Marxist perspectives on Crime and Deviance

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14 Terms

1
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What is the traditional Marxist approach?

Marx himself wrote very little on crime BUT a Marxist approach was considered as early as 1916 by Bonger.

2
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Who are the other key Marxist sociologists who developed the traditional Marxism perspective?

Chambliss, Snider and Reiman

3
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What are Marxists key ideas of crime?

focuses on the imbalance of power in society. The state is dominated by the ruling class who control the economic base.

4
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What did Chambliss say about capitalism?

it’s based upon competition, selfishness and greed. Similar to Merton’s strain theory, who is a functionalist.

5
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What did Gordon say about capitalism?

Capitalism is criminogenic (likely to cause crime) - similar to Durkheim’s view (crime is functional and inevitable)

6
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What does Reiman argue about crime?

All crime should be explained in terms of social conditions rather than individual motivation, and social injustice is the cause of all crime. He believes lack of opportunity is a structural feature of capitalism, working to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. He argues that crime is often portrayed as being the result of ‘individual moral failing’ rather than social injustice.

7
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What does Snider say about laws?

The UK and USA rarely pass laws that will negatively impact large corporations

8
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What does Jones say about tax avoidance and benefit fraud

suggests that tax avoidance cost the British government more than 20 times the amount that benefit fraud does.

9
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What were the stats from the 2013 YouGov poll for benefit fraud?

Found that public opinion expected that benefit fraud was evident in 27% of cases, the actual figure is around 0.7% (Jones, 2013)

10
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What does snider argue about corporate crime?

Argues that corporate crime in the USA does far more harm, economically and physically, than street crime. EXAMPLE - Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010

11
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Give an example of people not being prosecuted for big crimes?

a drug, not properly tested resulted in 10,000 infants being born with deformed limbs and no one was ever prosecuted.

12
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What is Sutherlands definition of white collar crime?

a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation

13
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strengths for traditional Marxism?

identification of capitalism. Looks at crime, law enforcement and law making. Equal focus on the actions of criminals and those who enforce the law.

14
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Weaknesses for traditional Marxism:

Fails to explain changes in criminality over time or variations in crime rates. Lack of explanation about the relationship between other sociological groups and crime.