Political Debates in Criminology

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Political Debates in Criminology

• Dan Ellingworth
• Tuesday, 24 November 2020

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Lecture Outline

• Critical Criminology
• Right Realism
• New Labour

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• Marxist Criminology
• Fully social theory
• Conflict Theory (class)
• Law and Order Ideology
• Critique of CJS
• Critical of link between class and offending
• Awareness of link between class and victimisation

• Feminist Criminology
• Conflict theory (gender)
• Hidden Crime
• Victimisation
• Criminology as part of dominant ideology
• Suspicion of Official Statistics
• Methodological concerns

Critical Criminology

• Labelling Theory
• Subjectivity no act is inherently deviant
• Variability in the application of social control
• Social Construction of deviance
• The Law causes Crime

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Initial Inspiration Marxism

• All aspects of society seen in terms of
  revolutionary conflict between the working class
  (proletariat) and the ruling class (bourgeoisie)
• A macro-level perspective
• Differs from functionalism in that the
  maintenance of capitalist society is based on
  conflict, not consensus
• Ultimately, this conflict will bring about the
  end of capitalism
• In order to maintain capitalist society, it is
  necessary for the ruling class to develop a
  dominant political ideology to justify their
  position the law represents part of this
  ideology
• Was Marx a criminologist?
• Crime . the struggle of the isolated individual
  against the predominant relations (The German
  Ideology)
• an expression of powerlessness of the dangerous
  classes or lumpen-proletariat

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Marxist Criminology

• Crime is
• Egoism and individualism encouraged by capitalism
  (Willem Bonger)
• The criminal law represents a ruling class
  definition of deviance, which they themselves can
  break with impunity. The criminal justice system
  reflects and reinforces class division (eg.
  Jeffery Reiman)
• An expression of class conflict (Paul Q. Hirst)
• the criminal law acts to suppress this by force
• socialization acts to internalise ruling class
  ideology

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Left Idealism ? Left Realism

• Ian, Taylor, Paul Walton and Jock Young The New
  Criminology
• Crime are acts criminalised by the ruling class
  in their interest in a society without
  widespread inequality (i.e. socialism), the power
  to criminalise would be removed
• Viewed the simplicity of left idealism as
  unrealistic
• Crime cannot be seen as an expression of class
  consciousness
• Most working class crime is against the working
  class
• Idealistic forms of Marxism losing political
  currency in a climate of the rise of the New
  Right
• Need to consider issues of The State, Society,
  Offenders and Victims

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Left Realisms Targets

• Orthodox criminology
• Crime is not the result of under-socialization
• Socialization into capitalist world of
  egalitarianism and material deprivation causes
  crime
• Crime is not an individualized response, but a
  group / cultural response
• Reliance on Official Statistics
• working class criminality is re-emphasised and
  exaggerated
• Reflects over-policing, but over-emphasises
  real differences under-estimating middle and
  upper class crime, but also working-class crime
• A critical application of statistical evidence,
  particularly self-report and victimisation
  studies can inform theory

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Conservative Criminology
Understanding the Individual Rejecting the Social
Control
Punitive
Uncritical Common-sense
Morality
Management of Crime
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Control Theories of Criminality

• Very different notion of human nature from most
  criminological theories
• Traditionally
• How do social structures work to push people to
  commit crime?
• Control Theories
• Why dont people commit crime?
• Human nature essentially anti-social
• need to understand how this is controlled

Thomas Hobbes
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Travis Hirschi

• Delinquent acts result when an individuals bond
  to society is weak or broken

• Criminality can be directly equated, in all
  circumstances, to low self-control
• Social bonds act to contain individuals
• 4 elements of social bond
• Attachment - Interest in each other to parents,
  schools, and peers
• Commitment - Time and energy spent pursuing
  conventional actions produces social capital that
  would be jeopardised by criminal activity
• Involvement - Devil makes work for idle hands
• Belief - Broad agreement with societal values

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Right Realism

• Politically conservative consensus position
• Not really concerned with identifying causal
  explanations for offending
• "To people who say "crime and drug addiction can
  only be dealt with by attacking their root
  causes", I am sometimes inclined, when in a testy
  mood, to rejoin "stupidity can only be dealt
  with by attacking its root causes". I have yet to
  see a "root cause" or encounter a government
  programme that has successfully attacked it...".
  James Q. Wilson
• Non-problematic acceptance of official
  definitions of crime, measurement of offending,
  and identification of criminality

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Aims of Right Realism
Deterrence
Prevention
Punishment
Segregation
Punishment the key concept
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James Q. Wilson

• American criminologist and academic advisor to
  numerous US presidents on crime since mid-1960s
• Thinking about Crime
• root causes of criminality cannot be identified
• increasing punishment as a deterrent unlikely to
  work
• All we can do is to reduce the impact of crime on
  peoples lives

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James Q. Wilson Solutions

• At a societal level
• A call for re-moralization of society
  emphasizing societal bonds
• At a micro-level
• Adjust the cost / benefit balance of criminality
• Make crime too difficult or risky

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Administrative Criminology

• Establishment criminology in UK and USA
• An empirical project
• A rational choice perspective
• A reaction to the perceived failure of
  criminology to intervene in causes of criminality

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Routine Activities Theory Marcus Felson

• Crime event will occur when 3 things coincide in
  time and space
• Aim disrupt this coincidence remove
  opportunities for crime

Motivated Offender
Suitable Victim
Lack of Capable Guardian
Crime
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Conservative and Right RealismCommon Themes

• Not concerned with explanations for criminality
• Rational Choice perspective
• Uncritical use of statistical evidence
• Unproblematic Criminal / Non-criminal distinction
• Management of crime opportunities surveillance /
  dispersal of control

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Criticisms of Right Realism

• Right Realism is an expression of political
  expediency an appeal to base fears of
• The working class
• Ethnic Minorities
• The criminal classes
• The rejection of search for causes is actually a
  rejection of theory
• Deterrence is an impractical basis for a criminal
  justice system
• Result in denial of civil liberties for the
  majority

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New Labour and Law and Order

• A central plank of the New Labour project
• Competency, rather than ideology
• Competence toughness
• Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime
• In Office
• What Works Agenda
• Reduction in Crime Figures, though fear up
• No reduction in sentencing severity
• Some more liberal steps Human Rights Act
  Macpherson Report some Youth Justice changes
  multi-agency work restorative justice
• Managerialism