Neo marxist perspectives
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Transcript of Neo marxist perspectives
Neo-Marxist perspectives of crime
By Chris Thompson sociologytwynham.wordpress.com
Neo-Marxist perspectives
Neo-Marxist approaches are otherwise known as Radical Criminology
This approach starts with Marxist ideas but says it’s far too simplistic as there are wider cultural factors which lead to recidivism
Taylor, Walton and Young (1973) merged Marxism with interactionism and labelling (these latter two areas in effect cultural)
Neo-Marxist- ‘full social theory of deviance’
Taylor, Walton and Young (1973) created a new model of crime which they termed a ‘fully social theory of deviance’
This model locates crime as being a product of the social system the person is immersed in
They identified 7 characteristics evident in their ‘full social theory of deviance’, which are evident in Stuart Hall’s work
Stuart Hall – Policing the crisis
Stuart Hall’s ‘Policing the Crisis’ is a study of a moral panic over ‘mugging’ in the 1970s
In the 1970s a moral panic over mugging happened in Britain
Mugging is a concept which was imported from the US in the 1970s and tended to refer to being robbed by black men
During the 1970s several newspapers repeatedly reported incidents of mugging
Hall –’a crisis of capitalism’
This moral panic was built upon the idea of a collective fear of an ‘enemy within’
Stuart Hall’s ‘full social theory of deviance’ looked at the idea of the Black mugger as a scapegoat for other social ills of the period
Between 1945 and the late 1960s Britain had prospered with full employment and improved living standards.
However the 1970s brought about an economic decline – a ‘crisis of capitalism’
Black Muggers
During this period rapidly rising global oil prices brought high unemployment and a fall in living standards
Wave after wave of strike action brought about civil unrest and the subsequent challenge to social order and the power of the state
Stuart Hall’s point is by making the Black mugger someone to fear, it solidified a fractured UK society around the state
Societal reaction
Subsequently society allowed the state to randomly stop and search Black youths
This labelling of Black youths led to a process of deviancy amplification
Therefore Hall’s idea are more comprehensive as they merge labelling, societal reaction, moral panics and deviancy amplification into a complete ‘social theory of deviance’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7mnijoDVu0
Another example is Paul Gilroy’s: ‘There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack’
Gilroy rejected the view that Blacks’ resorted to crime due to poor socialisation, he said it was a result of ethnic minorities defending themselves against an unjust society
Gilroy saw the resultant riots in Toxteth and Southall in 1981 as political acts
The riots did remove of the ‘sus’ laws brought in by 1970s ‘muggings’
Synoptic
Hall & Gilroy’s perspective is a neo-Marxist one because it examines the influence of culture on law & order policies
Remember neo-Marxists cut the superstructure into two
Gilroy & Hall’s approach emphasises a crisis of capitalism and how political society used civil society (particularly the media) to get its own way
Critics
Some critics point out that some laws like traffic laws cannot be seen as being created by a capitalist class
Lea & Young – Left Realists say Hall’s ideas say nothing about the victims of crime
Neo-Marxist perspectives
By Chris Thompson Sociologytwynham.wordpress.com