Compare And Contrast Marxists View Of Gender And Age Related To Crime

Marxists view of gender and age relating to crime would link them to low-class working backgrounds. Marxists state the law represents the interests of the ruling class. Most people that commit crime are young male juveniles, Marxists feel they are trying to compete for wealth and social control which would not benefit the capitalist society. Marxists look at crime statistics as false for e: g young 18-year-old male from a low-class working background who has been convicted doesn’t benefit a capitalist society they always favor the ruling class over the working class feel that statistics are created to defend the ruling class. Marxists feel a young man from a wealthy background who commits a white-collar crime, in their view the law will not
Right realists follow official statistics they feel that if there isn’t a strong government society would be full of criminal activity, so the statistics serve as a function for them compared to left realists they do not follow the statistics as they feel the government tries to put to many restrictions on the countries populations.
Labelling looks a crime figures as false too, interpretivists say that we will form our own self-identity due to how other people perceive us. A young male or female under the age of 25 who conform to a label this could either have a positive or negative affect on them and could lead them down the road to deviant behaviour. This theory feels the police/courts focus on stereotypes and use discretion which gives them a form of social control for e: g a young male “chav” and a young female “well-dressed” are in court the male is more than likely to receive a harsher sentence compared to the female so the male is then labelled and they are more than likely going to return to criminal activity instead of receiving the correct help which means crime figures will continue to rise. In some cases, if young male has never had criminal background and has been labelled due to the way they are dressed it shows
Radical feminists feel men are part of a patriarchal society and feel they are trying to dominate women were liberal feminists feel women and men should be treated the same which leads to a gender bias within these social factors. Feminists will mainly focus on the crime figures regarding gender rather than age.
“Carole smart a feminist sociologist states “that female crime has to be looked at as part of a women’s broader experience in society” were Heidensohn argues that “ in a patriarchal male-dominated society women have less opportunity to commit certain types of crimes” like financial fraud (men) were women they tend to commit around home life e: g shop lifting”(quoted from A2 level sociology) “Pat Carlen did a study on women in prison and found they mainly did benefit fraud but they had all faced some kind of