Week 10 Flashcards
Who was Karl Marx
According to Marc societies can be best understood by attention to the manner by which they produce and distribute resources necessary for living and survival eg food and shelter
Historical materialism: for Marx, this organisation had changed throughout history In successive modes of production: feudalism an example of an older mode of production and capitalism a modern mode. Historical materialism stood in contrast to religious and metaphysical explanations and views of history
What is the dialectical movement of history
Marxs view of history was in part influenced by German philosopher georg Hegel. Hegel argued that there was an absolute end of history to be achieved in the absolute unit or absolute knowledge that both answered as well as transcended the dualisms contained in earlier religious and philosophical systems.
What was Hegel’s dialectic
Achievement of Unity proceeded for Hegel through a series of historical contradictions and negations, the result of which led to new historical conditions. Different parts of history therefore exhibited different truths that are in fact only part of the dialectical unfolding of the absolute. The absolute can thus only occur in the individual, but not without the necessary unfolding of dialectical truths and negations that have come before. “History moves through time”
What is Marx’s dialectical materialism
Marx was influenced by Hegel’s idea that history is dialectical ie moved by opposing forces again and again. For Marx these forced were not ideas or systems of thought per se but rather material forces. Since material resources were always limited, he argued such forces would always tend to centre on conflict between social classes
It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being it is their social being that determines their consciousness
What is Marxs perception of society and production
in any society there exists an economic organisation of the “forces and relations” of production.
By forces: Marx meant the things necessary for material production- technology, energy, and material resources.
By relations: Marx meant the means by which this production takes place.
For example: w capitalism Marx divided the relations of production into profit orientated capitalists, people who own factories and other productive enterprises, and the proletarians, people who provide labour necessary to operate factories and other productive enterprises. Marx argued that conflict between these two classes was inevitable in a system of capitalist production.
Marxs perception on society and production continued
All societies are composed of social institutions defined as the major spheres of social life or societal subsystems organised to meet human needs. Marx considered economic institutions to be the most dominant and defining society. He considered the economy the infrastructure on which all other social ie institutions the superstructure were based. The institutions of modern societies he argued tend to reinforce capitalist domination.
Explain capitalism and class conflict
Industrial capitalism contains two major social classes - the bourgeoise and the proletariat - reflecting the two basic positions in mode is production.
Marx viewed class conflict antagonism between entire classes over the distribution of wealth and power in society as inevitable for two reasons.
- Opposite goals of owners and works eg surplus value leads to surplus populations
- Class consciousness or the workers recognition of their unity as a class in opposition to capitalists and ultimately to capitalism itself.
Proletariat: those who sell their labour power for a wage
Bourgeoisie: those who make their living from the surplus bye expropriated from the proletariat
Explain capitalism and alienation
Marx also condemned capitalism for promoting alienation, the experience of isolation resulting from powerlessnessZ Marx argued that industrial capitalism alienated workers in four ways:
- Alienation from the act of working
- Alienation from the products of work
- Alienation from other workers
- Alienation from human potential
What was Marxs view of crime
Hardly touched on crime. His working was mainly just applied to crime in later years
Explain early conflict criminology
Following the writing of Marx and Engels, later Marxist criminologists argued that crime itself could be conceptualised in two ways.
1. Petty crime: petty does not mean trite but rather crimes of those without power in a capitalist system of inequality. Marxist criminologists see this type of crime largely as a response to exploitation and powerlessness.
- Structural crime: the larger crime for Marxist criminologists is the crime of unequal wealth distribution and the relative impunity of the crimes of the elite
Who was Willem Bonger
William Bonger (1920s-1940s) Crime has a social and not biological origin similar to labelling theory
Penal law served the will of the ruling class - in q capitalist system this means owners or bourgeoise
The use of force to control law violations denotes a weak society
Economic disparity intensified personal disadvantages of the poor and makes the criminal behaviour of the wealthy
Who was Ralf Dageendorf
Ralf Dahrendorf (1950s-) Imperatively coordinated associations: dahrendorfs theory is that modern capitalist society is divided into two groups namely those who possess authority and the means to dominate and those who are dominated
Fracture of a cohesive proletariat into competing interest groups
Rejection of Marxist view of strict conflict in favor of a more pluralist view of conflict
Who was George Vold
1950s
Adopted dahrendorfs theory specifically to criminology
Criminal acts are a consequence of direct contact between forces struggling to control society meaning that many acts defined as criminal are the result of explicit or implicit political struggles
Explain contemporary critical criminology
Emerged in the 1960s: partially in response to rapid social change and upheaval and to new methodologies eg self reporting surveys
This lead many criminologists to suspect that crime and the justice system was in some way used as a mechanism to control lower classes
Conflict theorists further argued that assumptions of crime as self evident were misguided. Rather, they argued no actions were unto themselves morally wrong but wrong only in relation to interaction between the crime, criminal, victim and social control agenciesX
One branch of conflict theories became known as labelling theory
Explaining critical criminology
Criminologists in the 60s began to articulate a more critical and radical view of crime related to social class and the role of the state as an agent of social control
A general skepticism towards mainstream criminology particularly its emphasis on objectivity: mainstream and even liberal criminology ie positivist criminology is designed to unmask the weak and powerless members of society so they can be better dealt with by the legal system a process called correctional ism
Activist orientated - purpose of criminology is not only to understand crime but to address social injustices
Crime is seen as both a political tool to control the poor as well as a means to legitmize state crimes and the crimes of the wealthy
