Chapter 12: Conflict Criminology
Chapter 12: Conflict Criminology - consensus theorists place a consensus of values at the very center of human societies, a shared beliefs about what is good, right, just, important or at least excusable - conflict theorists place conflicts of interests at the very center of human societies, competitions over money, status and power - interests ultimately undermine values - beliefs about goodness and righteousness and justice tends to be thin films that conceal personal gains and losses, personal costs and benefits - the organized state does not represent common interests, but instead represents the interests of those with sufficient power to control its operation - more powerful people are legally freer to pursue self-interests, while less powerful people who pursue self-interests are more likely to be officially defined and processed as criminal Early Conflict Theories: Sellin and Vold - Sellin focused on the “conduct norms”, which are cultural rules that require certain types of people to act in certain ways in certain circumstances - primary cultural conflicts are those occurring between two different cultures, these could occur at border areas between two divergent cultures or when the laws of one culture are extended into the territory of another - Voldʼs theory was based on a “social process” view of society as a collection of groups held together in a dynamic equilibrium of opposing group of interests and efforts - in this theory, groups in society more or less continuously struggle to maintain or improve their place in an ongoing interaction and competition with other groups - these social interaction processes grind their way through various kinds of uneasy adjustment to a more or less stable equilibrium of balanced forces, called social order or social organization - conflict is thus one of the principal and essential social processes in the functioning society - people are fundamentally group-involved beings whose lives are both a part of and product of their group associations - groups are formed when people have common interests and common needs that can best be furthered through collective action - conflict between groups tends to develop and intensify the loyalty of group members to their respective groups - the whole process of lawmaking, lawbreaking, and law enforcement directly reflects deep-seated and fundamental conflicts between group interests and the more general struggles among groups for control of the police power of the state - criminal behaviour is the behaviour of minority power groups - Voldʼs group conflict theory suggested that a considerable amount of crime is intimately related to the conflicts of groups
Conflict Theories in a Time of Conflict: Turk, Quinney, and Chambliss and Seidman - during the Vietnam War conflict theory was at the forefront of criminology - Turk proposed a theory of criminalization that attempted to describe the conditions under which differences between authorities and subjects will probably result in conflict and the conditions under which criminalization will probably occur in the course of conflict - he argued that the organization and sophistication of both authorities and subjects affect the likelihood of conflict between them - authorities are presumed to be organized, since organization is a prerequisite for achieving and maintaining power - conflict is more likely when subjects are organized, since group support makes an individual less likely to back down - Turk defined sophistication as knowledge of patterns in the behaviour of others which is used in attempts to manipulate them - more sophisticated subjects will be able to achieve their goals without precipitating conflict with the superior powers of the state, and less sophisticated authorities will have to rely more strongly on overt coercion to achieve their goals - the primary factor that is likely to result in the criminalization of subjects is the meaning that the prohibited act or attribute has for those who enforce the law - a second factor will be the relative power of the enforcers and resisters - a third factor is the realism of the conflicts moves, it is related to how likely an action taken by the subjects or authorities may improve the potential for their ultimate success - Quinney published his theory of the social reality of crime, arguing that the legislative process of defining criminal laws and the criminal justice process of enforcing criminal laws occur in a political context in which individuals and groups pursue their own selfinterests - he discussed conflicts among “segments” of society, which are said to be people who share the same values, norms, and ideological orientations but who may or may not be organized in defense of those commonalities - some segments have been organized into interests groups for many years (business) but others have organized themselves recently (women) - irrational and impulsive people represent a segment of society with common values even though they are not organized - conceptions of crime are created and communicated as part of the political process of promoting particular sets of values - the social reality of crime is that powerful individuals and groups promote particular conceptions of crime in order to legitimate their authority and allow them to carry out policies in the name of the common good and really promote their own self-interests - Chambliss and Seidman sought to discover whether the power of the state is a valueneutral framework within which conflict can be peacefully resolved, or whether, the power of the state is itself the principal prize in the perpetual conflict that is society - the higher the groupʼs political and economic position, the greater is the probability that its views will be reflected in laws
- they found that judges must rely on their personal values when they make decisions in trouble cases, reflecting the needs and desires of wealthy and powerful - because law enforcement agencies depend on political organizations for their resources, they can maximize their rewards and minimize their strains if they process those who are politically weak and refrain from processing those who are powerful - concluded that both in structure and in function, the law operates in the interests of power groups Blackʼs Theory of the Behaviour of Law - attempted to explain variations in the quantity and style of law - argued that the quantity of law varies in time and place, there is more law at some times and places and less law at other times and places - law varies in its style, mostly discussed penal law, in which law is enforced by a group against an offender, but law can also be compensatory in which victims demand payment in reparation for harm that has been done - law can be therapeutic in which law acts on belief of the deviant or it can also be conciliatory in which various parties work together to resolves imbalances - Black explored 5 social dimensions of social life, within each dimension he formed hypotheses about law: 1. Stratification - the vertical distance between the people of a social setting - hypothesis = the higher a person is on the ladder of stratification, the more the preens is able to invoke law on his behalf 2. Morphology - the horizontal aspect of social life, the distribution of people in relation to one another, including their division of labour, networks of interactions, intimate and integration - hypothesis = law is inactive among intimates, inbreeding as the distance between people increases but decreasing as this reaches the point at which people live in entirely separate worlds 3. Culture - the symbolic aspects of life, including expressions of what is true, good and beautiful - hypothesis = law is greater in a direction toward less culture than toward more culture, that the amount of cultural distance linearly affects the amount of law 4. Organization - the corporate aspect of social life, the capacity for collective action - hypothesis = if the offenders are more organized than their victims, less law will be used to address victimization 5. Social control - the normative aspect of social life, it defines responses to deviant - hypothesis = law will be greater where other forms of social control are weaker - later Black recommended 3 types of policy reforms to reduce social variation in law: (1) legal cooperatives (people would join subsidized legal cooperatives to reduce corporate advantages in the legal system), (2) desocialization of law (make social information about offender unavailable to criminal justice system actors handling cases, and (3) starvation of law (if the law has only the barest minimum resources, then people will be forced to rely on other mechanisms for dealing with conflicts) - the purpose was to eliminate social factors from the behavior of law
A Unified Conflict Theory of Crime Values and Interests in Complex Societies 1. A pertnessʼ values and interests are generally shaped by the conditions in which the person lives 2. Complex, highly differentiated societies are composed of people who live under very different conditions 3. The more complex and differentiated the society, the more that people within the society have different and conflicting values and interests Patterns of Individual Action 4. People tend to act in ways that are consistent with their values and interests 5. When values and interests conflict, people tend to adjust their values to come in line with their interests 6. Because the conditions of oneʼs life tend to be relatively stable over time, people tend to develop relatively stable patterns of actions that benefits them personally The Enactment of Criminal Laws 7. The enactment of criminal laws is part of a general legislative process of conflict and compromise in which organized groups attempt to promote and defend their values and interests 8. Specific criminal laws usually represent a combination of the values and interests of many different groups, rather than the values and interests of many different groups 9. In general, the greater a groupsʼ political and economic power, the less likely it is that the groupʼs relatively stable patterns of action will violate the criminal law The Enforcement of Criminal Laws 10. In general, the more political and economic power that people have, the more difficult it is for official law enforcement agencies to process them, and the less political and economic power that people have, the easier it is for law enforcement agencies to process them, when their behaviour violates the criminal law 11. As bureaucracies, law enforcement agencies tend to process easier cases 12. In general, law enforcement agencies tend to process individuals with less, rather than more, political and economic power The Distribution of Official Crimes Rates 13. The distribution of official crime rates in every society will tend to be the inverse of the distribution of the political and economic power in that society Testing Conflict Criminology - generally able to demonstrate consistency with their arguments - a major problem with testing conflict criminology is distinguishing between conflict explanations and other possible explanations - other types of conflict criminology do not assume a threat hypothesis but focus instead on routine bureaucratic factors - it seems undeniable that political and economic power have at least some impact on the enactment and enforcement of criminal laws and therefore on the resulting distribution of official crime rates Implications and Conclusions - establishing organized groups to redistribute power
- bonding previously isolated individuals to groups that will interact with other groups according to mutually agreed-upon rules
Conflict Theories in a Time of Conflict: Turk, Quinney, and Chambliss and Seidman - during the Vietnam War conflict theory was at the forefront of criminology - Turk proposed a theory of criminalization that attempted to describe the conditions under which differences between authorities and subjects will probably result in conflict and the conditions under which criminalization will probably occur in the course of conflict - he argued that the organization and sophistication of both authorities and subjects affect the likelihood of conflict between them - authorities are presumed to be organized, since organization is a prerequisite for achieving and maintaining power - conflict is more likely when subjects are organized, since group support makes an individual less likely to back down - Turk defined sophistication as knowledge of patterns in the behaviour of others which is used in attempts to manipulate them - more sophisticated subjects will be able to achieve their goals without precipitating conflict with the superior powers of the state, and less sophisticated authorities will have to rely more strongly on overt coercion to achieve their goals - the primary factor that is likely to result in the criminalization of subjects is the meaning that the prohibited act or attribute has for those who enforce the law - a second factor will be the relative power of the enforcers and resisters - a third factor is the realism of the conflicts moves, it is related to how likely an action taken by the subjects or authorities may improve the potential for their ultimate success - Quinney published his theory of the social reality of crime, arguing that the legislative process of defining criminal laws and the criminal justice process of enforcing criminal laws occur in a political context in which individuals and groups pursue their own selfinterests - he discussed conflicts among “segments” of society, which are said to be people who share the same values, norms, and ideological orientations but who may or may not be organized in defense of those commonalities - some segments have been organized into interests groups for many years (business) but others have organized themselves recently (women) - irrational and impulsive people represent a segment of society with common values even though they are not organized - conceptions of crime are created and communicated as part of the political process of promoting particular sets of values - the social reality of crime is that powerful individuals and groups promote particular conceptions of crime in order to legitimate their authority and allow them to carry out policies in the name of the common good and really promote their own self-interests - Chambliss and Seidman sought to discover whether the power of the state is a valueneutral framework within which conflict can be peacefully resolved, or whether, the power of the state is itself the principal prize in the perpetual conflict that is society - the higher the groupʼs political and economic position, the greater is the probability that its views will be reflected in laws
- they found that judges must rely on their personal values when they make decisions in trouble cases, reflecting the needs and desires of wealthy and powerful - because law enforcement agencies depend on political organizations for their resources, they can maximize their rewards and minimize their strains if they process those who are politically weak and refrain from processing those who are powerful - concluded that both in structure and in function, the law operates in the interests of power groups Blackʼs Theory of the Behaviour of Law - attempted to explain variations in the quantity and style of law - argued that the quantity of law varies in time and place, there is more law at some times and places and less law at other times and places - law varies in its style, mostly discussed penal law, in which law is enforced by a group against an offender, but law can also be compensatory in which victims demand payment in reparation for harm that has been done - law can be therapeutic in which law acts on belief of the deviant or it can also be conciliatory in which various parties work together to resolves imbalances - Black explored 5 social dimensions of social life, within each dimension he formed hypotheses about law: 1. Stratification - the vertical distance between the people of a social setting - hypothesis = the higher a person is on the ladder of stratification, the more the preens is able to invoke law on his behalf 2. Morphology - the horizontal aspect of social life, the distribution of people in relation to one another, including their division of labour, networks of interactions, intimate and integration - hypothesis = law is inactive among intimates, inbreeding as the distance between people increases but decreasing as this reaches the point at which people live in entirely separate worlds 3. Culture - the symbolic aspects of life, including expressions of what is true, good and beautiful - hypothesis = law is greater in a direction toward less culture than toward more culture, that the amount of cultural distance linearly affects the amount of law 4. Organization - the corporate aspect of social life, the capacity for collective action - hypothesis = if the offenders are more organized than their victims, less law will be used to address victimization 5. Social control - the normative aspect of social life, it defines responses to deviant - hypothesis = law will be greater where other forms of social control are weaker - later Black recommended 3 types of policy reforms to reduce social variation in law: (1) legal cooperatives (people would join subsidized legal cooperatives to reduce corporate advantages in the legal system), (2) desocialization of law (make social information about offender unavailable to criminal justice system actors handling cases, and (3) starvation of law (if the law has only the barest minimum resources, then people will be forced to rely on other mechanisms for dealing with conflicts) - the purpose was to eliminate social factors from the behavior of law
A Unified Conflict Theory of Crime Values and Interests in Complex Societies 1. A pertnessʼ values and interests are generally shaped by the conditions in which the person lives 2. Complex, highly differentiated societies are composed of people who live under very different conditions 3. The more complex and differentiated the society, the more that people within the society have different and conflicting values and interests Patterns of Individual Action 4. People tend to act in ways that are consistent with their values and interests 5. When values and interests conflict, people tend to adjust their values to come in line with their interests 6. Because the conditions of oneʼs life tend to be relatively stable over time, people tend to develop relatively stable patterns of actions that benefits them personally The Enactment of Criminal Laws 7. The enactment of criminal laws is part of a general legislative process of conflict and compromise in which organized groups attempt to promote and defend their values and interests 8. Specific criminal laws usually represent a combination of the values and interests of many different groups, rather than the values and interests of many different groups 9. In general, the greater a groupsʼ political and economic power, the less likely it is that the groupʼs relatively stable patterns of action will violate the criminal law The Enforcement of Criminal Laws 10. In general, the more political and economic power that people have, the more difficult it is for official law enforcement agencies to process them, and the less political and economic power that people have, the easier it is for law enforcement agencies to process them, when their behaviour violates the criminal law 11. As bureaucracies, law enforcement agencies tend to process easier cases 12. In general, law enforcement agencies tend to process individuals with less, rather than more, political and economic power The Distribution of Official Crimes Rates 13. The distribution of official crime rates in every society will tend to be the inverse of the distribution of the political and economic power in that society Testing Conflict Criminology - generally able to demonstrate consistency with their arguments - a major problem with testing conflict criminology is distinguishing between conflict explanations and other possible explanations - other types of conflict criminology do not assume a threat hypothesis but focus instead on routine bureaucratic factors - it seems undeniable that political and economic power have at least some impact on the enactment and enforcement of criminal laws and therefore on the resulting distribution of official crime rates Implications and Conclusions - establishing organized groups to redistribute power
- bonding previously isolated individuals to groups that will interact with other groups according to mutually agreed-upon rules
