One of the explanations of crime and deviance was given by Karl Marx. He believed it was generated by the structure of capitalist society. Capitalism is an economic structure base on the private ownership of the means of production and the maximisation of profit. It is a competitive system which encourages aggression and emphasises the importance of winning. People become so obsessed with personal gain and coming out on top that breaking the law seems a minor barrier to success. This is one of many reasons why Marx wanted the abolishment of capitalism, and regarded communism as utopia.
Murray, a right realist, claims that an underclass is emerging in modern western societies and these r to blame for crime rates. He defines an underclass not simply by those with the lowest income at the base of class system; instead it consists of those with low income who behave in a certain way; their deplorable behaviour in response to that condition, e.g. unwilling to take jobs that is available to them. He sees births outside of marriage as the leading indicator of an underclass, because they often lead to single-parent families, with the majority of which are headed by women without a positive father figure. The lack of a male role model or even the presence of a negative role model causes crime as discussed by Cloward and Ohlin. They argued that different social environment provide different opportunities for crime and deviance, which encouraged the development of different delinquent subcultures. Young men who were presented with negative role models, who taught them a life of crime, were known as Criminal subcultures. These men were given the opportunity to climb the professional criminal hierarchy, to become ‘successful’ by participating in crime which brings monetary gain. Another sociologist explaining crime in terms of the subcultural theory, Miller, argued that there is a distinctive lower-class subculture which is passed of from generation to generation. Which arose from the experience of low-skilled labour that involved boring, repetitive and dead-end jobs? Lower-class subculture provides ways of living with this situation of finding satisfaction outside of work, often by breaking the law. Concern with toughness lead to fights, and concerns with excitement resulted in joy-riding or robbery.
The problems associated with white collar crimes and corporate crimes is that they have a lower rate of detection and prosecution, and more lenient punishment, for these reason they are less likely to appear in crime statistics and thus give a false picture that these crimes don’t happen or occur at a low rate than normal. Compared to more visible and obvious types of crime such as burglary and murder, white-collar crime is often seen and treated differently by the public, police and courts, this is due to three main factors. 1) They have low visibility compared with street crimes, and even when detected it is difficult to pinpoint blame. 2) Large scale frauds are sometimes complex operations, and they are difficult to unravel and allocate blame. 3) Many white collar crimes are victimless, there are no specific individuals, and instead they are diffused amongst many. However it is white collar crimes that cost the government more money, an estimate of £40 billion a year, whereas street crimes cost only £14 million. There are some sociologists who try to explain reasons for white-collar crimes. Merton suggested that all members of society face the same success goals. When people in white-collar occupations, find the routes to higher pay and promotion blocked they sometimes innovate and use illegal means to become successful and attain monetary goals. Although middle-class people are not deprived by material goods they may be relatively deprived in comparison to others who are considerably better off than themselves. And given the pressure to succeed, they experience a strain to anomie. In comparison to this is the idea brought forward by Young, a left realist that relative deprivation does not necessarily lead to crime, it breeds discontent which can be expressed in many different ways, in which crime is one of them. It is the combination of individualism and relative deprivation that lead to crime. Individualism refers to a focus on and concern with the self, to a demand for individual freedom and autonomy. It is the result of the breakdown of close-knit communities and the break-up of families.
Both, street crimes and white-collar crimes are dealt with differently. Street crimes are dealt by the police with harsh punishment, to stop the crime being committed again. More money is spent on tackling street crime, ways such as tougher surveillance. On the other hand, white collar crime is not dealt by the criminal justice system; they are dealt with by regulatory bodies. Who are more likely to issue ‘official warnings’ to make things right rather than pursue prosecutions. Regulatory bodies advise and warn rather than punish. Even when white-collar crimes are prosecuted and found guilty of a criminal offence; their punishment tends to be lenient, such as community service, a fine, or a short sentence in an open prison.
