Basic essay plan for Sociology Essays
“Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess different Marxist views of
the relationship between crime and social class. (21 marks)”
Key terminology for the essay (AO 1)
What are the key terms/ideas you should include in this essay: Ruling class and working class in conflict Who make the law?
Who does it benefit? How is it enforced? What is white collar crime? Who gets away with it and why? How is crime and fear
of crime used to divide and distract the working class? How can capitalism be seen as criminogenic? Is crime by the
working class inevitable or voluntary. Traditional Marxism vs Neo Marxism. Criticism and support from other theories: First
theory to tackle white collar crime, but does it focus too much on this and ignore other aspects? What about he victims of
crime? How can crimes against women or crimes motivated by racial hatred be explained by a Marxist model? Does Neo
Marxism make the criminal into a hero? If capitalism causes crime then why do some capitalist countries have very low
crime rates?
Sociologists
Introduction:
What is Marxism? Two strands: traditional and Neo( sometimes known as new criminology) Conflict
theory: No value consensus guiding society, instead the values of the ruling class (bourgeoisie)
dominate the values of the working class
Names not always
necessary in the
intro, its concepts
the examiner
wants to see here.
Paragraphs 1 & 2: Traditional Marxism. Who makes the law?
Laws are made by the state (government) which represents the interests of the ruling class.



Capitalist states (countries like the UK,USA etc) often unwilling to pass laws which threaten the
profitability of big businesses
Laws which seem to benefit only the working class really benefit the ruling class as well e.g.
health and safety laws benefit capitalism by keeping workers fit for work and loyal to their
employers- that is the real reason they are passed
The law works largely to protect private profit.
How is the law enforced?
Capitalism makes crime inevitable for many of the working class but is a choice within the ruling class
based on greed and the sense that they can get away with it.
Snider 1993
Pearce 1976
Chambliss 1976
Gordon 1991
Crime is widespread in all social classes, there are many examples of white collar crimes e.g. fraud and
corporate crime e.g. corporate negligence and tax evasion which go unchecked, or escape
prosecution because corporations are too powerful and the have the right legal teams to play the
system.
Slapper and
Tombs 1999
Corporate crime costs more in terms of loss of money to the economy and loss of life (think Bophal
disaster) than working class crime such a burglary. But few individuals/corporations are held
accountable and media focus remains on working class crime.
Snider 1993
Evaluation:
Feminists: Marxism ignores the importance of patriarchy influencing the criminal justice system; men
decide what is seen as criminal and what is not. Traditional Marxism focuses too much on economic
factors and ignores women as victims of crime and as offenders
Capitalism doesn’t always produce high crime rates, some countries such as Switzerland have very low
crime rates. Therefore capitalism can not be seen as criminogenic.
Neo Marxism/ New criminology
Crime is a choice, working class criminals are not passive and unable to control their economic state
as traditional Marxism describes, instead crime is deliberate choice to try and change society and
rebel against capitalism or redistribute wealth
Walklate 1989
Jones 2001
Taylor, Wlton and
Young (The New
Criminology)
Each deviant/criminal act needs to be viewed individually and the way society views and labels the
act and person committing it is very important. Ruling class have the power to make rules about the
treatment of criminals and how society reacts. Giving someone a deviant/criminal label may lead to
greater deviance.
Media acts to divide and distract the working class so that they don’t focus on their exploitation by the
ruling class. Fear of crime is very useful to the ruling class in helping them maintain their power, it also
sells a lot of papers- more profit for the ruling class!
Evaluation:
Feminists: Neo Marxism still places too much emphasis on capitalism as the cause of crime and ignores
Hall’s black
muggings study
1978
female victims of male crimes of dominance and victims or crimes of racial hatred. Also no satisfactory
explanation is given as to why women offend.
Left realism: On a later revision on his work Young felt that t Marxism placed too much emphasis on
white collar crime and ignored the damage street crime does to its victims who are often working class
themselves and so no benefitting from any rebellion against the capitalist system. Crime happens as a
result of relative deprivation (when a group feels deprived compared to other groups e.g. residents of
two areas within the same city, or expectations about life style are not met. Crime happens because
of rising expectations about standards of living combined with restricted opportunities of achieving
them (sounds a lot like strain theory!)
Post modernism: Marxism over estimates the power of the ruiling class and weakness of the working
class. Modern technology has taken the power to manipulate the public via the media our of the
ruling classes hands. Minority groups have a voice to respond to labelling with and politicians are held
to account more by an educated public
Walklate 2004
Young 1998
Savage 2004
Conclusions based on the above (AO 2)
The two strands of Marxism can be seen as useful for shining a light on the problem of white collar crime and the reasons
why people from all social classes commit crime however the focus on social class conflict and economic means that other
causes for crime such as gender and issues around ethnicity are over locked. Also within both strands, but particularly neo
Marxism the impact of crime upon the victim is overlooked while the role of the criminal is seen as either beyond personal
responsibility or even heroic.