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
Chapter 7 discusses a variety of "Subcultural" theories for explaining crime. Choose one of these theories and discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Which subcultural theory do you believe explains criminal behavior most accurately and why?
Most theories of crime tend to be ‘ahistorical.’ “They do not treat the question of how the material conditions of society and crime evolve together as relevant to the study of crime” (Chambliss, 1974, page 25). For Marxists this is a problem because ahistorical theories fail to link the phenomenon under investigation – in this case, crime. Ahistorical theories attempt to reason that crime occurs outside of social systems and is something that develops on its own. Two important elements develop
a. Imagine asking 100 strangers to describe a criminal. Predict whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, or the variety of topics covered in this video.
Background: Most research shows that the public believes that law enforcement's major goal in many urban and suburban areas is to prevent gang activity. Gang activity is certainly not a new phenomenon, but has been part of human history since Ancient Times (Rome, Greece, the Middle Ages, etc.). In most countries, gang violence patterns the sociological development of society and the evolution of criminal activity - as criminal activity becomes more sophisticated, so do gang activities. While most sociological theories tie gang behavior to youth violence, one can trace a number of changes in gang violence to the way organized crime has evolved in the United States (Franzese, et al., 2006). At the beginning of the 20th century, for instance, gangs were often based around ethnic boundaries and confined within ethnic neighborhoods. These early gangs tended to focus on non-violent or human weakness crime (e.g. prostitution, gambling, nontaxable cigarettes and alcohol). Once gambling because legal in Nevada, much of the organized crime dealing with gambling moved to Las Vegas, while still retaining some ties to the major metropolitan areas. As tastes changed, so did the criminological focus of gangs; from liquor to drugs, from drugs to social and political control back focusing on ethnic boundaries (e.g. Asian, Latino, etc.) (Jackson and McBridge, 2000).
"The Uniform Crime Report statistics state that blacks are more frequently arrested than whites. While this may mean that blacks actually commit more crime, what are some other factors that may be driving the statistics?"
Class cultures, like national cultures may break down. A more general subculture explanation of crime, not necessarily in disagreement with the notion of class
Marxist Theories of crime believe that individuals who are poor are more likely to be punished for criminal behavior (Tibbetts, 2012, p. 176). This theory proposes that crime and laws are a way for a capitalist society to keep running properly. They believe that economic power can be related to legal power
A pervasive theme in sociology and criminology has always been that law violation is linked to the individual’s position in the social structure. (Tittle, 1983) Poverty and crime have had a long-term relationship because of the perception and stereotyping of poor people and the crime. The society is classified into three social classes; the high, the middle, and the low class. The high class is for the rich
Crime and delinquency subculture reflects on culture patterns surrounding crime and juvenile delinquency. It is created not only by individuals, but as one culture, the American culture. Subculture is derivative of, but different from some larger referential cultures. This term is used to share systems of norms, values, individual, groups and the cultural system itself. Criminal or delinquent subcultures indicate systems of norms, values, or interest that support criminal or delinquent behavior. That's why many juveniles are linked to the same criminal acts as youngsters. They tend to follow a pattern that is expected in their age group, like stealing. Young people experience their opportunity as being blocked out. They engage in
Why are some "ethnic minorities", but not others, over-represented in patterns of arrest and imprisonment in the UK? To what extent is this attributed to discrimination?
Assess the contribution of the Marxist theory to the sociological understanding of crime and deviance.
From a Marxist viewpoint, crime is systematically generated by the structure of capitalist society (Atkinson. S, 2015). Feminists argue that Marxist theories ignore the importance of patriarchy in influencing the criminal justice system. Postmodern criminology rejects Marxist criminology as being neither believable nor defensible. Jones (2001) argued that capitalism do not always produce high crime rates. For example, in Switzerland the crime rate is very low.
Considered the “new criminology”, the cultural and anarchic criminological theory explains how globalization has led to cultural homogeneity. It is a distinct speculative, procedural, and interventionist approach to the study of crime that places criminality and its control directly in the context of culture; that is, it observes crime and the agencies and institutions of crime control as cultural products or as creative constructs. So, they must be read in terms of the meanings they carry. The focus of the field is extensive, including situated and symbolic significance; fabricated social identity; subcultural study; space, place, and cultural geography; the continuing transformations and fluctuations associated with hypercapitalism; variations of power, resistance, and state control; existentialism and theories of risk, “edgework,” and personified practice. In all this, cultural criminology attempts to familiarize criminology to contemporary social and cultural changes and thus to imagine a “postmodern” or “late modern” theory of crime and control. In this regard, cultural criminology is involved in how individuals attempt to resolve certain internal spiritual and emotional conflicts that are themselves generated by the paradoxes and particularities of modern-day life. Put otherwise, cultural criminology seeks to combine “a phenomenology of modern crime with a sociocultural analysis of late modern culture” (Hayward 2004, p. 9, cited under Markets, Consumption, and Crime).
Over the past twenty years, gang related activity in the Caribbean has increased steadily. This increase in gang related activity has been a result of the formation and migration of new gangs in the Caribbean as well as, the extension of existing gangs. The recruitment of members for these gangs usually targets young persons as they are more susceptible to joining. Juvenile gang involvement is a growing problem in the region and especially in Trinidad and Tobago. This paper will look at the Cultural Deviance Theory of crime to explain this growing phenomenon. This theory will include Albert Cohen’s Delinquent Sub Cultural theory as well as Cloward and Ohlin’s Theory of Differential Opportunity. A plan to divert juveniles away from becoming involved in these gangs will also be given at the end of this paper along with the perceived problems of its operationalization.
Crime is considered to be some breech or violation of behaviors which stand in opposition of rules or norms instituted by some governing body. Some actions are considered to be crimes throughout most societies in history; murder or physical abuse can serve as an example as an example. However, the majorities of things that are considered crimes are more of a subjective nature and vary widely in different societies. In many societies it is a crime to be an atheist or to be homosexual for example, while in other societies these items are tolerated and in some cases are considered social norms. Furthermore, when an individual is considered to have committed a crime, the punishments for these crimes also can vary widely depending on the culture, the social norms, the position of the authority figure, as well as a plethora of other factors. This paper will analyze some of the different forms of crime and they develop and how they are treated in different societies.