preview

Culture And Crime

Decent Essays

When considering society's contributions to crime and criminality I draw support in part from the Marxist theory on crime. Based on Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and work by Frederick Engels the Marxist theory of crime outlines that “laws” are tools of the ruling class, which criminalized “poverty” and promote class struggle. While I have nothing against a capitalist system, American society relies so much on it and it’s resulting class inequality defines the majority of social interaction and thus is a cause of crime. The effect this has is prevalent in the prosecution of white collar criminals who are 0.3% or inmate in federal prison, compared to those the 46.3% incarcerate for drug offense ("BOP Statistics: Inmate Offenses," 2016). Though there has …show more content…

The U.S. has a plethora of groups, cultures and subcultures that are vying for power from and over each other in an interconnected fashion. This diversity is hallmark of our country but has also been the main source of conflict since it’s founding and high degree of immigration. As these different groups are isolated or attacked and face different limitations towards integrating in society or abandoning their “stake in conformity”, they turn to crime in order to survive and or succeed. Ideally there would be a degree of social control both among and within groups to manage the amount of crime, by the lack of common goals or willing to work together has instead resulted in a loss of collective efficacy. Groups are unorganized and often combative if not uncooperative, with one of or all groups having some responsibility for the crime present in the community. With the benefits of crime for a groups outweighing the risks or potential hazards, the success of crime within these groups is idealized by others and the crime perpetuates due to a lack of social

Get Access