Neo-Marxism | Crime and Deviance

What are the 3 main aspects of Neo-Marxism?

• Neo-Marxist subcultural theory

• the new criminology

• critical criminology

What is Neo-Marxist subcultural theory?

• explains the reason for the existence of subcultures amongst the working class

• argues that capitalism maintains control over the majority of the population via ideological dominance through the media and economic pressures

• only marginalised groups can resist capitalism - the largest group of resistance is the working class youth

• the working class youth's resistance to capitalism is expressed through working class subcultures

• each generation expresses its resistance to capitalism through different choices of clothes, argot (slang and speech patterns), music, etc.

What is an example study of the Neo-Marxist subcultural theory approach?

‘Skinheads’ - Phil Cohen (1972)

• named after their short, cropped hair

• typically wore clothes that reflected the workwear of male manual workers of previous decades (e.g., work boots, jeans)

• sometimes ivolved in football violence as an attempt to defend their ‘territory’ against all outside threats

• could be hostile and violent towards members of ethnic minority groups

• represented a ‘magic recreation of working class culture’

• undermined by the physical destruction of older, working class housing through urban redevelopment

• undermined by the loss of manufacturing jobs

• undermined by the settlement of members of ethics minority groups in what were previously largely white, working class areas

What is the new criminology, and what 6 things does it consider (Young & Taylor)?

• the wider origins of the act (structural causes)

• the immediate origins of the act (the individual's motives/reasons)

• the act itself (meaning of the act to the individual)

• the immediate origins of societal reaction (how did society react?)

• the wider origins of societal reaction (why did society react this way?)

• the outcome of societal reaction (effect of this societal reaction on the group)

What is critical criminology, and what did Hall (1978) discover?

• Hall (1978) applied the new criminology approach to black muggers in the UK in the 1970s

• there was a “crisis of capitalism” (an economic recession)

• the ruling class sought to divide the working class by race to turn white workers against black workers

• a moral panic about street crime by black people was fostered

• a crackdown by the police occurred

• the threat of the ‘black mugger’ justified giving the police extra powers

What are some criticisms of Neo-Marxism?

• only a very small proportion of crime could be considered to be politically motivated or anti-capitalist

• “anti-capitalism” rarely seems to be a motive that criminals themselves would claim

• Marxists should arguably produce solutions to crime rather than simply try to understand, and sometimes excuse, working class criminals

• it cannot be proved that anyone deliberately set out to divide the working class by race to prevent revolution

• Hall himself recognised that the media likely sensationalised such crimes because it sold newspapers rather than prevented revolutions