critical criminology

ASSIGNMENT
Critical Criminology, primarily structured by the Marxist doctrine, attaches particular emphasis on the birth of crime and how the concepts of fairness and punishment, are associated with social inequalities and hierarchies that ultimately prevail. As a result, criminality and the administration of justice in general, are greatly affected in space-time because the social structure of inequality and social classes give them each time different definitions.
The concepts where Critical Criminology focuses more are the social harm and human rights in general. According to this approach, even criminals have the rights to become useful and productive elements of society, with the help of Critical Criminology, since the international justice system seems to be weak to fight crime. However, could there be an actual connection between Marxism and criminology?
Critical criminologists believe that the upper classes always decide what a crime is and how it will be punished. They use the justice system to control the lower classes and prevent them from gaining power. They feel that many justice systems are unfair for that reason. That's why critical criminologists concentrate on different areas like postmodern structures and capitalism and their effects or relationships with crime and justice systems. But it is also a fact that the criminal system of a country is shaped by that society, its culture and its social norms.
The application of Marxist analysis in the study of the criminal phenomenon emphasized the differences rather than making up a common reference point of the individual analyses, as there were different points of views on the question of the relationship between Marxist theory and criminology. The vision of the crime of Marx and Engels is completely different. In Marxism, crime is not treated as a separate field of study, because the object of study in Marxist theory is determined by its same sense, as the concept of class conflict, or state for instance. Therefore, there can be no Marxist theory of criminality.
The general theory of Marx will help us to understand the ways in which social conflict is been created and perpetuated, and the ways in which it contributes to the formulation of crime rates. A comprehensive Marxist theory on crime, should aim at the interpretation of the ways where power tends to control society in particular ways, considering however the specific social relations and means of production that characterizes the particular time.
Nevertheless, critical criminologists are trying to explore, how crime is the result of social structure and essentially the system cause it, itself. In other words, they don’t believe that they should seek for the criminal as an individual into the society, but how actually the society victimizes first the individuals, due to the social inequality through the existence of social classes. Vulnerable groups that are composed mainly by poor, women or belong to a different race or nationality, are a result of this class division, causing at the same time crimes that are not only associated with economic reasons, but also are correlated with racism and sexism.
In Critical Criminology, criminal justice is believed not to be as effective as it ought to, in order to fight injustice. However it should become the way in which there would be restructuring and social change in the society. In this case radical mutation of the entire political and social system is required, so basically the human actions of each individual to become those that will complete this change into the society. Thus, the integration with united forces of each one combined, can hit and demystify the state power.
In general, what critical criminologists envision is to abolish unjust laws and unjust customs, aiming to restore justice. Social injustice is in fact the reason that leads people in committing criminal acts, even if this injustice is the result of ideology, ethnic, religious, or moral distinction. Basically the idea is to create a society, in which perpetrators and victims may be able to coexist in a peaceful context, having as a main goal to mitigate the social harm that they had caused from the first place.