CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY

1
CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY

• The traditional Marxist approach

2
WHAT DID MARX SAY?

• Marx wrote very little about crime
• Bonger developed a Marxist theory of crime in
  1916
• It has been developed by many writers since then

3
THE MARXIST VIEW OF SOCIETY

• Marxists argue that society is best understood by
  examining the process whereby the majority of the
  population are exploited by the owners and
  controllers of commerce and industry.

4
KEY ELEMENTS OF THE MARXIST APPROACH

• The basis of criminal law
• The dominant hegemony of the ruling class
• Law enforcement
• Individual motivation
• Crime and control

5
THE BASIS OF CRIMINAL LAW

• All laws are for the benefit of the ruling class
• Criminal law reflects their interests
• Laws of property ownership benefit those who own
  a lot of property
• The police the army control society for the
  rich
• The law protects the rich and powerful

6
LAW CREATION THE DOMINANT HEGEMONY

• The ruling class impose their values on others
  through education, religion and the mass media
• These values are the framework on which laws are
  based in a democracy
• Thus the laws are in the interests of the ruling
  classes, even though most people think the laws
  are in their own interests

7
LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Laws could provide for the benefit of everyone if
  applied fairly
• Interpretation and enforcement of the law is
  biased in favour of the ruling classes
• Police and the judicial system arrest and punish
  the working class, more than the ruling class

8
INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATION

• Capitalism is based on competition, selfishness
  and greed
• Crime is a natural outcome of these values which
  stress looking after yourself
• Poor people are also driven to crime by their
  desperate conditions

9
CRIME CONTROL

• Crime helps to support capitalism as it draws
  attention away from the real inequalities of the
  capitalist system
• Crime justifies the use of police in working
  class areas
• People have no understanding of the true causes
  of their situation

10
AN EXAMPLE OF THE TRADITIONAL MARXIST APPROACH

• William Chambliss study of British vagrancy laws

11
CRITICISMS

• The victims of crime are ignored and yet most
  victims are from the lower-classes
• No allowance is made for the complexity of
  influences on law-making behaviour are all laws
  the outcome of the interests of the ruling
  classes?