Crime and criminal law are shaped by the political economy of society
The repressive approach of the state to dealing with crime
and deviance is ineffective and perpetuates social inequalities
The solution to the crime problem lies in an overhaul of the entire social and
cultural structure of society
That positivist approaches to understanding and addressing crime are flawed
Marxist criminology
Influence of
marxism
State and criminal law function in interests of dominant/ruling (capitalist) class
Ruling class uses State to preserve economic power
Criminalisation of behaviour used to control lower classes
Criminal law functions to contain resistance to dominant social order
Crime arises out of deprivation (material necessity) and exploitation
Crime as a primitive form of rebellion
Revolution as route to solving the problem of crime
Inspired by Labelling theory and Marxism
2. Key ideas
Criminal law as an ideological tool
Implicit class bias in the definition of crime
Crime typically punishes behaviours of the
economically and socially powerless
Ignores similarly harmful acts of the powerful
Stephen Box (1983) Reiman and Leighton (2010)
Consequently, critical criminologists have challenged existing
definitions of ‘crime’
Criminal law is only there for
the upper class, and not for the
working class.
Crime as a response to structural inequalities
A fully social theory of deviance” (Taylor, Walton and Young, 1973)
The wider origins of the deviant act
e.g. capitalist social system
2. The immediate origins of the deviant act social psychology of crime - how structural demands
interpreted by individuals
3. The actual act Relationship between individuals’
beliefs and actions how crime can be seen as rational in a
given context of, e.g. inequality
How, together, they can be used to explain deviance as:
Socially constructed
Rational response
Within capitalist social order
And NOT as: Individual pathology OR Anomic
response
4. The immediate origins of social reaction Examining why certain acts cause certain types of
response
Why someone report?
5. The wider origins of social reaction Examining why social groups in society respond to behaviour
of members of certain social groups in particular ways
6. The outcome of social reaction on the deviant’s further action
7. The nature of the deviant process as a whole
How all the other 6 elements interact with each other
Criminal justice as a form of social control
Criminal justice system as imposing social order rather than reflecting collective consensus
Presents interests of capitalist social order as universal
Denies inherently exploitative and repressive nature of social order
“problems of material and social deprivation… recast as problems of crime and disorder” (Hudson,
1995: 61)
Hall et al. (1978)Policing the Crisis
‘Rise’ in street robberies in inner city
Defined by media as a new and dangerous crime
Term ‘mugging’ imported from the USA:
Symbolises ‘Black crime’; inner city decay;
racial tension; drugs and violence
Justified a punitive response: growing moral panic about law and order
Used by the State to deflect attention away from deeper structural
tensions and re-establish its authority
Richard Quinney (1977)Class, State and
Crime
Crime°
a political act
a response to capitalism
highlights the problems inherent within capitalism
3 types of crime:
Crimes of domination
Crimes which serve the interests of the ruling classes
Crimes of control (e.g. crimes undertaken in process of law enforcement)
Crimes of government (e.g. political assassinations)
Crimes of economic domination (e.g. price-fixing)
Social injuries (e.g. human rights abuses; sexism; racism)
Crimes of accommodation
Crimes undertaken by lower classes in
response to exploitation and inequality
May form a small form of resistance to
capitalist social order
Predatory crimes (e.g. theft; burglary)
Personal crimes (e.g. homicide; robbery)
Crimes of resistance
Crimes undertaken by lower classes
More overt acts of resistance
Terrorism
3. Criticisms
Idealistic?
the vision of the crime-free society is left vague
Deterministic?
Assumption that circumstances of
capitalism inevitably result in revolution
Limited empirical data?
Left-realism critique
Romanticisation of criminal as working-class hero
Crime as intra-class as well as inter-class
Criminal law does not function solely in the interests of the ruling class
Robin hood scenario is
not right. Most people
are just robbing from
poor people as well
The zemiological critique:
Ultimately reinforces criminal
justice system
4. Impact and influence
Fundamental in challenging accepted
definitions of crime and conventional
criminological theories
We accept that law isn’t what we say law is
Identified criminology as a political project committed to social reform
Central to reorienting concept of crime to better recognise the harms of powerful actors
Similar approaches have been developed to highlight the
relationship between crime and criminal justice in other
systems of power (i.e. patriarchy/sexism and racism)