Week 8; Critical Criminology

Question 1

When and why did critical criminology become popular?

Answer 1

• Came into prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s
  § Realized inequality was deeply entrenched and those in power wished to reinforced, not change, the status quo
  § Argued traditional theories are intellectually sterile and dangerous
  □ Ignored and left unchallenged the powerful intersects that benefited from this inequality
• Also called conflict, radical, and Marxian criminology

Question 2

What 2 Different forms (opposite types) of conflict are there?

Answer 2

pluralist conflict
radical, Marxist conflict

Question 3

What is Pluralist conflict?

Answer 3

Many groups exert power, tend to have brief power, and work together for brief moments

Question 4

What is Radical Conflict?

Answer 4

2 major classes in society: Proletariat & Bourgeoisie have substantial conflict of interest

Question 5

What does Marxist Conflict tell us?

Answer 5

• Marxist theories do not focus on individual pathologies but on social, political and economic structures that give rise to crime
  - Marx himself wrote little on the subject of crime
  
  • Criminologists have adapted Marx’s work to analyze the relationship between crime and the social world

Question 6

What does capitalism promote according to Marxist perspectives?

Answer 6

• The political and economic structures of capitalism promote conflict. This precipitates conditions (for example, unemployment) that allow crime to occur
  
  • The law and crime should not be studied in isolation, but in relation to the whole of society and particularly the economic sphere
• The Marxist approach provides a framework to study the interrelations among the capitalist mode of production, the state, law, crime control and crime

Question 7

What does Instrumental Marxism argue?

Answer 7

• Instrumental Marxism assumes the state and legal and political institutions are a direct reflection of the interests of the ruling/capitalist class
  
  • Law is equated with class rule
    ○ The ruling class controls the formation of law, and the focus is on the coercive nature of the law
    The state and the legal system are instruments of the capitalist class

Question 8

What does Structural Marxism argue?

Answer 8

• Structural Marxism opposes the instrumental Marxist assumption that the state is the direct servant of the ruling class
  
  • Instead, it argues that state institutions function in the long-term interests of capitalism (to reduce capitalist society)
• The state and its institutions have a certain degree of independence from specific elites in the capitalist class (“relative autonomy”

Question 9

What does Marxist research say about corporate crimes?

Answer 9

• Marxist research on corporate crime focuses on the harmful conduct of those inside the sphere of production in capitalist economies
  
  • Corporate crime has far greater negative impact on society compared to “street crime”
    
    • Capitalism and profit maximization create strong motivation for corporations to commit crimes and enact other socially harmful behaviours

Question 10

What are the central themes of Critical Criminology?

Answer 10

• Concepts of inequality and power are integral to understanding crime
  
  • Building off the work of Karl Marx, critical criminology notes that capitalism enriches some and impoverishes many
    ○ Produces a wide economic gap
• The state operates to legitimatize and protect social arrangements that benefit those profiting from capitalism

Question 11

Why is crime seen as political?

Answer 11

• What is and what is not outlawed reflects the power structure in society
  ○ Injurious acts of the poor are defined as crime, while injurious acts of the wealthy and powerful are not
• Critical criminologists argue crime should be defined as a violation of human rights

Question 12

What is the correlation between capitalism and criminal behaviour?

Answer 12

• See capitalism as the root cause of criminal behaviour
  
  • Under capitalism, the human needs of the poor are ignored
• The poor face demoralizing living conditions that foster crime by stunting healthy development
  ○ Creates fertile environment for crimes by corporations
  ○ Pressure for profits, lax state regulation, infrequent application of criminal penalties
  ○ Can lead to huge economic losses and violence (ex. Exposing people to toxins, defective products)
• See the criminal justice system as serving the interests of the capitalist class
  
  • Criminal justice officials break the law as well
  • Police brutality, receiving payoffs, etc.
  • Capitalist class uses power to commit crimes against its own dissident citizens
  • The solution to crime is the creation of a more equitable society
  • For many, the goal of this reform effort is a socialist economy combined with a democratic political system sensitive to the needs of all citizens

Question 13

What were the Bourgeoisie?

Answer 13

Those who own the means of production

Question 14

Who were the Proletariats?

Answer 14

Workers who did not own the means of production and must sell their labor for wages

Question 15

What does capitalism do to the working class?

Answer 15

• Capitalism results in the demoralization of the working class
  
  • This condition is only alleviated when workers bond together, revolt, and create a socialist class

Question 16

Why has the Revolution yet to be televised?

Answer 16

1. Fragmentation of capitalists due to stockholding
2. A higher standard of living for workers
   
   • Blue-collar: lower prestige jobs, mostly manual labour
   • White-collar: higher-prestige jobs, mostly mental activity
3. More worker organizations, like unions
4. Greater legal protections, like safety, unemployment insurance, disability, etc.

Question 17

What was the BP Oil Disasters?

Answer 17

• Oil producing company
• Approximately 3 disasters with BP in the last few years because of safety hazards while attempting to reduce costs
• Explosion that left people dead and injured

Question 18

What was Big Pharma & The Opioid Crisis

Answer 18

• Doctors are being pressured by pharmaceutical companies to push their medications
• They are creating drugs they know are addictive -
• Deaths in the US have increased significantly from 1999 to 2021

Question 19

What was significant about Sandy Hook Elementary School?

Answer 19

• School Mass Shooting: December 14, 2012
• The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have agreed to a $73 million US settlement in a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012
  
  • The families and a survivor of the shooting sued Remington in 2015, saying the company should have never sold such a dangerous weapon to the public
  • “Today is a day of accountability for an industry that has thus far enjoyed operating with immunity and impunity” - Veronique De La Rosa, whose 6-year-old son Noah was killed in the shooting

Question 20

What was significant about Banks (JP Morgan & 2010 Economic Collapse

Answer 20

• The company lost billions of dollars during covid but then in later months their profit sky-rocked
  
  • Detroit claimed bankruptcy and has become one of the most dangerous cities in America

Question 21

What was Currie: “Crime in a Market Society’s” MAIN idea?

Answer 21

• Capitalism is the root cause of crime, especially the high rate of violent crime in the United States
• It comes in multiple forms

Question 22

What forms of capitalism are there according to Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”?

Answer 22

• Compassionate capitalism
• Keiretsu capitalism
• Contingent or harsh brand capitalism

Question 23

What is Compassionate capitalism

Answer 23

• it stresses social solidarity, equity, and community values
  ○ Bottom-up approach
  ○ Seen in Scandinavia

Question 24

What is Keiretsu capitalism?

Answer 24

• paternalistic
  ○ Top-down approach
• Seen in Japan

Question 25

What is Contingent or harsh brand capitalism?

Answer 25

• seen in the US
• Leads to socially isolated and economically impoverished minority communities that are highly conducive to crime

Question 26

What did Currie argue in “Crime in a Market Society?”

Answer 26

• Currie referred to a market society
  
  • The pursuit of personal economic gain becomes increasingly the dominant organizing principle of social life
  • Market principles suffuse the whole social fabric (not confined only to the economy)
  • Argues market societies are Darwinian societies
    ○ Offer few “cushions” against the labour market and minimal public provisions of social support

Question 27

How does Currie see the market economy?

Answer 27

• Sees the market economy as an amoral force that robs people of their jobs, fails to care for at-risk kids and families, and acquits the government of doing much about the human costs of inequality
  
  • This market society explains recent upsurges of violence in Russia and China and the long- term high violent crime rates in the United States
  • Identifies seven pathways through which the market economy creates high rates of serious crime in the United States

Question 28

What are the six pathways in which the market economy creates high rates of serious crime in the US?

Answer 28

2. The market society has an inherent tendency toward extremes of inequality and material deprivation
   
   3. The market society weakens other kinds of public support
   4. Market societies withdraw public supports while simultaneously eroding informal social supports and networks of care
   5. Market economies produce crime by promoting a culture that exalts atomized and often brutal individual competition and consumption over the values of community, contribution, and productive work
   6. Market societies deregulate the technology of violence
   7. Market societies weaken and erode alternative political values and institutions

Question 29

What does “The market society has an inherent tendency toward extremes of inequality and material deprivation” tell us?

Answer 29

○ A result of the elimination of good work and the resistance of market societies against governmental intervention to offset the inadequacy of labor markets
○ The United States has extremely wide spread inequality and high child poverty rates
○ Evidence for an association among income inequality/poverty and homicide, aggravated assault, and child abuse
○ Poverty inhibits intellectual and social development among children and predisposes them toward school failure and future poverty

Question 30

What does “The market society weakens other kinds of public support” tell us?

Answer 30

○ Individuals are forced to rely on individual efforts to secure resources
○ Parents must take multiple low-paying jobs and thus are not there to nurture and supervise their children
○ The United States, unlike other countries, does not provide universal care for three- to five-year-olds
- The United States does not have a national health system to supply preventative and prenatal health care

Question 31

What does “Market societies withdraw public supports while simultaneously eroding informal social supports and networks of care” tell us?

Answer 31

○ Splits extended families and creates communities characterized by rapid geographical mobility and the consequent thinning of networks of close friendships and mutual care
○ See communities with few public agencies
○ Social impoverishment occurs and youth gangs and drug dealers may become the dominant informal control and support systems
○ Associated with child abuse

Question 32

What does “Market economies produce crime by promoting a culture that exalts atomized and often brutal individual competition and consumption over the values of community, contribution, and productive work” tell us?

Answer 32

○ Consumer values are pronounced
○ insistent pressure to acquire and consume
○ Materialism
- Craft values have declined
○ Values of job well done, pleasure in productive work
- Normal brutality
○ The advancement of some is contingent on the fall of others
○ Feelings of unconcern and no responsibility for others is rampant
○ Unbonded from society—look out only for self

Question 33

What does “Market societies deregulate the technology of violence” tell us?

Answer 33

○ Virtual absence of national-level regulations on the sale and possession of firearms
- The US has a proliferation of firearms, especially handguns

Question 34

What does “Market societies weaken and erode alternative political values and institutions” tell us?

Answer 34

○ If strong political or communal organizations are present to promote collective well-being, the frustrations of the economy will be channeled into constructive social action
○ In market societies, these organizations are weak or not present
People respond to their frustrations by lashing out and engaging in criminal behavior

Question 35

How do we alter the pathways outlined in “Crime in a Market Society”?

Answer 35

• Attempt to have full employment at socially meaningful work with good wages
  
  • Reasonable work hours
  • Expand employment in public and nonprofit sectors of the economy
  • Work-sharing and reduction of work time policies
  • Have health and mental health care, public schooling,
    ○ child care, and skills-training programs