Marxist and Neo-Marxist Views of Crime and Deviance

Marxist Theories of Crime and Deviance

Argue that crime is an inevitable product of capitalism and class inequality.
Aims to explain why crime appears to be a working-class phenomenon.
Argues middle-class crimes (white-collar, corporate, and state crime) are under-policed and underestimated.

Gordon's Perspective on Capitalism and Crime

Capitalism is characterized by class inequalities in wealth and income, leading to poverty, unemployment, and homelessness.
Working-class crime is often a realistic response to economic deprivation, causing feelings of hostility, envy, frustration, and failure.
Lack of job satisfaction and power can lead to crimes of power, such as rape and domestic violence.
Capitalist ideology encourages criminal behavior across all social classes, with values like competition, consumerism, and individualism promoting self-seeking and greed.

Strengths of the Marxist Perspective

Considers the social and economic structures that shape patterns of crime and deviance.
Recognizes that crime and deviance are not merely individual actions but results of complex social and economic processes.

Weaknesses of the Marxist Perspective

May oversimplify the complexity of crime and deviance by focusing primarily on social and economic factors while overlooking individual personality and family/community dynamics.

Althusser and the Law as an Ideological State Apparatus

Argues that the law functions in the interests of the capitalist class to maintain class inequality.
Mannheim believes the law primarily protects wealth, private property, and profit.
Criminal law is seen as a product of corporate business and the state alliance.
Laws that appear to benefit the working class (e.g., trade union rights) are weakly enforced or modified to suit the ruling class.

Box's Argument on Ruling Class Power

The ruling class can prevent laws that are not in its interests from being passed (e.g., the criminalization of breaches of health and safety legislation).

Selective Law Enforcement

Law enforcement favors the rich and powerful; tax evasion (carried out by the rich) is rarely prosecuted, while social security fraud is.

Criticisms of Marxist Theories

Difficult to demonstrate that the law supports ruling-class interests.
'Ideology' and 'interests of the ruling class' are hard to operationalize.
Marxist theories are often overly theoretical and fail to suggest ways to verify the existence of ruling-class ideology.

Social Control and Hegemony

Marxists argue that social control benefits the ruling class and works against the working class.
Gramsci (1971) said hegemony (dominance of ruling-class ideology) is used to maintain social control.
Institutions socialize individuals to accept ruling-class ideas.
The ruling class controls the means of producing ideas, making their ideas dominant.

Criminogenic Nature of Capitalist Society

Capitalist society itself causes crime because it operates at the expense of the working class, leading to poverty.
Working-class frustration and alienation under capitalism may lead to acts of violence.
The constant desire to make more money can lead to criminal behavior (e.g., fraud, blackmail) among professional workers and the ruling class.

Chambliss and Mankoff on Law and Private Property

Most laws keep working-class people away from the property and land of the rich.
The ruling class uses the law to protect private property because capitalist exploitation is built upon it.
Most of the population has no power in creating laws and punishments.

Strengths of the Legalistic Model

Acknowledges the social and cultural factors influencing definitions of crime and deviance.
Recognizes that laws and the criminal justice system are shaped by societal values, beliefs, and power relations.

Weaknesses of the Legalistic Model

Tends to overemphasize laws and the criminal justice system, while downplaying social, economic, and cultural conditions.
Can lead to a narrow understanding of crime and deviance.

Snider on Legislation and Ruling-Class Interests

Legislation regulating large companies is restricted in capitalist societies because it could threaten ruling-class interests.
Health and safety, pollution, and fair-trade legislation are weakly enforced.
Working-class crimes like burglary don’t cause as much harm as corporate crimes.

Focus on White-Collar and Corporate Crime

Croall defines white-collar crime as crime committed during legitimate employment, involving the abuse of an occupational role (e.g., fraud, tax evasion).
Those at the top of the occupational hierarchy have more opportunities to make large sums of money from these crimes.
Companies commit crimes by failing to comply with standards of health and safety.
Corporate crime can result in deaths, long-term illness, exposure to dangerous substances, pollution, and radiation.

Workplace Deaths and Corporate Violations

Approximately 500 workers die annually in the workplace.
The Health and Safety Executive estimates that two out of three fatal accidents are due to employer violation of safety legislation.

Reasons for Lack of Public Concern for White-Collar Crime

The public does not fear these crimes.
Offenses are often invisible.
Victimization is indirect.
Crimes are complex, involving technical or financial knowledge.
Responsibility is often delegated.
The public is ambiguous about acceptable business practices.

Croall's Conclusion

White-collar crime, carried out mainly by the middle and upper classes, is rarely reported, detected, or prosecuted.

Strength of Croall's View

Highlights how the criminal justice system serves the ruling class, rather than being an objective arbiter of justice.
Exposes how the criminal justice system targets marginalized groups while providing leniency to the ruling class.

Weakness of Croall's View

May oversimplify the complex factors contributing to crime and deviance and downplay individual agency.

Criticisms of Traditional Marxists

Overlooking other effects on crime.
Rejection of the assumption that capitalism is crimogenic.
Feminist criticism for ignoring patriarchy.

Left Realism

Disputes the argument that crimes like burglary do not cause much harm, especially to working-class victims.

The New Criminologists (Taylor et al., 1973)

Also known as radical criminologists; their work is described as critical criminology.
Used Marxist ideas to explain the social structure in which criminals operate.
Attempted to see crime from the perspective of the criminal.
Argue that laws serve the ruling class; crime is committed by everyone, but the working classes are more likely to be caught and labeled.
Crime can be understood by looking at variables such as power, authority, and ideology.

Taylor, Walton, and Young's Perspective

Criminals are not passive individuals but make conscious choices to change society.
Point to political action groups like the Black Panther Movement, who use criminal means to agitate the system.
Robbery is seen as a potential means of redistributing wealth.

Hall et al. (1978) and the Social Theory of Deviance

Applied the 'social theory of deviance' to media reports of muggings involving black muggers.
Analyzed the situation in terms of:
- Social, economic, and political conditions (economic crisis).
- Motivations of the state (government wanting to feel in control).
- Motivations of the media (press wanting a dramatic story).
- What happened (increased arrests, media presenting muggers as a threat, creating a moral panic).

Limitations of New Criminology

Useful for criticizing functionalism and traditional Marxism but difficult to apply and use in research.
Left and right realism point out that most forms of Marxism tend to romanticize working-class crime and overlook the needs/feelings of the victims.

Conclusion

Neo-Marxism is unable to adequately address or confirm that all laws function to serve the needs of a ruling class.
Difficult to separate Orthodox Marxism from functionalism.
Feminists argue that gender issues are overlooked by neo-Marxists, as are issues relating to ethnicity and crime.