Evaluate the Contribution of Marxism to our Understanding of Crime and Deviance (30)

Last Updated on January 17, 2019 by Karl Thompson

An essay plan on the Marxist Theory of Crime and Deviance – starting with an introduction outlining the Marxist conception of social class and then covering 4-5 key points such as the costs of corporate crime, selective law enforcement and crimogenic capitalism, with some overall evaluations and a conclusion to round off. 

• The link above takes you to my detailed class notes on Marxism, this post is a briefer, revision version.
• For more essay plans, please see my main page: exams, short answer questions essays, which has links to dozens of posts on exam advice and model answers.

Brief intro outlining key ideas of Marxist Theory (links to Theory and Methods):

• Conflict Perspective
• Class Structure (Bourgeoisie/ Proletariat)
• Capitalism/ Economic Power = other forms of power (Private Property)
• Exploitation/ extraction
• False consciousness/ ideological control
• Political Perspective supports working class struggle and revolution

Point One – The law is made by the elite and supports their interests

• William Chambliss said this
• Against the consensus view of the law
• Most of the law is protection of Private Property
• The whole history of Colonialism supports

Point Two – All classes commit crime, the crimes of the elite are more harmful and they are more likely to get away with it

• Laureen Snider said this
• High profile case studies support this – Bernie Madhoff/ Bhopal
• Statistically supported by Tombs and Whyte

Point Three – Selective Law Enforcement and Ideological Functions

• Working class crime more likely to be punished and criminals jailed
• NOT interactionism, although their work supports this
• 3* ideological functions – e.g. neutralisation of opposition

Point Four – Crimogenic Capitalism

• Crime is a natural outgrowth of Capitalism
• David Gordon ‘Dog Eat Dog society’
• Capitalism breeds desire, selfishness, materialism

Bonus Point Five – Add in Neo-Marxism – The Fully Social Theory of Deviance

• Taylor, Walton and Young – Moral Panics against WC crime = a tool of social control
• Stuart Hall – Policing the Crisis – good illustration of the above
• See criminals as a ‘revolutionary vanguard’

Best Overall Evaluations

Positive 

• + Better than Consensus Theory – doesn’t ignore power and inequality
• + The law does benefit the rich more because the poor have no significant property
• + Highlights the cost of Corporate Crime and the injustice (links to Victimology)
• + On the side of the many victims of Elite Crime

Negative 

•  – Economically Deterministic – Evidence that crime exists in non-capitalist societies and crime is going down in the UK
• – Postmodernism – Doesn’t explain recent changes in crime – causes are more complex
• – Realisms – Not pragmatic – offers not immedate ways of controlling crime
• – Realisms – out of touch with working class victims of crime

Conclusion – How Useful is this theory?

• + Useful if you’re a victim of elite crime and think long term political change is required to end this problem.
• – Not useful if you’re a victim of ‘ordinary working class crime’ and want immediate solutions to your problems.