Marxist sociologists utilise Marxist concepts in order to provide a framework for understanding the cause and effects of crime and deviance in a capitalist society. These sociologists see power as being controlled by those who own and maintain the means of production. The superstructure of a capitalist society the agencies of social control, the law, politics as well as crime all reflect and serve ruling-class interests.…
Marxists theorists provide explanations how crime is dealt within society, in order to maintain the status quo. Capitalism inevitably plays a large role in this, as they divert attention of the masses away from the causes of crime and the capitalist controlled judiciary system aids capitalist society play on this, as society views young working class white/black males as criminal/deviant groups. This instills a moral panic in society when capitalist controlled journalists write cases based on where black working class youth have wronged white upper class people, i.e. cases such as mugging and assault. Society will then watch the news and read newspapers and make assumptions and stereotype all black youth they come across as bad news.…
Marxist sociologists argue that in order to understand crime and deviance, one needs to realise that it is the nature of exploitative economic systems that capitalist societies have in place that is primarily responsible. This is because the bourgeoisie and ruling classes oppress and exploit the working classes, which drives them into poverty. This causes a rift between the “haves” and the “have-nots” as the workers try to end exploitation whilst the owners of the means of production aim to keep the system to maintain profits. Most Marxists agree that crime is the result of poverty created through this system, for example people steal because they are materially deprived which is a result of low wages being paid by the ruling classes. This is a reason Marxists would give for the over-representation of the working classes in official crime statistics.…
‘Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of Marxist approach to an understanding of crime and deviance’ (21 marks)…
Assess the usefulness of Marxist approaches to an understanding of crime and deviance (21 marks)…
Deviance is behavior or characteristics that violate important social norms. The difference between how the dictionary defines deviance and how sociologist define deviance is what may be deviant in one place, at one particular time, may not be deviant in another place and time. Basically with times changing something may or may not be tolerated as acceptable behavior.…
Pease (1994) said, ‘Crime comprises those actions which are deemed so damaging to the interest of the community that the state determines that it must take a direct role in identifying and acting against the criminal.’ Downes and Rock (1998) said ‘Deviance may be considered as banned or controlled behaviour which is likely to attract punishment or disproval.’ In short, ‘Deviance’ is a asocial construct that can change across time and place and ‘Crime’ is an action that breaks the law.…
There has been a pleather of research regarding the issue of crime and deviance. A definition of crime and deviance can be explained in relative terms which are dependant on any particular society’s interpretation of crime and deviance. Cultures differ from one society to another and the general consensus of right and wrong can also evolve throughout time. Definitions of crime and deviance can evolve with factors such as time, pace and society. However the general definition of crime is that its an act that breaks the law and deviance refers to behaviour that most people see as differing from acceptable social norms or standards of society. The purpose of this Essay is to outline and assess what each perspectives view of crime and deviance is. The perspectives that will be in this essay are Functionalists, Interactionists and conflict theories.…
Marxists see society as divided into two opposed classes; a small capitalist ruling class and a majority working class. Marxists do not agree with perspectives such as Functionalism, and see the law as a reflection of a value consensus among society’s members; instead they see law and crime as arising out of the structure of capitalism and reflecting the values of ruling class ideology. In their view the structure of the capitalist society we live in today explains crime and the causes of crime.…
Marxists idea of crime is strongly linked to capitalism and the way it creates conditions for crime through exploitation and competition. There are two branches of Marxism; traditional and Neo-Marxism. They both focus on the idea of criminogenic state, however Neo-Marxist theory links in with the labelling theory to explain crime.…
Deviance incorporates behaviors, norms and traits considered a violation of the societal norms or those that trigger negative reactions from the society. There is a wide array of social deviance definitions depending on aspects such as time, situation and the culture. It is also important to note that while some forms of social deviance involve large groups of the community such as piercings and tattoos while, others are only perpetrated by very minute portions of the community such as those who commit murders. Interaction also results in the formation of certain deviant behaviors while others result from conflict or genetic markers. The criminal justice system…
There are types of deviant behaviour which are called delinquency. This refers to acts that are criminal, or are considered anti-social, which are committed by young people (Harambolos & Holburn, 2004, p.331). However, many deviant acts that are disapproved of are not defined as criminal. For example suicide and alcoholism are not illegal in Australia.…
Many sociologists have said that the sociology of deviance is dead, such as Colin Sumner in 1975. It was said that behaviors are not deviant but rather just seen as not normal in society, but the term ‘normal’ cannot exactly be defined. Deviance is a discipline in Sociology that many claim is now ‘dead’. Deviance is an act with refers to ‘norm-breaking’ in our society. A social norm is appropriate behavior for a social group and an appropriate behavior for the environment an individual is in. Deviance is the act of breaking these social norms whether it be your behavior or something you do. Once you break…
Crime is specifically associated with behaviour that breaks the formal written laws made by the Government within a particular society. An example is that seatbelts must be worn whilst driving a car however if a person breaks this law, it will be considered a crime. Deviant behaviour is…
Deviance is any behavior that violates social norms, and is usually of sufficient severity to warrant disapproval from the majority of society. Deviance can be criminal or non-criminal. The sociological discipline that deals with crime (behavior that violates laws) is criminology (also known as criminal justice). Today some societies consider activities such as alcoholism, excessive gambling, being nude in public places, lying to name only a few as deviant. Thus people who engage in deviant behavior are referred to as deviants.…