Crime as act crime as reaction crime as defined by powerful

1
Chapter 9 Social Conflict Theory

• Crime as act crime as reaction crime as
  defined by powerful

2
Conflict Theory

• Objective to explain crime within economic and
  social contexts including
• --connections among social class, crime, and
  social control
• --role of government in creating criminogenic
  environments
• --bias in criminal justice system
• --relationship between capitalism and crime rates

3
The heritage of Marxist thought

• Karl Marx
• Focussed on economic conditions under capitalism.
• Society is product of economic production.
• Productive forces
• technology, energy, resources.
• Productive relations
• owner-worker worker-worker
• class divisions ...
• Class is a power relationship.

4
Karl Marx (1818-1883)

• There must be something rotten in the very core
  of a social system which increases in wealth
  without diminishing its misery, and increases in
  crime even more than its numbers.
• Marx, K. (1859)

• Crime as function of social demoralization
• The brutality of capitalism brutalizes workers

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
5
Willem Bonger (1876-1940)

• Society composed of ruling class and inferior
  class based on production.
• Laws reflect interests of dominant class.
• Capitalism encourages egoism and criminality,
  equates status with property.
• Only crimes of poor are punished.
• Economic inequality intensifies personal problems
  and crime.
• Crime will disappear with equal distribution of
  property ... socialism

6
George Vold

• The whole political process of law-making,
  law-breaking and law enforcement becomes a direct
  reflection of deep-seated and fundamental
  conflicts between interest groups and their more
  general struggles for the control of the police
  power of the state.
• Vold, G. (1958).

7
Development of modern Conflict Theory

• Became prominent during the 1960s
• Influenced by
• --Self-report studies of delinquency
• --Labelling theories, eg. Becker
• --Research on social inequality (racism, sexism)
  and social injustice.
• --Social and political upheavals of 60s, 70s
• Realization that marginalization results in
  weakened bond to society and increased crime.

Significance of power in interaction
8
Conflict Criminology

• Chambliss
• --justice system protects rich, powerful by
  saying
• How crimes are defined.
• How laws are enforced.
• How law-breakers are punished
• Conflict rooted in competition for power
• Power influences public opinion
• Power uses law to criminalize powerless

Power relations
9
The Social Reality of Crime

• Richard Quinney (1970)
• Crime is politically defined
• Definitions based on interests of powerful
• Laws are enforced by the powerful
• Behaviour is structured by social class
• Stereotypes of crime are diffused by media
• Crime becomes a social reality

Table 9.1
Crime as act crime as reaction crime as
defined by powerful
10
Norm Resistance

• Austin Turk, Criminality and Legal Order (1969)
• Authority relationships produce conflict because
  groups have own norms and behaviours
• This results in norm resistance.
• Open conflict will occur if
• Both groups are strongly committed
• There is group support for resistance
• Resisters are not very sophisticated about
  strengths and weaknesses of the authorities.

11
Research on Conflict Theory

• Area of interest
• --Comparison of rates of poverty, crime
• --Examination of cases in criminal justice system
  for bias by class, race
• Eg, arrest, parole, legal representation,
  conviction ...
• ... combination of micro and macro research
• --Development of laws which support power
  structure

12
Development of Radical Criminology

• Britain, 1960s and 70s
• Taylor, Walton and Young, The New Criminology.
• Critique of conventional approaches to crime.
• United States
• Influenced by rights movements.
• 1980s and 90s
• Left-realism, feminist, environmental, and
  peacemaking criminologies

Video the awful truth
13
Fundamentals of Marxist Criminology

• Scholarship should have a political basis
• Each society produces its own types of crime
• Each society will have ways of dealing with crime
• Each society gets type, amount of crime it
  deserves
• Law tool of capitalism, run for benefit of rich
• The poor are driven to crime
• The poor more often the targets of enforcement
• May require laws which curtail disruptive
  activities of powerful antitrust, false
  advertising
• Laws appear to help workers minimum wage,
  workers compensation

Corporate crime video
14
Privilege

• Class discrimination by government in criminal
  law and enforcement (1990s)
• --Mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients.
• --Safe Streets Act (BC and Ontario).Criminalizing
  squeegee kids
• --Deregulating businesses.
• --Reducing inspection of businesses.
• --Increasing policing for street crime.

15
Marxist Research

• Rejects conventional methodologies and empirical
  studies which
• Tend to unmask powerless rather than powerful
• Focus on correcting crimes of powerless
• Tends to be historical and analytical
• e.g., development of criminal laws, institutions
• Examines relationships among crime, victims,
  criminals, and state

Eg. Labour conflict
16
Critique of Marxist Criminology

• Romantic view of crime?
• crimes of poor motivated by greed
• What about crime in socialist countries?
• Marxists state the obvious
• e.g. Politicians are corrupt
• Marxist standards too high and moralistic
• Suspicious of everyone and everything
• Street criminals prey on poor and powerless who
  are
• Victimized by capitalism and members of own class

Left Realism
17
Left Realism - some Basic Principles
Chapter links?

• Crime is a symbol of antisocial nature of
  capitalism
• Relative deprivation yields discontent
• Discontent without solution yields crime
• Local crime surveys provide best measure of crime
• We need to focus on short-term solutions
• Pre-emptive deterrence in neighbourhood
• Involving youth in group activities.
• Adding more police will not resolve problem
• Need to take into account relationships among
  offender, victim, state, and public

18
Feminist Theories

• Argument
• Most study of crime is done by men, reflects
  mens understanding
• Feminist researchers interested in
• Gender differences in crime rates.
• Women as victims
• Male socialization
• Contributes to sexual exploitation of girls
• Is abetted by male peer groups
• Sexual exploitation
• Contributes to onset of female delinquency.

http//www.aic.gov.au/publications/facts/2006/06_c
orrections.html
19
Marxist Feminism

• Commit fewer, different crimes
• Crime way of asserting masculinity
• Main explanatory concept is patriarchy, mens
  attempts to control womens sexuality
• Main focus
• Violence against women
• The effects of sexual abuse on womens
  criminality

• Gender inequality unequal power of men, women in
  capitalism
• Women exploited by husbands, fathers
• Men control private property, laws of inheritance
• Women experience double marginality at work,
  home
• Powerlessness ups chance of victimization

Love Canal as feminist issue?
20
Women and the Justice System

• Early justice system means of enforcing sexual
  codes for girls
• --Incarcerated for immorality, incorrigibility,
  running away eg. JDA Female Refuges Act
• --Means of preventing prostitution
• --Double standard of behaviour for boys, girls
• --Teenage girls more severely sanctioned

21
Power-Control Theory

• John Hagan
• Deviance is risk-taking behaviour
• Class position is based on degree of power at
  work
• Parents positions of power in workplace
  reproduced in family
• Paternalistic or egalitarian
• Crime is function of
• Class position
• Family control
• Issue What is role of class, family in deviant
  behaviours of boys, girls?

22
Power-Control Theory
23
Power-Control Theory -- Research

• Paternalistic families
• Girls socialized to domesticity unlikely to
  deviate
• Boys have greater freedom, encouraged to take
  risks, leads to deviance
• Egalitarian and single-parent families
• Girls greater freedom, exhibit more deviance
• Girls, boys more similar in deviant behaviour

• Support
• Parental power at work is related to more
  antisocial behaviour of boys
• Girls in egalitarian homes have higher crime
  rates
• Girls in paternalistic homes more fearful of
  legal sanctions than boys

24
Restorative Justice, Peacemaking

• Crime injures social relations
• Justice Involves victim, offender, community in
  search for solutions which promote repair,
  reconciliation, reassurance
• Community ownership of conflict
• Material, symbolic reparation for victim,
  community, with reintegration of offender
• Eg. Sentencing circles, Mediation, alternative
  measures, Victim-offender reconciliation

• Increased punishment leads to increased crime
• Harmony can only be restored by peace
• Restitution, alternative measures, community
  service, mediation, justice circles.

25
GM, Aug 20, 1912 9
GM, Aug 30, 1917 6