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<v Speaker 1>Hello, and welcome to episode four of Crime and Deviants

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<v Speaker 1>for the Sociology Show podcast. In this episode, we'll be

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<v Speaker 1>looking at Marxism and neo Marxism. We will consider how

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<v Speaker 1>do the laws benefit the ruling class, Is crime a

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<v Speaker 1>rational response to capitalism? Is law enforcements selective? And how

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<v Speaker 1>do the working class subcultures resist capitalism? As structuralists, Marxists

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<v Speaker 1>take a macro view that structures of society influence our behavior.

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<v Speaker 1>Unlike functionists who suggest that the structure is good for us,

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<v Speaker 1>Marxist suggests that the structure of capitalism is a problem

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<v Speaker 1>because the bourgeoisie impose their values onto the working class.

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<v Speaker 1>Marxists argue all the crime has its origins in the

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<v Speaker 1>capitalist system and the unequal relation between these two social

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<v Speaker 1>classes where the bourgeoisie control the law and the police.

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<v Speaker 1>The first sociologist we're consider is Snyder, and she says

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<v Speaker 1>that the dominant ideology favors the powerful. Snyder believes that

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<v Speaker 1>criminology focuses on street crime whilst ignoring middle class crime.

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<v Speaker 1>Snyder suggests this is a distortion purposely set up by

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<v Speaker 1>the bourgeoisie to distract away from the types of crimes

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<v Speaker 1>that the bourgeoisie commit, such as white collar and corporate crime.

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<v Speaker 1>She suggests that the ruling class use the agents of

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<v Speaker 1>social control to construct the laws to control and punish

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<v Speaker 1>the working classes, while they apply an exceedingly light touch

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<v Speaker 1>when it comes to the misdemeanors of the powerful. White

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<v Speaker 1>Collar crime consists of crime committed by professionals in the

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<v Speaker 1>course of their employment. There are two types of white

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<v Speaker 1>collar crime. One is occupational crime, and this happens when

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<v Speaker 1>a person in employment commits crime against their employers for

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<v Speaker 1>their own individual benefit. For example, this could be something minor,

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<v Speaker 1>such as stealing paper clips or paper from work, or

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<v Speaker 1>it might include an employee defrauding their employer by making

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<v Speaker 1>false expenses claims. In two thousand and eight, it was

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<v Speaker 1>disclosed that many britishs had claimed for expenses that they

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<v Speaker 1>were not entitle to. A public outcry over the abuse

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<v Speaker 1>of taxpayers money led to revelations that these powerful, wealthy

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<v Speaker 1>people had claimed money back for items which they were

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<v Speaker 1>not entitled to and not essential to their jobs. For example,

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<v Speaker 1>one MP claimed sixteen hundred pounds for a duckhouse for

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<v Speaker 1>its pond. Other MPs had claimed for wallpaper costing one

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<v Speaker 1>hundred pounds a roll, and one had claimed for pawn

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<v Speaker 1>films they'd watched on a pay per view channel in

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<v Speaker 1>a hotel. MPs were found to have faked receipts, use

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<v Speaker 1>false accounting, and paid relatives for jobs they didn't actually

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<v Speaker 1>carry out. These are examples of crimes which Snyder suggests

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<v Speaker 1>are common amongst the rich and powerful, Yet it took

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<v Speaker 1>an investigative journalist four years to get the story taken

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<v Speaker 1>seriously by the police. Most MPs simply paid back the

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<v Speaker 1>sum they had falsely claimed for, rather than being charged

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<v Speaker 1>with the criminal offense. Snyder points out that this is

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<v Speaker 1>different to the way benefit sheets or shoplifters are treated,

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<v Speaker 1>with criminal prosecutions much more common for these crimes. Snyder

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<v Speaker 1>is also interested in corporate crime, the second type of

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<v Speaker 1>white collar crime, which is defined as crime carried out

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<v Speaker 1>by business motivated by a desire to increase profits eye

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<v Speaker 1>crimes that benefit the company. For example, Volkswagen omitted manufacturing

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<v Speaker 1>cars that cheated emissions tests so that eleven million cars

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<v Speaker 1>were sold worldwide that produced pollution that is above the

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<v Speaker 1>legal levels. Though the company were fined, no one has

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<v Speaker 1>gone to prison, despite estimates that the extra pollution worldwide

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<v Speaker 1>will have led to thousands of death Enron and American

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<v Speaker 1>Energy Company carried out false accounting or reported high profit

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<v Speaker 1>which allowed their president can have laid to borrow seventy

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<v Speaker 1>four million dollars from a company before it was made bankrupt.

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<v Speaker 1>Twenty thousand creditors were owed and estimated sixty seven billion dollars.

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<v Speaker 1>Most received less than twenty cents for every dollar they

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<v Speaker 1>were owed. Zineteen thousand people lost their jobs and savings.

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<v Speaker 1>In addition, Snyder suggests that what is considered to be

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<v Speaker 1>legal or illegal reflects the interest of the bourgeoisie. For example,

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<v Speaker 1>the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, the Snowden Report, and

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<v Speaker 1>many others all demonstrate the lengths to which the powerful

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<v Speaker 1>and wealthy would go to protect their assets and make

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<v Speaker 1>more money. The Paradise and Panama Papers revealed massive tax

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<v Speaker 1>avoidance by some of the richest people in the country,

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<v Speaker 1>including the Queen, who were hiding their money in offshore

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<v Speaker 1>accounts and as a result, paying little or no tax.

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<v Speaker 1>Though most of the country were outraged, this practice is

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<v Speaker 1>not illegal. Snyder suggests this is because those who control

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<v Speaker 1>the law, the bourgeoisie, control it in their interests, so

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<v Speaker 1>they would never make such a practice illegal. Snyder therefore

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<v Speaker 1>argues that the middle and upper classes are involved in

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<v Speaker 1>equal amounts of crime as any other class. However, they

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<v Speaker 1>occupy powerful positions which enable them to avoid detection of

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<v Speaker 1>p prosecution. Marxist argued that the amount of money generated

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<v Speaker 1>from white collar crimes comes into billions, yet the government

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<v Speaker 1>seem to focus on criminalizing unemployment benefit cheats, which is

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<v Speaker 1>much less significant financially. Owen Jones, in his book The

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<v Speaker 1>Establishment and How to Get Away with It tells us

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<v Speaker 1>that benefit fraud cost the taxpayers one point two billion

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<v Speaker 1>and is treated as a despicable crime, but tax avoidance

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<v Speaker 1>is worth an estimated twenty five billion per year, and

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<v Speaker 1>accountancy firms will promote tax avoidance schemes because it is

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<v Speaker 1>part of the capitalist ideology. Marxists therefore want us to

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<v Speaker 1>redirect our focus onto white collar crime. They also want

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<v Speaker 1>us to consider what is criminality and what determines who

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<v Speaker 1>is seen as criminal. Onto our second Marxist and we're

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<v Speaker 1>going to look at David Gordon, who uses the phrase

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<v Speaker 1>selective law enforcement. The selective enforcement in the law means

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<v Speaker 1>that despite the law applying to everyone, prosecutions of the

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<v Speaker 1>ruling class are rare, while those against the working class

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<v Speaker 1>are frequent. The occasional prosecution of ruling class crime perpetuates

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<v Speaker 1>the fiction that the law operates for the benefit of

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<v Speaker 1>society as a whole, that the state represents the public interest,

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<v Speaker 1>and the extent of ruling class crime is small. Gordon

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<v Speaker 1>argues that selecting members of the working class and punishing

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<v Speaker 1>them as individuals protects the system, which is primarily responsible

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<v Speaker 1>for their criminal deviance. Individuals are defined as social failures,

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<v Speaker 1>and as such they are responsible for their criminal activities.

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<v Speaker 1>In this way, blame and condemnation are directed at the

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<v Speaker 1>individual rather than the institutions of capitalism. Defining criminals as

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<v Speaker 1>animals and misfits and enemies of the state provides a

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<v Speaker 1>justification for incarcerating them in prisons. This keeps them hidden

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<v Speaker 1>from view and means that most vociferous opponents to capitalism

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<v Speaker 1>are incarcerated. In this way, the most embarrassing extremes produced

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<v Speaker 1>by the capitalist system and neatly swept under the carpet,

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<v Speaker 1>and capitalism continues unquestioned. If something was done to help

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<v Speaker 1>those who broke the law, if their problems were made public,

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<v Speaker 1>the whole system might be questioned. For example, Rainer's study

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<v Speaker 1>of prison population shows us that seventy four percent of

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<v Speaker 1>people who are incarcerated were either unemployed or employed at

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<v Speaker 1>the lowest occupational levels prior to their imprisonment. Therefore, the

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<v Speaker 1>law was fully enforced on these groups, whereas most politicians

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<v Speaker 1>who swindled those taxes were allowed to pay back the

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<v Speaker 1>money or received only a small fine. Guinness, the drinks

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<v Speaker 1>company who made false claims of success which led to

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<v Speaker 1>high share prices in company directors making millions of pounds

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<v Speaker 1>in illegal profits. Only one person involved received a one

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<v Speaker 1>year sentence in Ford Prison, which is an open prison,

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<v Speaker 1>and was released on parole after serving about six months.

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<v Speaker 1>He is still a successful businessman and received a CBE

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<v Speaker 1>in twenty twelve. Another example was the BOPA disaster, an

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<v Speaker 1>American chemical company which caused a gathek that killed ten

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<v Speaker 1>thousand locals on one night in nineteen eighty four, Yet

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<v Speaker 1>no one has been in prison for that crime. These

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<v Speaker 1>are all brief examples of selective law enforcement, i e.

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<v Speaker 1>The law is created for the benefit of capitalism and

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<v Speaker 1>enforced selectively on some groups but not others. Onto Neo Marxism,

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<v Speaker 1>and radical criminology. Neo means new. Therefore, neo Marxists put

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<v Speaker 1>greater emphasis on the role of ideological superstructure, especially the

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<v Speaker 1>media in education, than traditional Marxists do. Neo Marxists argue

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<v Speaker 1>that while capitalism is still central to the importance cultural hegemony,

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<v Speaker 1>this is the idea of the powerful elites is influenced

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<v Speaker 1>and maintained through the role of ideological institutions like education

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<v Speaker 1>and the media. Radical criminologists talk about the power of

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<v Speaker 1>the media in creating scapegoats. Radical criminology is a form

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<v Speaker 1>of neo Marxism which combines Marxist views with interactionism. Hall

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<v Speaker 1>conducted a study called Policing the Crisis, and he argues

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<v Speaker 1>there was a moral panic created about crime and in

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<v Speaker 1>particular mugging by black news. Newspapers ran headlines which suggested

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<v Speaker 1>that young black men were dangerous and as they were

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<v Speaker 1>spearheading a crime wave, they should be avoided, especially when

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<v Speaker 1>it came to mugging and street theft. This media reporting

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<v Speaker 1>alerted the public to a new problem, and concern grew

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<v Speaker 1>for public safety. The public demanded more police on the

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<v Speaker 1>streets to defend them. However, Hall suggests that there is

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<v Speaker 1>no evidence to indicate that the crime of mugging was

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<v Speaker 1>new or increasing, rather than it served a purpose to

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<v Speaker 1>draw attention away from the economic problems, industrial and social unrest,

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<v Speaker 1>the strikes that were going on at the time, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>and so powerful media organizations often try to divert the

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<v Speaker 1>attention away of the public from what's really happening and

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<v Speaker 1>put a blame on the smaller, less powerful, and more

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<v Speaker 1>vulnerable groups. Next we have Shalmless and Chalmless talks about

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<v Speaker 1>capitalist societies being criminogenic. Chalmless argues that capitalism promotes values

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<v Speaker 1>that are likely to lead to crime. For example, values

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<v Speaker 1>such as individualism and competition may lead people to steal

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<v Speaker 1>from each other. Consumerous desires may lead people to shoplift.

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<v Speaker 1>Basing status on money may lead people to commit fraud.

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<v Speaker 1>Being oppressed and exploited may lead people to public disorder

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<v Speaker 1>or violence. The way capitalism generates division between the workers

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<v Speaker 1>may lead to hate crimes. Chalmbress causes set of values criminogenic,

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<v Speaker 1>which means that regardless of a social class, we are

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<v Speaker 1>all socialized into wanting more and more, and therefore everyone,

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<v Speaker 1>whether we're rich or poor, is more likely to commit crime.

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<v Speaker 1>He says, the very nature of capitalism itself leads to crime.

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<v Speaker 1>In a valuation of Marxism, then there are many criticisms

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<v Speaker 1>lots of Marxism, particularly traditional Marxism was written a long

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<v Speaker 1>time ago, and many people say it's quite outdated with

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<v Speaker 1>a postmodern society. We can also use functionism to criticize

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<v Speaker 1>Marxism as well. Functionists of course suggested that there are

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<v Speaker 1>some positives to crime, whereas Marxism only looks through the

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<v Speaker 1>lens of social class. This could also be a criticism

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<v Speaker 1>from the feminist point of view, as feminists argue that

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<v Speaker 1>Marxists only look at social class and don't consider factors

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<v Speaker 1>in relation to gender and why the majority of crime

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<v Speaker 1>is committed by men. You could, also, of course look

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<v Speaker 1>at right realism and left realism as alternative suggestions to

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<v Speaker 1>the Marxist viewpoint, as well as the interactionist view, which

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<v Speaker 1>takes a much more micro interpretivist look at why people

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<v Speaker 1>commit crime. Thank you for listening to the show. If

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<v Speaker 1>you've not yet listened to episodes one, two, and three,

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<v Speaker 1>then please do go back and listen now. Thank you