Complexities of the capitalistic state reinforce the higher economic class, while crises between classes in society will reset the socially constructed inequalities. Social inequalities become perpetrated by the state, by upholding the higher class. The way to equalize the classes is for overthrow the state and expose the contradictions of capitalism.
Quinney states that the role of the state in capitalist society is to defend the interests of the ruling class” (Quinney 2001 261). The state defends the ruling class interests through the creation of law. The law, created by people of power, structures the class system. Distinctions of classes are based on social characteristics. This dominance in society is “maintained and promoted” (Quinney 2001 261) because the ruling class manipulates the legal system through the mechanisms of the state. The state’s use of crime control has become a device to defend the ruling class, as crime control is used to push individual cases through the criminal justice system. The state creates criminal law in such a way that reinforces the interests of the ruling class. Although it is realized that everyone commits crimes, deviation is caused by the inequalities of society. Social cohesion is imperative to lowering crime.
The role of the state, in defending the ruling class, will unveil a deeper understanding into the nature of the operation of legal order in society. Miliband is quoted to declare that the state is not an independent entity. The state is “’a number of particular institutions which, together, constitute its reality’” (Quinney 2001 262), and are interrelated as to create a system. This system includes “(1) the government, (2) the administration, (3) the military and the police, (4)...
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...ressed class made of people considered to be acting as wilful criminals. Preventing crimes is established through effectively intensifying law enforcement at all governmental levels (Quinney 2001 265). State-created law becomes the ultimate means to secure the ruling class. Crime control is argued to be the ultimate preventative measure for a free society. A commission conducted by the institute for defense analysis suggests that responses to crime through crime control should become more scientific based, emphasizing the science and technology used by the military, and suggests the federal government fund such programs to ensure the safety of society.
Quinney makes a case against liberal reform positions, suggesting citizens to look past the restructuring of capitalism to create “humane existence and a world free of the authoritarian state” (Quinney 2001 270).
Reiman and Leighton continue to expand on the Pyrrhic Defeat Theory and ways how the criminal justice system continues to succeed by failing to reduce crime. They speak of some reasons why the policies enforced by the criminal justice system, maintain crime rather than reduce it. The system makes use of excuses as to why it fails at the reduction of crimes. While continuing to serve the interests of the powerful and maintaining the view of the poor being the most dangerous to society.
Capitalism has widely been regarded as one of the most advanced intellectual achievements of the past few centuries. However, a system which is largely credited for alleviating “human misery” is actually perpetuating it (Goldberg, 6). Capitalism inherently fuels inequality leading to poverty among the powerless. Jonah Goldberg in his article, Capitalism Has Lifted Billions Out of Poverty, attributed the economic theory to ending poverty, but failed to recognize that capitalism’s lofty goals are merely fulfilled on paper. Equal opportunity must exist for capitalism to end human misery, however the stratification of society ensures that no individual has equal access to the keys of capitalist success.
Year’s ago, mention of this widening gap between the privileged and the struggling was considered “Marxist”, but now the facts are too evident to be blamed on a belief. The richer continue to get richer and the poorer get poorer; due to the fact that, the wealthy pay the labor working majority unfair wages. Ironically, this “supreme” group makes their fortune because of these under paid people. For example, Walmart a low paying corporation owned by the wealthiest family in America. As previously stated, the success of the upper class is at the expense of the lower class and we see this in more ways then one: late fees and rates are collected by the rich, Realestate is bought up by them, and they have control of politics. The solution seen most fit by Ehrenreich and Lowenstein would be to remove the classes and have an egalitarian
Marx begins explaining the inevitable fall of the bourgeoisie by claiming that once the peasants overthrow the feudalist society and transform into a capitalist society they [the bourgeoisie] will create a ruthless industry in which the proletariat are treated as slaves. Marx describes this industry as one of “the epidemic of overproduction,” (Marx). This overproduction of the proletariat will allow for the success of the capitalist society bourgeoisie. By creating a capitalist industry, the bourgeoisie ultimately brought about their own downfall, “...created their own grave-diggers” (Marx). As the market quickly grows in size and wealth, the bourgeois becomes insensitive and unable to adapt to the increase of wealth they’ve created, “too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them,” (Marx). This will result in a period of disorganization and chaos. This period will be the period in which the proletariat will be able to revolt against the bourgeoisie, overthrow the capitalist system. Once the capitalist system is overthrown. They will eventually transition it to a communist system through socialism. Once a communist system is established, all the social classes will fall and become one equal class. The once troubled industry which brought the fall of the bourgeoisie will become a communist industry which will distribute its profit equally among its workers as long as they work and private property will not be
Quinney subscribed in part to Marxist ideology (Mutchnick et al., 1990). Quinney’s views on criminality and social inequality are rooted in the belief that class conflict creates an environment favoring those with greater means of accumulation over those with lesser means of accumulation. The resultant interpretation by Quinney followers is greater means to wealth equates to lesser involvement in criminal activities. This thought is well told in Quinney’s works on white-collar crime. It is the writer’s assertion that minority communities seem largely superficially impacted by white-collar crime as a means of exploitation upon them, rather than originating within them. Ruddell and Thomas (2010) state policing agencies within in areas with larger populations of minorities employ more law enforcement officers and spend more of their annual budgets on enforcement activities. This is largely a representative of Quinney’s theoretical examination on social conflicts using Marxist theory to explain how social structural impacts on crime leads to the eventuality of developing systemic support by way of law and policy used to oppress the poor to keep class divisions structurally intact (Mutchnick et al., 1990). The law serves to benefit the interests of one group over another. Policing’s role as an instrument of the system, is
...on of a crime-punishment nexus to market forces shaping the contours of social control.”³ Capitalism reduces labor and swells the surplus population, which is then subjected to its state’s forms of coercion and social control. Also, the commercial features of the marked economy “enables private interests to commodify prisoners as raw materials for a corrections industry, creating a high-volume, profit-driven system of punishment.” ³
Conscious efforts to critique existing approaches to questions of crime and justice, demystify concepts and issues that are laden with political and ideological baggage, situate debates about crime control within a socio-historical context, and facilitate the imagination and exploration of alternative ways of thinking and acting in relation to crime and justice. (p. 3).
Kleck, Gary. “Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force,” Social Problems, 35.1 (1988): 1-21. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
...tter how hard they work, they cannot achieve the desired levels of wealth which they have been taught to aspire to, deviant behaviour may result. Howard Becker's approach to the labelling of deviance, outlined in Outsiders views deviance as the creation of social groups and not the quality of some act or behaviour ( Howard Becker website). According to Becker, researching the act of the individual is irrelevant as deviance is simply rule breaking behaviour that is labelled deviant by those in a position of power. Richard Quinney concentrates more on the development of a capitalist economy in the creation of deviants. He views the introduction of capitalism as condition where struggle is a natural component. In the book " Class, State, and Crime", Quinney states that deviance is a product of the condition of the social structure (p107) (Richard Quinney website). He believes that that the state maintains the capitalist order through the creation of laws. The state exists to serve the interests of the capitalist working class. The criminal law is merely an instrument of that class to perpetuate the current social and economic order and is used to repress those who are less powerful.
In addition, the new scope on combating crime also projected many policy implications as the conservative theory is applied to the criminal justice system today. Across the board, the conservative theory holds true to “get tough on crime” as it called to hire more law enforcement officers throughout the nation. Eventually this would lead the government and local law enforcement agencies to increase their force not only in personnel but also in equipment and other necessary items that are essential to each law enforcement officer. Simply put, it would cost the agencies more money due to the combating crime rates with more arrests. In addition, this would also lead to the increase and hiring of more judges/magistrates, prison guards, prisons, and essential staffing within the criminal justice system. According to Lilly, Cullen, and Ball (2015), “the financial burdens of prison during the fiscally tight times of the 1980s furnished ample motivation to search for alternative methods of social control. Still, in turning to community corrections, conservatives brought a distinctive look” (p. 345). Interesting enough, the rise of the criminal justice services throughout the nation continued to build, as agencies got tough on crime, however, the taxes and financial burdens are felt even two decades later. Overall the influence of getting tough on crime/ the conservative movement focused on the individual motives as the cause for crime. As the focus narrowed, the policies that were implemented created positive and negative impacts on society. If such polices continued to strive for more policing into the twenty-first century and continued to dawn the extreme “get tough on crime” lens then taxes and financial issues would grow out of control. To that end, the United States continues to feel the effect of the conservative movement in the 1980s
While Marx did not delve deeply into crime and criminal activity, he argued that laws were put in place by the upper classes of society to serve their needs, most important being the suppression of other classes. His influence has been prodigious where governments, including the Chinese and the Soviet Union, and a movement that call themselves Marxists who at some point were more than the number of Christians in the world (Rader, 1979). This illustrates his conventional yet controversial way of thinking that has reverberated across societies and institutions. The opening statement that was made by Karl Marx will be resonated throughout this analysis into the Marxist theories, giving an in-depth scrutiny of the history and background of this theory, highlighting the critics of the theory and providing an example of the theory. The theory’s validity in the modern world and if it can be sustained given the changes on his depiction of society and the society as it exists today.
Capitalism and democracy are the aim of almost the whole world with only several exceptions like Cuba, Iraq, North Korea and Myanmar. It is reasonable why states aspire to achieve both capitalism and democracy. Capitalist concepts have resulted in more increase of social welfare than any other economic system. Likewise, democracy has enabled billions of people to enjoy that welfare by giving them more freedom (Audretsch, 2000).
Conflict criminology strives to locate the root cause of crime and tries to analyze how status and class inequality influences the justice system. The study of crime causation by radical criminologist increased between 1980s and 1990s as this led to the emergence of many radical theories such as Marxist criminology, feminist criminology, structural criminology, critical criminology, left realist criminology and peacemaking criminology (Rigakos, 1999). In spite of critical criminology encompassing many broad theories, some common themes are shared by radical research. The basic themes show how macro-level economic structures and crime are related, effects of power differentials, and political aspects in defining criminal acts.
There are different principles that makeup the crime control model. For example, guilt implied, legal controls minimal, system designed to aid police, and Crime fighting is key. However one fundamental principle that has been noted is that ‘the repression of criminal conduct is by far the most important function to be performed by the criminal processes’. (Packer, 1998, p. 4). This is very important, because it gives individuals a sense of safety. Without this claim the public trust within the criminal justice process would be very little. The general belief of the public is that those that are seen as a threat to society, as well as those that fails to conform to society norms and values should be separated from the rest of society, from individuals who choose to participate fully in society. Consequently, the crime control model pro...
Capitalism dominates the world today. Known as a system to create wealth, capitalism’s main purpose is to increase profits through land, labor and free market. It is a replacement of feudalism and slavery. It promises to provide equality and increases living standards through equal exchanges, technological innovations and mass productions. However, taking a look at the global economy today, one can clearly see the disparity between developed and developing countries, and the persistence of poverty throughout the world despite the existence of abundant wealth. This modern issue was predicted and explained a hundred and fifty years ago in Karl Marx’s Capital.