Outline and Assess Marxist Explanations of Crime - 1208 Words

Outline and assess Marxist explanations of crime Marxist and neo-Marxist approaches and explanations of crime are arguably some of the most controversial, for the reason that they state that it is the ruling class that is responsible for criminalising the working classes, which goes directly against what official statistics and Functionalists believe. However, Marxism and Functionalism do share a similarity in that both believe structures and institutions of society play a very important role in determining how people behave, criminally or otherwise. Marxist sociologists argue that in order to understand crime and deviance, one needs to realise that it is the nature of exploitative economic systems that capitalist societies have in†¦show more content†¦Functionalists argue that it represents everyone’s interest whilst feminists argue it represents men’s interests. The Neo-Marxist â€Å"new criminology† developed in the early 1970’s is also key to understanding how Marxists explain crime. Taylor, Walton and Young’s work maintained that crime was best understood in the context of capitalism and the inequalities it creates. One way that the neo-Marxists slightly differ with the traditional Marxist theories is that it says there is more freedom of choice that people have when choosing to commit crime and people are not just puppets of the economy. Here it could be said that the Neo-Marxists are taking interactionist theories on board and are moving away from the structuralist theories of traditional Marxism and Functionalism. With their book â€Å"The New Criminology† Taylor et al. attempted to come up with a fully social theory of deviance and looked into the importance of the labelling of certain groups within society as being criminal, in their case it was black working class men being labelled as criminal and danger ous by the law and order systems as well as the media. The book analyses the crisis faced by British capitalism during the recession of the 1970’s and the resulting threat to the authority of the state. It argues that the state responded to this crisis by mounting a law and order campaign which lead to a moral panic over mugging. As a result, black youth became increasinglyShow MoreRelatedOutline and Assess Marxist Explanations of the Causes of Crime719 Words   |  3 PagesOutline and assess Marxist explanations of the causes of crime (50 marks) It is to a large extent that Marxism is a useful theory in explaining the causes of crime. 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