marxism

Question 1

what is the marxist view of crime?

Answer 1

• marxism is a left-wing conflict structuralist theory
• see crime as criminogenic

Question 2

what are the 2 branches of marxism?

Answer 2

classical and neo marxism

Question 3

what do classical marxists believe in relation to crime?

Answer 3

see working class as passive victims and criminality being driven by factors outside of their control

Question 4

what do neo marxists believe in relation to crime?

Answer 4

see individuals as having free-will and on experiencing capitalism they divide how to respond to it

Question 5

marxists believe that capitalism is…

Answer 5

criminogenic - crime is the natural outcome of capitalist practices and values

(bonger)

Question 6

what are the pandora papers?

Question 7

snider

Answer 7

selective law enforcement - laws are enforced more strictly among the poor. corporate crimes tend to be more leniently dealt with while financial crimes committed by the poor are almost always pursued by law enforcement

The capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that might regulate the activities of large corporations and therefore affect their profitability. This is partly because the state itself benefits from such corporations through taxation and revenue.

support - lavinia woodward sentencing vs london riots sentencing (25%+)

Question 8

chambliss

Answer 8

• conscious decisions are made to avoid creating laws and regulations for the wealthy
• also suggested that the ruling classes are able to define what is or is not morally or socially acceptable; for example, there may be huge media coverage of benefits fraud but very few media reports about tax evasion.

Question 9

box

Answer 9

Crime is seen as rational behaviour, a response to the nature of capitalist society. The type of response merely varies by class location, for example, working class mugging, stealing, prostitution; middle class business fraud.

vagrancy act - illegal to be homeless

Question 10

gordon

Answer 10

capitalist societies are ‘dog eat dog societies’ in which each company and individual is encouraged to look out for their own interests before the interests of others

culture of envy

Question 11

timer and eitzen

Answer 11

argue that authorities highlight and prosecute crimes committed by the working-classes (theft, street crime) whilst ignoring crimes of the rich and powerful such as fraud, tax evasion etc. They used the term ‘crimes of the streets and not the suites’ to describe this.

support - pandora papers, mps expenses scandal

Question 12

mp’s expenses scandal

Question 13

croall - wcc

Answer 13

• white collar crimes are crimes committed in the course of legitimate employment which involves the abuse of an occupational role. e.g. fraud, embezzlement money laundering, accounting offences, tax evasion, insider deals, computer crime
• Croall argues that WCC costs society far more than crimes carried out by the poor such as burglary.
• They are invisible, may be business practice (ruthlessness), indirect victimization, may not realise you have been a victim, policed by regulatory bodies within the company itself rather than the police.

Question 14

croall - corporate crime

Answer 14

bhopal, thalidomide, grenfell

Question 15

thalidomide

Answer 15

• introduced as a sedative and medication for morning sickness without having been tested on pregnant women
• caused birth defects

Question 16

gramsci

neo marxist

Answer 16

• describes us as having a dual consciousness to cope in Capitalism (half revolutionary class, half false class consciousness)
• the proletariat have what Gramsci calls a dual consciousness: the proletariat are not only influenced by ruling class ideas, they have their own.

Question 17

taylor, walton and young

Answer 17

• argue that crime is a deliberate, political act - it is a conscious response to a feeling of powerlessness, injustice and alienation
• criminals are actively struggling to alter capitalism and change society for the better.
• for example, vandalism is a symbolic attack on society’s obsession with wealth and theft/burglary is a reaction to inequality

Question 18

hall

(marxism)

Answer 18

The ruling class are aware of the potential of working class crime and try to control it. Working class areas are targeted by the police and heavy controls places on marches/rallies by the RSA. A gov controlled mass media presents working class crime as problematic

• Policing the Crisis by Stuart Hall et al. (1978) is a study of the moral panic which took place in the early 1970s over ‘mugging’. He studies street crime among young black youths in London. Newspapers were writing stories claiming that there was a new craze for young black men to rob people of their possessions on the streets with threats of violence; they called this mugging. Hall suggested that the mugging was a moral panic. The government and the media were promoting racism, stereotyping and demonising young black men to distract attention from political problems and a poorly performing economy. Thus, black young men were protesting against racism and capitalism and also being labelled as criminals in the process.

divide+rule a potentially troublesome class- divided Black WC + White WC

Question 19

scarman report

Answer 19

• produced in the aftermath of the Brixton Riots
• it highlighted the resentment felt by Afro-Caribbean communities towards the police whom they felt harassed by
• the same year the Home Office announced that South Asians were 50 times more likely to be the victims of racially motivated crime than the white population

Question 20

darcus howe

Question 21

blm - edward colston statue

Question 22

hayward