Assess Marxist theories of crime and deviance.

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Sociology
Chad Walker

Assess Marxist theories of crime and deviance.

Marxists believe that the law is part of the superstructure that is used to socialise people, which benefits capitalists. They argue that the law is only enforced on the working class and that the middle class are exempt from it as agents of social control are biased against the working class. They believe that official statistics are invalid and say that capitalists are the real criminals but explain working class crime as being due to capitalist culture being criminogenic. However, Marxists have been criticised by Neo-Marxists as well as Left Realists.

Marxists believe that laws benefit capitalists and are critical of Right Wing theories such as Functionalism, the New Right and Right-Realists as they believe that the law reflects the collective conscience. Capitalists will define behaviours or activities as illegal if it affects them making money or will make things illegal if they can profit from it (such as fines for speeding). Chambliss supports this theory by suggesting that there are so many laws protecting private property because capitalists are the ones that own the private property. Snider also supports this theory as he believes that the government is reluctant to pass laws that threaten capitalists profits.

Furthermore, Marxists are critical of Right Wing theories as Right Wing theories believe that laws are in place to protect non-criminals and prosecute criminals. However, there is evidence to suggest that this is not true. Marxists believe that laws are only enforced on the proletariat and that capitalists are exempt from it. Grahman’s study of the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act 1970 gives evidence to this claim. The government wanted to control the manufacturing of amphetamine as 90% of illegal amphetamine was found to have come from legally manufactured drug companies. However, drug companies put pressure on the government not to enforce this law so capitalists owned factories could continue to manufacture amphetamine and continue their profits. This shows that capitalists are exempt from the law. Another example is given by Carson who took a sample from 200 firms, all of which had broken health and safety laws at least once. He found that only 1.5% of these had been prosecuted. This showed that even when the law applied, they were not enforced on capitalists.

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Marxists also show that even laws that appear to be made by the people, for the people, are in reality made by capitalists so that they can maintain their power and profit. Right Wing theories say that laws reflect the collective conscience but Marxists argue that people are in a false consciousness. Haralambos’ study of the abolition of slavery supports this theory. It appeared as though people, such as Malcolm X, had helped to change the law when really it was industrialisation and the invention of machinery that caused the need for racist ideology to decline. In pre-modern society, ...

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