whilst the crimes of the ruling class are ignored.
This explains why there are more of the working-class population in prison, compared to the population of ruling class
Ao3 selective enforcement
Carson found that in the sample of 200 firms all had broken health and safety laws yet only 1.5% of cases were prosecuted
Ao1 ideological functions of crime and law
Law helps perform the ideological functions for capitalism as it keeps people under control this helps maintain the working class under false class consciousness and keep workers passive and docile.
According to Gordon, the purpose of this is to distract the working class from the exploitation by directing a part of their frustration and those criminals from their own class. this provides a safety valve to prevent aggression towards the ruling class
Ao3 ideological functions of crime and law
This links to Hall policing the crisis where a moral panic was generated over black muggers which served to distract the working class from the crisis of capitalism. This shows how the law, crime and criminals also perform an ideological function for capitalism as they uphold capitalist ideology.
