Capitalism and Commodification of Crime The connection between economics and crime activities is multifaceted and complex. Perhaps as a result of this density, there has been thorough coverage of the issue of crime in connection to capitalism which has become elusive to administrative or mainstream criminology, more especially in the United States, regardless of some occasionally high-profile and ostensibly elaborate attempts to address it. The modern market system is capitalism. It has been grafted into almost the entire economic system. The idea behind this modern economic system, capitalism, is that it is not an economic activity’s usefulness-it’s the fulfillment of the actual need of an individual-that is vital, but it’s only its commodification …show more content…
Together with other renowned opponents of capitalism, Williams (2005) asserts that there is great danger in relying, exclusively, on self-regulating markets. In his view, relying exclusively on market system for organization of life is an ideological, mythical construct that could prove difficult to realize since it would undermine human existence foundations. As he explained it, “deprived of the cultural institutions’ protective coverage citizens of a nation would perish from the consequences of social exposure”. The expansion of capitalist markets in this regard has extensively resulted in commodification of crime. As a result, different studies have been conducted to investigate the significance of social institutions in explaining crime rate variation across diverse institutional …show more content…
Further, he adds that this is best explained as the ability of capitalism to manufacture commodities from both unfounded needs and social problems. Through the use of secondary data, prominent critics have described crime-prevention goods’ consumption and crime trends as a design through which capitalism has contributed to commodification of crime. However, proponents of capitalism argue that this is a mere scheme of the media to undermine capitalism. For instance, in the wake of 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, reports came out from the Western press concerning rapid increase in criminal activities in the “new Russia” (Wright, 2000). These reports chronicled frequent kidnappings, protection rackets, gruesome murders, blatant sexual violence and harassment, extortion schemes, general rise in anxiety and fear among the population, and rampant police and government corruption. Therefore, capitalism and its overpowering influence in the organization of life has been a fundamental cause in the commodification of