Can’t we all just get along?
 In


1950-1960s = strain
Policy = provide opportunity to those who lack
means for achieving legitimate success.
Turmoil of 1960s  criminologists become more
skeptical

Politicians and other interests groups lack will to make
real changes
 Cloward and Ohlin story
 Many groups actively oppose providing opportunities
Law reflect shared
belief about what is
wrong
 Law resolves conflicts
and maintains order
 The state is “neutral”
 Bias is temporary and
unintentional

Consensus
Law is an end process
in a conflict over
values
 Bias is built into the
law (winners punish
losers)
 The state (CJS)
responds to the needs
of those in power (not
neutral)

Conflict
 Central




Themes
Emphasis on “inequality” and “power”
Crime as “political” concept
CJS serves interests of powerful
Solution to crime is more equitable society
 EXPLANATION
than crime
OF LAW and CJ SYSTEM rather
 Conflict
Theory
 Marxist/Radical Theory
 Left Realism/Peacemaking
 Feminist Criminology/Gender and Crime
 George

Multiple groups in society with varying levels of
power
▪
Political interest groups
▪
Social movements
▪
Broad segments of society
▪

Vold Group Conflict
Political parties
Those who win conflict get control over the law
and coercive power of the state
 The


Interest groups’ influence on law-making
Research on consensus over laws
 The

formulation of law
operation of the CJS
Research on “extra-legal” variables



“Legal” = prior record, offense seriousness
“extra” = RACE, CLASS, GENDER
Demeanor?
 After
controlling for legal factors, race-CJS
studies are all over the board

Especially if one controls for demeanor (Reiss,
1966 observed police)
 Research



issues
The meaning of prior record and demeanor
How to isolate and study bias
Different stages of the legal system
Racial profiling
▪
▪
▪
Difficult to determine
Minorities more likely to live in high-crime
areas
Alfred Blumstein
▪
Racial disparity in incarceration due largely
to disparities in arrest rates
▪
Blacks at a disadvantage in the criminal justice
system, especially for less serious crimes
 Race

Victim x Race interactions
 Race

and Drug Prosecutions
Long history of connecting drugs to “dangerous”
populations




and Capital Punishment
Chinese  Opium
Mexicans  Marijuana
African Americans  Crack Cocaine e
 “Crack Multiplier”
Enforcement patterns for drug offenses
 Thorston


Cultural conflict theory
Gist: violate laws of the majority simply by
following the norms of one’s own reference
group
 George

Sellin (1938)
Vold (1958)
Group conflict theory (crime that results from
conflict)

Labor strife, protest-related crime
Communist Manifesto
Means of production determine the
structure of society
Capitalism:



•
•
Owners of the means of production
(capitalists)
Workers = proletariat, lumpen proletariat
 The
laboring class produces goods that
exceed the value of their wages (profit)
 The owners invest the profit to reduce the
workforce (technology)
 The workers will no longer be able to afford
the goods produced by the owners
▪
Early attempt to tie Marx and Crime
Together
▪
▪
▪
▪
Altruism as a defining characteristic of
society and human nature
Egoism characterizes capitalist society
Capitalism builds social irresponsibility and
creates a climate of crime
Solution: socialism (which allows altruism to
flourish)
 Instrumental

Hard line position

Crime and the creation and enforcement of law the direct
result of capitalism
 Structural

Marxist Position
Marxist Position
Softer Position


Governments are somewhat autonomous
Over time, the direction of the law (creation and
enforcement) will lean towards the capitalists
 Richard

Quinney (1980)
All Conflict is organized around capitalist versus the poor



Either you are an oppressed lackey or a capitalist
Anyone who does not realize this (or identifies with capitalism)
has false class consciousness
The real power and authority is exclusive to the ruling class
 Primary



goal of capitalists? Maintain Power!
To do this, must trample rights of others
But, also must portray an egalitarian society
Accomplished by controlling media, academics
 Capitalists


control the definition of crime
Laws protect the capitalists (property, $)
Laws ignore crimes of the capitalists
(profiteering)
 CJS
is the tool of the capitalists; used to oppress
(not protect) the working population


Crimes of the rich treated with kid gloves
Property crimes strictly enforced


“Street crimes” are enforced only in poor neighborhoods
Incarceration to control surplus labor
 Crimes




Economic Domination
Crimes of the Government
Crimes of Control
Social Injuries (should be crimes)
 Crimes


of the Capitalists (must control)
of the Lower Class
“Rebellion”
Crimes of “Accommodation”
 The
policy implication of Marxist Criminology
is clear.

Dismantle the capitalist structure in favor of a
socialist structure.
 An
“underdog theory” with little basis in
fact
 Are “socialist societies” any different?
 Other capitalist countries have low crime
rates
 Most crime is poor against poor—Marxists
ignore the plight of the poor.
▪The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison
▪
Key point = harmful acts of the rich are often
ignored (unneccesary surgery, environmental harm, etc.)
White collar crime less serious and less likely to be
enforced

▪
▪
Pollution, Hazardous work conditions, Unsafe products,
Insider trading, Embezzlement, Fraud
Even wealthy people who engage in street crime
are less likely to be formally charged and better
able to avoid sanctioning
Only some forms of capitalism encourage crime
▪
▪
Market economy (compassionate capitalism)


▪
▪
Japan (Top down)
Scandinavian (Bottom up)
Market society (high levels of inequality and poverty)
Solution: softer, gentler capitalist society
Mechanisms that link market societies
to high rates of violence
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Destroys livelihoods
Tendency toward extremes of inequality
Weakens public support
Erodes informal social support
Promotes a culture of competition and
consumption
Deregulates the technology of violence
Weakens alternative political values and
institutions
 Feminist
Criminology
 Relationships between gender, crime, and
the criminal justice system

Gender Ratio and Generalizability
▪
Emphasizes equal opportunity and
importance of sex-role socializations
Focus on “patriarchy”—male
dominance exerted over females
through financial and physical power
▪
Types
▪
▪
▪
▪
Liberal feminism
Socialist feminism
Radical feminism
 Good

example of conflict theory in action
Feminists responsible for shaping the law and law
enforcement


Marital Rape
Intimate Partner Violence
 Feminists
also largely responsible for the
recent focus on gender/crime issues
▪
Gender ratio (Gender Gap)
▪
Males account for the vast majority of
delinquent and criminal offending
▪
▪
UCR, NCVS, self-report
Gender gap shrinking?

Liberation hypothesis (Not supported by
research)
WHY is gender ratio so large?



Can traditional theories explain? (Social bond,
delinquent peers, etc.)
Masculinity & sex roles
 Generaliziblity

Can “Male” theories explain female offending?



issue
Many theories blatantly sexist (See, Cohen)
Many theories simply ignore females
Mainstream theories do explain male and female
offending similarly


Could we do better explaining female criminality?
Salience of sexual/physical abuse among delinquent
girls
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Street women
Harmed-and-harming women
Battered women
Drug-connected women
Other women
▪
Research findings
▪
When gender effects are found, females are
treated more leniently




Chivalry Hypothesis
Paternalism Hypothesis
Seriousness of offense differs in ways that most
research doesn’t count
Sort-of-legal-factors (“familied”)