Lecture 6 20140405
Lecture 6
20140405
Social Power and the Construction of Crime Discussion of Chart: • In Saskatchewan, there are 80% of Aboriginals in jail and only 20% of the overall population. • Incarceration rates are alarming and as a sociologist we have to look at why it is so high? • Positivist perspective you would look at statistics. • It allows governments to ignore the impact to sending so many people to jail. • It serves as a mechanism to ignore how the First Nations people are left with an inferior state. Left with not enough support. • The Red Cross states that there is a humanitarian problem in Canada, which is a first world country in regards to the treatment Aboriginals. • Rates of Commission of Inquiry on Aboriginal issues in Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba. • Poverty and abuse, state crime from the Marxist perspective. Forerunners of Conflict Theory: Marx and Engels • Capitalism was considered to be at the root of the conflict because it was a source of unjust inequality • According to Marx and Engels, the resolution to conflict was to destroy capitalism and build toward the one just form of social solidarity communism • Marx and Engels saw the problem in economic terms, denounced the new division of labour as the unjust exploitation of one social class by another, and insisted that social solidarity could only be regained with the overthrow of capitalism itself. • Conflict was inherent in the nature if social arrangements under capitalism, for it were capitalism that generated the vast differences in interests and capitalism that gave the few at top so much power over many at the bottom. • First, there was the proposition that conflict of interests between different groups will be increases by inequality in the distribution of scarce resources (e.g. food, clothing, shelter). • The instrumental Marxism had tended to portray the capitalist elite as an omniscient few who knew everything and always pulled the strings exactly at the right moment to ensure their interests were served. • It maintains that social conflict is a matter of social dynamics of a particular system. Theory in Context: The Turmoil of the 1960s • Three factors explain the rise of conflict theory: 1. The impact of the war in Vietnam on American society 2. The growth of the counterculture 3. The rising political protest over discrimination and the use of the police power of the state to suppress political dissent
• • •
By the 1960s, criminological conflict theory came into its own Conflict theory highlighted the newly revealed patterns of social division and questioned the legitimacy of the motives, strategies, and the tactics of those in power. Marxism takes a strong hold once other theories came out.
Varieties of Conflict Theory • Four factors behind the shift to new conflict theory: 1. There was a profound scepticism toward any theory that traced crime to something about the individual. 2. There was marked shift from the assumption that the inadequacies of the CJS were traced to be incompetent or corrupt individuals to the conclusion that these problems were inherent in the system 3. Older assumptions that criminal law represented the collective will of the people was rejected 4. It had become clear that the official crime rate figures did not reflect the amoung of criminal behaviour actually present in society but also that what they did reflect more often was the labeling behaviour of the authorities 1. If you are targeting youths they are only being targeted, they are not criminal. 2. Marxist argued that whitecollar crime is largely ignored while other crimes by less privileged and taken more seriously like burglary than embezzlement. 3. CJS tend to define minor assaults, aggressive panhandling, and squegging with harsher consequences. 4. Working class is heavily policed. 5. Corporations do far more harm than the number of street crime we have. Burglary and robbery are seen as the most serious type of crime but it is not. 6. Capitalist mode of production: crime results from working class conditions (resorting to crime and drugs). 7. Capitalism itself produces a high rate of criminality. Chambliss: Crime, Power and Legal Process • By the 1970s, Chambliss theoretical position shifted towards a Marxist direction with nine proposition: • Content and Operation of Criminal Laws (SIX) 1. Acts are defined as criminal because it is in the interests of the ruling class to so define them. 2. Members of the ruling class will be able to violate the laws with impunity while members of the subject class with be punished. 3. As capitalist societies industrialize and the gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat widens, penal law will expand in an effort to coerce that proletariat into submission
• •
By the 1970s, Chambliss theoretical position shifted towards a Marxist direction
•
Occupy Wall Street: YouTube video
Consequences of Crime for Society 1. Crime reduces surplus labor by creating employment not only for the criminals but for law enforcers, welfare workers, professors of criminology 2. Crime diverts the lower classes’ attention from the exploitation they experience and directs it toward other members of their own class rather than toward the capitalist class or the economic system 3. Crime is a reality which exists only as it is created by those in the society whose interests are served by its presence
Varieties of Conflict Theory • Four factors behind the shift to new conflict theory: 1. There was a profound skepticism toward any theory that traced crime to something about the individual. 2. There was a marked shift from the assumption that the inadequacies of the CJS were traced to be… 3. Older assumptions that criminal law represented that collective will of the people was rejected: people agree to laws. 4. It has become clear that the official crime rate figures did not reflect the amount of criminal behaviour actually present in society but also that what they did reflect more often was the labelling behaviour of authorities
20140405
Social Power and the Construction of Crime Discussion of Chart: • In Saskatchewan, there are 80% of Aboriginals in jail and only 20% of the overall population. • Incarceration rates are alarming and as a sociologist we have to look at why it is so high? • Positivist perspective you would look at statistics. • It allows governments to ignore the impact to sending so many people to jail. • It serves as a mechanism to ignore how the First Nations people are left with an inferior state. Left with not enough support. • The Red Cross states that there is a humanitarian problem in Canada, which is a first world country in regards to the treatment Aboriginals. • Rates of Commission of Inquiry on Aboriginal issues in Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba. • Poverty and abuse, state crime from the Marxist perspective. Forerunners of Conflict Theory: Marx and Engels • Capitalism was considered to be at the root of the conflict because it was a source of unjust inequality • According to Marx and Engels, the resolution to conflict was to destroy capitalism and build toward the one just form of social solidarity communism • Marx and Engels saw the problem in economic terms, denounced the new division of labour as the unjust exploitation of one social class by another, and insisted that social solidarity could only be regained with the overthrow of capitalism itself. • Conflict was inherent in the nature if social arrangements under capitalism, for it were capitalism that generated the vast differences in interests and capitalism that gave the few at top so much power over many at the bottom. • First, there was the proposition that conflict of interests between different groups will be increases by inequality in the distribution of scarce resources (e.g. food, clothing, shelter). • The instrumental Marxism had tended to portray the capitalist elite as an omniscient few who knew everything and always pulled the strings exactly at the right moment to ensure their interests were served. • It maintains that social conflict is a matter of social dynamics of a particular system. Theory in Context: The Turmoil of the 1960s • Three factors explain the rise of conflict theory: 1. The impact of the war in Vietnam on American society 2. The growth of the counterculture 3. The rising political protest over discrimination and the use of the police power of the state to suppress political dissent
• • •
By the 1960s, criminological conflict theory came into its own Conflict theory highlighted the newly revealed patterns of social division and questioned the legitimacy of the motives, strategies, and the tactics of those in power. Marxism takes a strong hold once other theories came out.
Varieties of Conflict Theory • Four factors behind the shift to new conflict theory: 1. There was a profound scepticism toward any theory that traced crime to something about the individual. 2. There was marked shift from the assumption that the inadequacies of the CJS were traced to be incompetent or corrupt individuals to the conclusion that these problems were inherent in the system 3. Older assumptions that criminal law represented the collective will of the people was rejected 4. It had become clear that the official crime rate figures did not reflect the amoung of criminal behaviour actually present in society but also that what they did reflect more often was the labeling behaviour of the authorities 1. If you are targeting youths they are only being targeted, they are not criminal. 2. Marxist argued that whitecollar crime is largely ignored while other crimes by less privileged and taken more seriously like burglary than embezzlement. 3. CJS tend to define minor assaults, aggressive panhandling, and squegging with harsher consequences. 4. Working class is heavily policed. 5. Corporations do far more harm than the number of street crime we have. Burglary and robbery are seen as the most serious type of crime but it is not. 6. Capitalist mode of production: crime results from working class conditions (resorting to crime and drugs). 7. Capitalism itself produces a high rate of criminality. Chambliss: Crime, Power and Legal Process • By the 1970s, Chambliss theoretical position shifted towards a Marxist direction with nine proposition: • Content and Operation of Criminal Laws (SIX) 1. Acts are defined as criminal because it is in the interests of the ruling class to so define them. 2. Members of the ruling class will be able to violate the laws with impunity while members of the subject class with be punished. 3. As capitalist societies industrialize and the gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat widens, penal law will expand in an effort to coerce that proletariat into submission
• •
By the 1970s, Chambliss theoretical position shifted towards a Marxist direction
•
Occupy Wall Street: YouTube video
Consequences of Crime for Society 1. Crime reduces surplus labor by creating employment not only for the criminals but for law enforcers, welfare workers, professors of criminology 2. Crime diverts the lower classes’ attention from the exploitation they experience and directs it toward other members of their own class rather than toward the capitalist class or the economic system 3. Crime is a reality which exists only as it is created by those in the society whose interests are served by its presence
Varieties of Conflict Theory • Four factors behind the shift to new conflict theory: 1. There was a profound skepticism toward any theory that traced crime to something about the individual. 2. There was a marked shift from the assumption that the inadequacies of the CJS were traced to be… 3. Older assumptions that criminal law represented that collective will of the people was rejected: people agree to laws. 4. It has become clear that the official crime rate figures did not reflect the amount of criminal behaviour actually present in society but also that what they did reflect more often was the labelling behaviour of authorities
