Crime and Marxism

Born in 1818 Karl Marx was a German social theorist and founder of Marxism, a body of theory, political practices and policies associated with his writings and that of Friedrich Engels (Dictionary of Sociology, 2005, pg 385). Marxism is a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in western societies. It's the antithesis to capitalism and is a system of socialism where public ownership of means of production, distribution and exchange are a dominant feature (All About Philosophy, No Date). When discussing criminal control Marxists believe that much of the conflict and crime in our society is created by the ruling class and are used to oppress the working class while at the same time protecting their own power (Dictionary of Sociology, 2005, pg 387).

Marx wrote very little specifically on the topic of crime. He associated crime with the 'lumpenproletariat', a parasitic body who had no part to play in production and useless in the revolution (Jones. S 2006, pg 248). He did however argue that laws were generally the means by which one class, the rulers, kept the lower classes in check (Jones. S 2006, pg 240). The Marxist approach to crime is essentially based on the conflict theory. Conflict theories believe that the acts of the lower classes which challenge the power of the higher classes are criminalised where Marxist criminology claims that the power resulting from capitalism is the responsible for crime (Downes. D, Rock. P 2003, pg 278).

Willem Bonger was one of the earliest writers to provide a Marxist explanation of crime. He concluded that capitalism encourages egoism, which is essentially a concern for ones own selfish interest rather than altruism which is an active concern for the wellbeing of others. Bogner concluded that crime was more prevalent among the lower classes because they have little if any security in their employment and live in a society which encourages them to compete against each other for material gain. Their greed is then criminalised yet nothing is done about the greed of the rich (Jones. S, 2006, pg 244). It is believed that deviance is the product of inequality and is often the result of socially demeaning work with little creativity resulting in alienation. People often have unequal access to the law with the more affluent and powerful able to hire the best legal services which can mean the difference between guilty and not guilty. Because of this punishment for crimes vary according to the social class of the perpetrator with poor criminals receiving harsher sentences than rich criminals (Scott. J, Marshall. G 2005, pg 388).

Richard Quinnery developed American Marxist criminology out of his earlier conflict theory. He believed that existing laws were invalid as they only existed to serve the interests of the capitalist ruling class (Hopkins Burke. R, 2005, pg 155). While in the process of controlling the working class the ruling class itself committed crimes, often of a much higher magnitude and with much more devastating consequences. Quinnery divided these into crimes of control, committed by police and other law-enforcement agencies, crimes of government, such as Watergate and crimes of economic domination, such as pollution, exploitation, sexism and racism (which the ruling class manages to ensure are not even legally defined offences). For Quinnery criminal law is used by the ruling class to preserve existing economic and social order. Crime control is in the hands of government agencies, representing the interests of the ruling class. This control is exercised to maintain order and resist any challenges to the status quo (Jones. S, 2006, pg 245)

William Chambliss was also a theorist who like Quinnery moved on from his earlier perspective of conflict theory towards Marxism. Chambliss believed that crime is only a reality when defined by the ruling class and that while the ruling class create these laws they often break them with impunity (Hopkins Burke. R, 2005, pg 158).Chambliss studied first hand organised crime in Seattle and found that Politicians controlled the enforcement of the law but at the same time they needed to generate large amounts of money to support their election campaigns. He observed that this co-operation between gangsters, politicians, police and the business world, made very good financial sense (Jones. S, 2006, pg 246).

Organised crime