Traditional Marxism and crime

How is capitalism criminogenic?

• Crime is inevitable because capitalism causes crime; based on exploitation of WC

  • Poverty may mean crime= means of survival

  • Only way to obtain consumer goods pushed by consumerism

  • Alienation= non-utilitarian crimes (e.g. vandalism).

  • White collar- competitive nature of capitalism.

How does law making benefit the RC?

• Serve interests of RC

• Chambliss (1975): laws protect priv property= cornerstone of econ.

• RC power to prevent intro of laws that would threaten their interests.

• Selective law enforcement; reluctant to pass laws regulate activities of business/threaten profitability.

  • Powerless (EM/WC) often criminalized, police/courts ignore crimes of powerful.

How does crime have an ideological function?

• Laws occasionally passed that seem to…

  • Give capitalism a caring face (e.g. safety laws which keep workers healthy FOR WORK)

• State enforces laws selectively; crime appears to be a largely WC phenomenon (divides WC by encouraging workers to blame criminals rather than capitalism)

What are some evaluations of the Marxist view of crime?

• Ignores relationship between non-class related inequalities

• Too deterministic; over-predicts # of crime of WC; not all poor people commit crime, despite their needs.

• CJS does sometimes act against RC (e.g. Donald Trump!)

White collar crime:

In what 5 ways is corporate crime invisible?

1. Media give limited coverage; sanitised language, employer negligence as “accident at work”.

2. Lack of political will; some PM do not want to upset powerful businessmen + drive business away.

3. Crimes often complex; law enforcers understaffed and lack resources to investigate. Also hard to pinpoint a singular cause.

4. De-labelling; corp crime constantly filtered out. Civil, not criminal.

5. Under-reporting; potential whistle-blowers afraid of reprocussions.

How does strain theory link in with corporate crime?

• Companies feel strain if profits not met.

• Climate and Yeager; law violations by large companies increase as financial position deteriorates.