Crime: The Bourgeoisie And The Working Class

Marxists recognize “crime” as something which is constructed by the dominant or the ruling class as a form of social control (Trueman 2016). Marxists argue that society is divided into two social classes, the bourgeoisie and the working class. While the bourgeoisie are the owners of the means and mode of production, those in the working class must sell their labour to the bourgeoisie in order to make a wage to survive. Thus, since the bourgeoisie own the means and modes of production, anyone or anything that violates their property, hinders their production and profit, is considered as crime. So, laws are set in place to protect property and serve capitalist’s interests as a form of social control for individuals to conform. They also argue

Capitalists receive billions of dollars when people are incarcerated and in order to fill these jails, they continue to criminalize many behaviours even if they are not violent. Furthermore, by placing the main focus on the poor in relation to sentencing, they reinforce the narrative of poor people being criminals, harmful and the dangerous class. In other words, the more people see statistics, where the poor constitute the majority of those who are incarcerated, the more they are convinced that the poor are the ones who are dangerous and commit the majority of crimes. Not only does the imprisonment of the poor contribute to the wealth of the rich, but it helps them “warehouse the poor” in order to "manage unemployment” (Ezeonu 2016) which in the eyes of the capitalists could lead to crime through the existence of alternative economies. They also believe and instill belief in others that the dangers that are caused by the poor or the “dangerous” class are contained within prisons (Ezeonu, 2016). Lastly, mass incarceration is an opportunity to create jobs for those of the middle or upper class to work within the criminal justice system (Ezeonu 2016). This is known as the prison industrial complex. Additionally, the state uses prisons to coercively control the population. Marxist Louis Althusser defined this as Repressive State Apparatuses (i.e. prisons, police, courts, etc.) (Derfel 2002). The purpose of these institutions are to essentially force individuals into participating as labourers to sustain reproduction in relation to production (Derfel