2. Lesson Objectives
• Introduce Neo-Marxist explanations of C&D
• Be able to compare Neo-Marxism to
Traditional Marxism
• Evaluate Neo-Marxist views
3. Last Lesson Recap
• What is a traditional Marxist view of
C&D?
• What does the term crimogenic mean?
• Why is capitalism crimogenic?
• What criticisms exist?
• Why do Marxists say law making and
enforcement is selective?
4. Neo-Marxism: Taylor, Walton and
Young
• They are Sociologists that agree with traditional
Marxists but they combine these with ideas from other
approaches such as labelling theory. They agree that:
1. Capitalism is based on exploitation and inequality, and
characterised by extreme inequalities of wealth and
power. Understanding this is key to understanding
crime
2. The state makes and enforces laws in the interests of
capitalism and criminalises the WC
3. Capitalism should be replaced by a classless society,
which would greatly reduce crime
5. • Taylor et al criticise Marxist and Non-Marxist
approaches (critical criminology).
• They thought that traditional Marxism
ignored the idea that individuals have free
will to decide how they act. Marxism sees
workers as driven to commit crime out of
economic necessity. They reject this view
along with other theories that claim crime is
caused by external factors e.g. anomie,
blocked opportunities.
What would we call this?
6. • Crimes against property e.g.
theft/burglary are a reaction to
wealth inequality
• Vandalism is a symbolic attack on
societies obsession with property
7. Voluntarism
• Taylor et al take a more voluntaristic view (free will)
• Crime is a conscious choice often with a political
motive e.g. to redistribute wealth from the rich to the
poor (Robin Hood). Criminals are deliberately
struggling to change society (they are not passive
puppets)
• Along with believing there should be a classless
society, they also emphasise the importance of liberty
and diversity.
• Individuals should not be labelled deviant because
they are different- they should be free to live as they
wish
8. A fully social theory of deviance
• Taylor et al aim to create a ‘fully social theory of
deviance’- a comprehensive understanding of
C&D that would help to change society for the
better. The theory would have 2 main sources:
1. Trad Marxist ideas about the unequal distribution
of wealth and who has the power to make and
enforce the law
2. Ideas from Interactionism and labelling theory
about the meaning of the deviant act for the
actor, societal reaction to it, and the effects of
the deviant label on the individual
10. Activity
• Identify one imaginary criminal act, such as stealing a mobile
phone or bike, selling drugs, or burglary. Now show how it
could be analysed using Taylor’s framework.
1. What are the wider origins of the act (for example, economic
or social circumstances)?
2. What are the immediate origins of the act (why the person
decided to commit it)?
3. Why this act rather than another?
4. What social reactions might result immediately from family,
education or social control agents?
5. What are the wider origins of these reactions?
6. How might these reactions affect the person’s future
behaviour?
12. Evaluation of critical criminology
• Feminists criticise Taylor et al for being ‘gender
blind’ focussing on male criminality and at the
expense of female criminality
• Others criticise traditional Marxism for largely
ignoring non property C&D
• Left Realists criticise Neo-Marxism for
romanticising WC criminals as ‘Robin Hoods’
fighting capitalism. However in reality these
criminals simply prey on the poor.
13. Evaluation of critical criminology cont…
• Roger Burke argues that critical criminology is
too general to explain crime and too idealistic
to be useful in tackling crime
• Difficult to imagine a political motive
underpinning crimes such as domestic
violence/rape and child abuse
• Most victims of W/C and black crime are W/C
and black, Taylor et al do not take such crime
seriously and they ignore its effects on WC
victims
14. Summary
• Reject the ideas of traditional Marxists
• They are voluntarists (believe individuals have
free will)
• W/C and ethnic minority groups experience
the constraints of capitalism and then make
choices about how they should react to this
experience
16. Item A: Traditional Marxists see capitalist society as the
basic cause of crime because it is the source of
poverty, greed and self interest. Although from the
official crime statistics it appears as if the W/C are
responsible for most crime, in reality crime is found
throughout all social classes. Marxists also see the
law as performing important functions for capitalism.
Not only does it protect capitalist property, it also
performs ideological functions. By contrast Neo-
Marxists take a less deterministic view of WC crime
and see it as often having an anti-capitalist political
motivation
• Assess the view that crime is the product of
capitalism (21 marks)
Notas do Editor
Examine some of the ways in which Marxists explain crime (12 marks)
1.Causing or leading to crime. 2.It produces poverty, so the poor turn to crime to meet their basic needs; advertising fuels the desire for goods that people cannot afford; capitalism encourages success at all costs among capitalists; it produces alienation among workers, which may be expressed in violent or anti-social behaviour. 3.By showing how the law was used to coerce the population into working on the British colonists’ plantations. 4.Blame is attached to working-class criminals and so divides the working class; some laws (e.g. health and safety) appear to benefit the working class, giving capitalism a ‘caring face’; occasionally prosecuting capitalists makes it seem as if there is not one law for the rich and one for the poor. 5.A deterministic view of behaviour suggests that crime is caused by external factors, such as subcultures or poverty. A voluntaristic view of behaviour sees the criminal as having free will and their crime is therefore the result of choice. 6.Because it romanticises working-class crime as revolutionary, ignores the victims and does not suggest useful ways to tackle crime. 7.The assumption made by some theories that the purpose of the sociological study of crime is to find ways of correcting criminal or deviant behaviour.
