Marxism

Marxist views of crime and the law has 3 elements:

1. Capitalism causes crime

2. Law making and enforcement is biased

3. Crime and law perform ideological functions

How would Marxism argue the point that capitalism causes crime?

• They say crime is inevitable in a capitalistic society - capitalism is criminogenic (crime causing) system

• Inequality between classes cause alienation and frustration which results in crimes such as violence and vandalism

• Capitalism causes crime among capitalist themselves as they promote greed. - Encourages crimes such as white collar crime etc

How would Marxist argue that Law making and enforcement are baised?

Chambliss argues that there are laws against homeless people squatting in empty houses but none for rich people owning several houses.

Very few laws challenging the unequal distribution on wealth

Out of 200 companies who had broken safety laws, Carson found only 3 were prosecuted

Corporate crimes are often punished less severally usually have to pay a fine for crime.

Marxism - ideological functions of crime and the law

Marxist argue that ideas about crime and law are an ideology - a set of ideas that conceal the inequality of a capitalist society. For example:

Selective enforcement makes it look like crime is due to the working class. This encourages workers to blame working class criminals for their problems rather than capitalism

This shifts attention away from much more serious ruling class crime

These ideas encourage the working class to accept capitalism instead of replacing it with an equal society

Bhopal disaster caste study

45 tons of dangerous gas escaped from a type of plant that was owned by an American firm. The gas escaped and drifted over a populated neighbourhoods and killed thousands. The survivors had long term issues such as respiratory problems, eye irritation, blindness or other illnesses. They were only compensated a few hundred dollars.

• Despite protest to bring those involved to court has been rejected.

• The neighbourhood has not been cleaned.

• Soil and water contamination in the area blamed from chronic health problems and high instances of birth defects.

However in 2004 the Indian Supreme Court ordered stand to clean the drinking water to the residents.

In 2010 several people involved were took to court of negligence in the disaster.

Evaluate the efectiveness of Marxism

Strengths:

It provides an explanation for crime that covers all social classes and a variety of offences

It highlights the impact of selective law enforcement and how white collar crime is under-policed

It demonstrates how the law reflects differences in power between the social classes. Also, how inequality in society can lead to criminal behaviour

Limitation of Marxism

They only focus on class inequality and ignores the relationship between crime and other inequalities such as gender and ethnicity.

It overpredicts the amount of crime in working communtites.

Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates. E.g. Japan has lower crime rates than the USA

Prostitution for cooperate crime does occur