CRIM3001 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Left Realism, Jock Young, Siege Mentality
Marxists and Post Modern Criminology
Like the conflict theories, critical theories share the view that inequality in power is casually
related to the problem of crime
• But conflict theory largely ignores the sources or origins of powers, while critical
perspectives make specific arguments on that issue
• Marxist theories generally locate power in ownership of the means of production,
while postmodern theories locate it in control over language systems
• Both perspectives imply that the crime problem can be solved only if power
arrangements are changed
• The fous o hat ought to e athe tha hat is, o the ideal athe tha o
the real, is what distinguished these theories from mainstream criminology,
including conflict theory
Oerie of Mars Theory
• Karl Marx (1818-1883) wrote in the immediate aftermath of the massive social
changes that were brought about by the Industrial Revolution
• His theory linked economic development to social, political, and historical change,
but it did not deal with the problem of crime in any significant way
• The principal conflict that Marx presented in his theory, and on which the theory is
based, was the conflict b/w the material forces of production and the social relations
of production
o Material forces of production refes to a soiets apait to podue
material goods
o Social relations of production refer to relationship among people include
property relationship
o When first established, the social relations enhance the development of
material forces of production but It then became increasingly inconsistent
and began to impede their further development
o At some point, the social relations change abruptly and violently, and new
social relations are established to enhance the development of the material
forces of production
▪ Marx used this general model to explain the profound changes that
had just occurred in European cities
• Marx used the same basic analysis to produce what would happen next
o Material forces of production would develop under capitalism, but the social
relations would remain relatively fixed
o He predicted there would be a sudden and violent restricting of the social
relations in which socialism would replace capitalism
▪ The logi of apitalis is suial of the fittest, ith the fittest
boggling up the less fit
• Marx argued, capitalist societies tend to polarize into two conflicting groups (rich
and poor)
o This polarization, one group growing smaller and richer, the other growing
lage ad pooe, is hat he alled the otaditio i apitalis
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Marx on Crime, Criminal law, and Criminal Justice
• Marx did not discuss at length the problem of crime or its relation to the economic
system, although he did address the subject in several passages
• First, he argued that it was essential to human nature that people be productive in
life and in work
o In industrialised capitalist societies, the large numbers of unemployed and
underemployed people are unproductive and become demoralized →
subject to all forms of crime and vice = Marxists called them the
lupepoletaiat
• Second, Marx argued against the classical philosophy, that all people freely and
equally joined in a social contract for the common good and that the law
represented a consensus of the general will
o He did ot see ie as the illful iolatio of the oo good, ut as the
stuggle of the isolated idiidual agaist the peailig oditios
▪ “oeties alled Mas piitie eellig thesis, sie it iplies
that crime is a primitive form of rebellion against the dominant social
order, one that may develop into conscious revolutionary activity
o Marx wrote several passages analyzing the historical origins of criminal laws
and criminal justice agencies
▪ On the basis of his Hegelia philosoph, Ma agued that the tue
state would uphold the rights of all citizens, whereas these law
represented the interests only of the forest owners p.270
o Marx later argued in Capital that the economic basis of capitalism rested on a
similar theft of traditional rights of the peasants, a theft accomplished
through the coercive power of the criminal law.
The Emergence of Marxist Criminology
• Willem Bonger, provided an extensive theory of crime in his book Criminality and
Economic Conditions, published in 1916
o Crime is concentrate in the lower classes because the justice system
criminalizes the greed of the poor while it allows legal opportunities for the
rice to ensure tier selfish desires
o Argued that a socialist society would eliminate crime because it would
promote a concern for the welfare of the whole society and would remove
the legal bias that favors the rich
• In the mid-1920s, Marxist criminology disappeared
• 1970s, it reappeared and was in connection with the radical social climate of the
times
o These esios teded to pota Mas piitie eellig thesis iials
were engaged in crime as an unconscious form of rebellion against the
capitalist economic system
o Produced instrumentalist views of the CJS
▪ The enactment an enforcement of criminal laws are the sole
instruments of a unified and monolithic ruling class that conspires to
seek its own advantage at the expense of other groups
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• These simplistic views of criminals and CJ were criticized by others as
misinterpretations of Mas thought
o Block and Chambliss, criticized the earl theories for their simplistic portrayal
of the ruling class as a unified and monolithic elite
o Greenberg pointed out that these theories ignored studies that showed a
widespread on legal definitions of crime
Marxist Theory and Research on Crime
• In this Marxist criminology, the simplistic instrumentalist view of criminal law and
criminal justice gave way to a more complex structuralist view
o The primary function of the state is not to serve the short-term interests of
capitalist directly, but rather ensure that the social relations of capitalist
persist in the long run
• Within the context of this structuralist view, Marxists often focused on the
harmfulness of the behaviours of the ruling class in their pursuit of economic self-
interest and on the failure of the criminal law and criminal justice agencies to official
define and process these harmful behaviours as criminal
• The focus on the socially harmful actions of the ruling class led Marxists to ignore or
romanticize lower-class street crimes
o In 1973, Taylor, Walton and Young argued that deviant behaviour should be
considered authentic human action, rather than the product of individual or
social pathology
• I o so, Maist ega to oe aa fo Mas piitie eellio thesis
and moved back toward his arguments about the lumpenproletariat p.273
• Marxists generally argued that criminal behaviours are the result of social learning
by normal individuals in situations that are structured by the social relations of
capitalism
o Marxist theory - individuals act and think in ways that are consistent with
their economic interests
• Some Marxists criminologists have attempted to take a more limited approach to the
current problems of crime
o Called left ealists, these iiologists eogised that ie auses
serious problems for working-class citizens and the criminal justice agencies
can respond to those problems even if the capitalist economic system is not
overthrown
o Made a variety of policy recommendations that are different from
mainstream (liberal) criminologists
▪ Examples: the implementation of decentralized, community based
policing, reforming prisons, prosecuting white collar offenders
• Policy response to crime in an attempt to reduce the economic
marginality, social alienation, and political oppression that
characterize class-based capitalist societies
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