Why do Marxists describe capitalism as criminogenic?

Marxists argue capitalism generates crime by its very nature: poverty and unemployment make crime the only way for some to survive, advertising stimulates wants that cannot legitimately be met, and the pressure to maximise profit drives businesses themselves into fraud, tax evasion and breaches of safety and environmental law.

How do Marxists explain the class pattern found in the criminal statistics?

They argue the law is made and enforced selectively in ruling-class interests, so that the crimes of the poor are heavily policed and prosecuted while the far more costly crimes of corporations are under-enforced, and the statistics therefore record the pattern of enforcement rather than the pattern of offending.

What ideological function do Marxists say the treatment of crime performs?

By presenting crime as the work of a criminal working class, the law and the media divide workers against one another, shift blame for social problems onto individuals rather than the capitalist system, and make the ruling class appear benevolent when occasional token prosecutions of the powerful take place.

What was the central argument of the neo-Marxist New Criminology, and how have left realists criticised it?

Taylor, Walton and Young called for a fully social theory of deviance combining structural inequality with the offender's own meanings, insisting crime is a conscious, voluntary act by which the poor struggle against capitalism; left realists reply that this romanticises offenders as political rebels and ignores that most crime is committed against other poor and vulnerable people.

How did Hall and colleagues explain the moral panic about mugging in 1970s Britain?

They argued that the state faced a crisis of hegemony as economic decline and industrial unrest undermined consent, and that a media-amplified panic about black muggers provided a scapegoat that divided the working class and justified more authoritarian policing.

What is Becker's labelling account of deviance?

Becker argued that no act is deviant in itself: moral entrepreneurs campaign to create rules, enforcement agencies apply those rules to some people and not others, and deviance exists only where a label has successfully been attached to a person.

OCR A-Level Sociology H580

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Topic overview Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism Subculture, high culture and popular culture Global and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridity Primary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer group Media, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisation Lifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debate Social control, sanctions and formal agencies of control Informal agencies and theories of social control The concept of identity, ethnicity and nationality Gender, class and sexual identity Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

Families and RelationshipsComponent 01

Topic overview Family types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types Nuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New Right Marxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debate Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Power, the dark side of the family and theories of partner roles The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension Parent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views

Youth SubculturesComponent 01

Topic overview Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance

MediaComponent 01

Topic overview Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze Representations of gender, social class and young people Representations of older people and theories of media representation Direct and indirect media effects models Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics

Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities

Topic overview Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivism Verstehen, qualitative data and validity Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theory Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary data Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validation Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policy Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sample Access, gatekeepers and research ethics Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observation Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism

Understanding Social Inequalities

Topic overview Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Topic overview Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence Social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communication Digital identities, the digital divide and social class Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication

Crime and DevianceComponent 03

Topic overview Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity Social construction of crime and police recorded crime The Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studies Crime patterns by social class, gender and age Crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crime Glocal organised crime and green crime Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime Right realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patterns Left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justice Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice

EducationComponent 03

Topic overview Functionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of education Social democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational education Class and ethnic patterns in educational attainment Gender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionality Inside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racism Material and cultural deprivation and cultural capital Explaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievement Types of school and education policy since 1988 Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy

Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03

Topic overview Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism Measuring religiosity and believing without belonging Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religion Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative Class and gender patterns in religiosity Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence Defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline Pro- and anti-secularisation theories Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns

Crime and Deviance

Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime

1 thing to know
Component 03

Overview

Recall questions on Marxist views of capitalism as criminogenic, selective law enforcement and the ideological function of crime, Taylor, Walton and Young's New Criminology, Hall on mugging, Becker's labelling theory, primary and secondary deviance, deviancy amplification, Cicourel on crime statistics, and Lea and Young's left realism and square of crime.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Distinguish between primary and secondary deviance, and explain the part played by master status.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
Why do Marxists describe capitalism as criminogenic?
Model answer
Marxists argue capitalism generates crime by its very nature: poverty and unemployment make crime the only way for some to survive, advertising stimulates wants that cannot legitimately be met, and the pressure to maximise profit drives businesses themselves into fraud, tax evasion and breaches of safety and environmental law.
2
How do Marxists explain the class pattern found in the criminal statistics?
Model answer
They argue the law is made and enforced selectively in ruling-class interests, so that the crimes of the poor are heavily policed and prosecuted while the far more costly crimes of corporations are under-enforced, and the statistics therefore record the pattern of enforcement rather than the pattern of offending.
3
What ideological function do Marxists say the treatment of crime performs?
Model answer
By presenting crime as the work of a criminal working class, the law and the media divide workers against one another, shift blame for social problems onto individuals rather than the capitalist system, and make the ruling class appear benevolent when occasional token prosecutions of the powerful take place.
4
What was the central argument of the neo-Marxist New Criminology, and how have left realists criticised it?
Model answer
Taylor, Walton and Young called for a fully social theory of deviance combining structural inequality with the offender's own meanings, insisting crime is a conscious, voluntary act by which the poor struggle against capitalism; left realists reply that this romanticises offenders as political rebels and ignores that most crime is committed against other poor and vulnerable people.
5
How did Hall and colleagues explain the moral panic about mugging in 1970s Britain?
Model answer
They argued that the state faced a crisis of hegemony as economic decline and industrial unrest undermined consent, and that a media-amplified panic about black muggers provided a scapegoat that divided the working class and justified more authoritarian policing.
6
What is Becker's labelling account of deviance?
Model answer
Becker argued that no act is deviant in itself: moral entrepreneurs campaign to create rules, enforcement agencies apply those rules to some people and not others, and deviance exists only where a label has successfully been attached to a person.

See the rest and revise

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book

2Open book

3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Families and Relationships

Youth Subcultures

Media

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Murdock identified sexual, , economic and educational functions.

reproductiveemotionalpolitical

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.

BAbuse in the home has historically been treated as a private matter.

CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Sex refers to the biological category of male or female.

TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Crime and Deviance, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Start revising, £5 a month See how the method works

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.