topic 4 — Marxist explanations of crime

Question 1

snider 1993 on crime

Answer 1

DOMINANT IDEOLOGY FAVOURS THE POWERFUL IN CRIME

working class street crime is focussed on disproportionately

lack of focus on corporate white collar (bourgeoisie)

ruling class use social control to construct laws that control and punish working class while distracting from crimes of ruling class

e.g. 2008 MPs claimed for expenses they weren’t entitled to (£1600 duck house for pond, porn, wallpaper)
—> not taken seriously by police, took a journalist 4 years to get police involved seriously

2008 National Fraud authority:
— benefits fraud £1bn
— tax evasion £15bn

corporate crime: business crime motivated by profit e.g. VW manufactured cars that cheated emissions tests ]

Google 2017 $23billion tax haven Bermuda

Question 2

Gordon 1976 on crime

Answer 2

SELECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT
frequent prosecutions of working class
rare for ruling class

occasional ruling class prosecution reinforces illusion that law treats everyone equally

punishing working class INDIVIDUALS scapegoats them, protecting the system that creates their crime.
individuals defined as SOCIAL FAILURES

defining criminals as “animals and misfits, enemies of the state, provides a justification for incarcerating them in prisons”

Question 3

RADICAL CRIMINOLOGY (form of neo-marxism)

Answer 3

Hall et al.

mugging 1970s 🇬🇧
MORAL PANIC 😱 about black men being muggers
—> complete over-exaggeration created by media, causing huge unnecessary concern over public safety

UK Capitalism faced social + economical unrest in early 70s
—> creating moral panic helped capitalism in 2 ✌️ ways
1. SCAPEGOAT: immigrants blamed, not flawed capitalist system
2. JUSTIFICATION: gives government excuse for suppressing certain groups

resulted in extreme labelling 🏷

Question 4

Chambliss on crime

Answer 4

Capitalist societies are CRIMINOGENIC

capt. promotes values likely to lead to crime e.g.
individualism/competition (theft),
consumerism (shoplifting),
basing status on money (fraud),
oppression/exploitation (public disorder, violence)
divide and rule (hate crimes)

Regardless of social class, we are all susceptible to being influenced to commit crime due to crimogenic nature of capitalism