Karl Marxism And Crime

Throughout history, the function of law plays an inevitable part of a society. Law has been defined in many different ways. The general definition of the law is a formalistic approach which a rule of conduct and action is prescribed to control authority and legal binding force (Melvin, 2011). Marx and Engels stated that the key constitutional function of law was to obscure power through treating everyone in society equally (Inderbitzin, Bates & Gainey, 2014). However, Marxists argue that those who established the law tend to neglect inquiry as they are in favour to preserve their own material basis and those who have elite power (Quinney, 1974). Thus, the law in capitalist society has come to be understood as a political recognition which heavily

This essay will then discuss the relation to how laws and the responses to them reflect the wishes and ideologies of the ruling class. Furthermore, this essay will use examples to illustrate the responses to laws and the way laws present different treatments between the ruling class and working class. It will go on and explore Marxist perspective with respect to the responses to laws through the understanding of crime and punishment. Finally, this essay will further offer some critiques. Karl Marx was the most influential sociologist from the 19th century who sought to look at the rise of the capitalist system of exploitation based on unequal power. As a result of doing this, Marx developed later theorists to further investigate how capitalism affects the creation and the responses of laws. According to Karl Marx, every member of the society is divided into two separate classes, the bourgeoisie (ruling class) and the proletariat (working class) (Somashekar, 2007).

In general, laws are meant to be followed by everyone in a political jurisdiction, and violations often provoke severe punishment (Clinard & Meier, 2015). As stated by Younkins (2002), the main aim of having laws in society is to protect basic individual rights, liberty, equality, and moral agency. However, Spitzer (1983) proposed that there is barely any form of incentive to distinguish public law and state policy. This is because the state itself is generated by the bourgeoisie. Consequently, this link to the Marxist theory. Marx perceives that power in capitalist society is largely held by the bourgeoisie and laws are imposed the ideology of the bourgeoisie (Mwanzia, 2017). The American Criminologist, Richard Quinney further developed Marx’s work and fulfills the superstructure law part of the society. According to Quinney (1974), the creation of laws reflects and secures the interests of those who have power - the bourgeoisie. He stated that the representatives of law include police, prosecutors, and judges, which all serve as the military force to protect the ideology of the bourgeoisie (Quinney, 1974). Because of this structure, laws in the capitalist society heavily assist the economic system rather than the interests of the members of the capitalist class (Hudson, 2003). Simply put, the meaning of the law is not enforced to protect