Evaluating Neo-Marixsm and Critical Criminology

A very small portion of crime could be considered as politically-motivated or part of anti-capitalist activism

LIMITATION

• Rarely seems to be a motive that criminals themselves would claim

Left realists point out that most victims of crime are working class

LIMITATION

• Marxists should produce solutions to the problem of crime, rather than simply trying to understand working-class

Stuart Hall’s theory about black muggers is a conspiracy theory

LIMITATION

• nobody could prove that anyone deliberately set out to divide the working-class to prevent revolution

Hall himself recognised that his theory could not be proved

STRENGTH

• recognised that a significant factor in the media’s decision to sensationalise such crimes was because it sold newspapers rather than prevented solutions