Marxism And Crime

Karl Marx’s theory correlates the relationship between individual’s lives and the mode of production. While viewing the means of production between individuals Marx found that an individual’s class places them on a structure like a pyramid. In the 1970s Marx’s theory had a major impact as the foundation for understanding crime in a capitalistic, political economy. He made understanding crime as not an issue of biological or spiritual, etc. but rather an issue of unfair class systems and the means used to achieve “happiness” when stuck in a stagnant position (Chambliss,1975). In this capitalistic society, there are those who rule like the king and the church, those who protect otherwise known as the militia, the middle class and lastly the

On the positive side though, crime takes away competition among laborers. The “criminal” as Marx found is a “counterweight” used to correct balance and open new, useful occupations like a police officer, judges, juries, etc. (Chambliss,1975). The negative outlook is this harsh reality of treatment. In Marx’s view, the ruling class not only has control of the law but can also violate the laws they created or bend it to a less or greater punishment depending on the individual. Although this capitalist system creates balance there are consequences as well. These consequences although creates a divide between the ruling class and the working class as well as creating deviance within the system, also provide community unity between classes (Chambliss,1975). The one thing these different classes shared was criminal acts committed against them. It is because of this that allowed for Marx to define the etiology of criminal behavior as family backgrounds, differential association, cultural deprivation, opportunity theory, etc. The etiology of criminal behavior also showed that dependent on the economic system, whether it be capitalistic or socialistic, determines how individuals based on their class act rationally as well as determines the type of crime they may commit