Crime defined the moral and behavioral standard of the society

Crime and deviance are acts that will elicit dissent from society. They take various forms and involve various concepts and theories. It will be the aim of this paper to explore those that are considered to be functional for society. It was Emile Durkheim who first clearly established the logic behind the functional approach to the study of crime and deviance[1] when he wrote The Rules of Sociological Method and The Division of Labour[2].

In their theories, Marxists say that certain types of crime are more likely to be punished compared to others. Street crimes (brawls, binge drinking, theft, muggings, social unrest and disorder) are more likely to be pursued than white collar crime (fraud, tax evasion, ‘insider training’ and even gambling and prostitution). This is because the capitalist governments who have run the country are sympathetic to those who are of the same belief and class, but have just got carried away with their search for wealth. In this society of greed, the working class have to turn to crime just to stay alive and to obtain the materialistic goods or lifestyle, which is typical to a capitalistic state, and that general standard of living and attitude to life, is enforced on them, when living in this type of society. Money and personal gain, and the ‘every man for himself’ attitude is what life is like in an unfair, and socially unequal way of life under a capitalist government.

Under Karl Marx’s conflict theory, society has two classes of people: the owners and the workers. The theory suggests that owners basically exploit the workers, depriving them of the basic human necessities such as food and shelter. Meanwhile, the workers believe that they are taken care of adequately, and they rely on the owners for their well-being. But the owners do not have the workers’ best interests in mind because they want to produce wealth by any means. “Potent social forces [capitalism, patriarchy, imperialism, home ownership] do exist and being homeless is to lose a stake in several of them” (Neale, 2007,

The consensus model of criminal justice suggests that society strives to maintain a harmonious social order, and social institutions cement social bonds that counteract negative criminal tendencies. "The foundation of consensus perspective is the assumption that societies have an inherent tendency to maintain themselves in a state of relative equilibrium through the mutually and supportive interaction of their principal institutions. Consensus theory is a sociological perspective in which social order and stability and social regulation forms the base of emphasis" (Consensus perspective, 2011, Sociology Index). Societies are interdependent, and every element of society performs some essential function. The interdependent nature of all elements of a society creates a consensus of values and determines what should be required of citizens. By nature, societies are seen as tending towards consensus, and finding an equilibrium of common values is seen as beneficial for society (Sociology perspectives: The order and the conflict model, 2009, Minority Studies). Consensus theorists tend to see minority or dissident groups as troubling, given that they can upset the social structure and cause unrest. The goal of the criminal justice system is to enable people to fit into social institutions.

Marxists argue that capitalist society actually generate crime because it encourages greed and crime is a response to the inequalities in wealth.

The structure of society under the conflict theorists’ views defines distinctions between different classes. The power and authority taken by the upper class, by the rich and mighty, causes inevitably problems within the lower class of society. Deviance, crime, violence and poverty are what the lower class of society was becoming. Unemployment is a large issue within the lower class of society; this is due to the classes that have money; use it for education and to further their skills. The classes within society who are able to obtain better and further education to advance their skills are the ones that employees are seeking for their workplaces. The inequality between the classes is what creates the unemployed and the circle that they are currently sitting in.

Traditional Marxists believe that crime is inevitable in all societies because capitalism is criminogenic suggesting that it is societies very nature that causes crime. According to traditional Marxists society causes capitalism in different ways. One of which is due to poverty. The lack

For example, it shapes the nature of religion, law, education, the state and so on. According to Marx, capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. For example, by polarising the classes, bringing the proletariat together in ever-increasing numbers, and driving down their wages, capitalism creates the conditions under which the working class can develop a consciousness (or awareness) of its own economic and political interests in opposition to those of its exploiters. As a result, the proletariat moves from merely being a class-in-itself (whose members share the same economic position) to becoming a class-foritself, whose members are class conscious – aware of the need to overthrow capitalism. The means of production would then be put in the hands of the state and run in the interests of everyone, not just of the bourgeoisie. A new type of society – socialism developing into communism – would be created, which would be without exploitation, without classes and without class conflict. Marx’s work has been subjected to a number of criticisms. First, Marx’s predictions have not come true. Far from society becoming polarised and the working class becoming poorer, almost everyone in western societies enjoys a far higher standard of living than ever before. The collapse of so-called ‘communist’ regimes like the former Soviet Union, and growing private ownership and capitalist growth in China, cast some doubt on the viability of the practical implementation

“A definition of crime represents the legal conditions under which the state, as an instrument of an economically dominant class, exercises its power to punish.” I feel that the state maintains the capitalist order through laws. Primarily, control is done through the governing of consciousness of the population. The ruling class gives rise to their own ideology to protect themselves. Capitalism’s most subtle means of control is to try and manipulate the minds of the people. They try to dictate the future through the people’s thinking and overall living. This type of dictatorship is cultural, psychological, economic and political. When an existing order becomes threatened, the focus on crime rises.

Marx's ideas on labor value are very much alive for many organizations working for social change. In addition, it is apparent that the gap between the rich and poor is widening on a consistent basis. According to Marx, the course of human history takes a very specific form which is class struggle. The engine of change in history is class opposition. Historical epochs are defined by the relationship between different classes at different points in time. It is this model that Marx fleshes out in his account of feudalism's passing in favor of bourgeois capitalism and his prognostication of bourgeois capitalism's passing in favor of proletarian rule. These changes are not the reliant results of random social, economic, and political events; each follows the other in predictable succession. Marx responds to a lot of criticism from an imagined bourgeois interlocutor. He considers the charge that by wishing to abolish private property, the communist is destroying the "ground work of all personal freedom, activity, and independence". Marx responds by saying that wage labor does not properly create any property for the laborer. It only creates capital, a property which works only to augment the exploitation of the worker. This property, this capital, is based on class antagonism. Having linked private property to class hostility, Marx

Crime as a social construction is the idea that reality is created in our minds. What we perceive something to be ends up to be what it is. Crime, often described as deviance is a labelled behaviour. If one does not view an action as deviant at the time then it is not deviant, this shows us how deviance is a relative concept. In terms of how different people perceive crime, depending on what religious or ethnic backgrounds one may come from, there is heavy variation between individuals. What is illegal or legal in one culture can be very different in another culture. It can

How does Class, state ,and social controls within a capitalistic society lead to increase crime due to the criminal laws and criminal justice system imposed on the lower middle class.

This essay is based on violence and the fight against violence. Capitalism and how it causes violence will be discussed in this essay by looking at the film, The Purge: Anarchy. This essay will also be looking at Karl Marx’s view of capitalism. Karl Marx was the founder of Marxism; Marxists believed that production enriched capitalists at the expense of workers. Marx believed that a world without capitalism is the perfect world. Thus, if everyone was on the same level there won’t be need for violence, because everyone will be equal. But is this possible? In the real world it is not because why should Doctors be payed the same wages as a dishwasher for example. Capitalism is the main cause of violence. When looking at the film,

Human societies have been class based in some way and the class factor has been the most basic dividing or differentiating factor between broad social groups. In the economic sphere that Marx’s theory focuses on, there is a class that own and control means of economic production which could be referred to as the upper class, and there is the class that maybe own nothing, but their ability to sell their labor power in return for wages which could be referred to as the middle or low class. From that understanding, and based on the conflict theory, one might argue that unequal distribution of resources and access

According to Sigel (2012), crime is the violation of societal rules of behaviour as interpreted and expressed by a criminal legal code, created by people who hold social and political power. Any violation of these rules by an individual may subject themselves to sanctions by the state authority, social stigma and the loss of status. Crime may be broken down into three types, property crimes, offenses against the person and statutory offenses. A status offense is an illegal act committed by a juvenile or juveniles, who are minors. A status offence is an act committed by a juvenile whose actions are not in line with the law or the area in which it was committed as if an adult committed it. There are different types of status offences, which can vary, depending on where it is committed. The most common ones though are truancy, running away, being beyond the control of parents or guardians, violating curfew, or possession and usage of alcohol or tobacco, Michon (2016). From these common offenses, it is clear to see that this can be an issue in the Caribbean society. In order to find better means by which to reduce status offenses in the Caribbean, then by studying the relevant theories associated with them would help to explain their origins.