Conflict Theory
of Crime
From Richard Quinney, Criminology (Boston:
Little, Brown, 1975), pp. 37-41.
Formulation of
definitions of
crime
Application of
definitions of
crime
Class Struggle
& Class Conflict
Construction of
the ideology of
crime
Development of
behavior patterns
in relation to
definitions of
crime
The social reality of crime
• Crime as a legal definition of human conduct is created
by agents of the dominant class in a politically organized
society
I. The Official Definition of
Crime
• Definitions of crime are composed of behaviors that
conflict with the interests of the dominant class
II. Formulating Definitions
of Crime
• Definitions of crime are applied by the class that has the
power to shape the enforcement and administration of the
law
III. Applying Definitions of
Crime
• Behavior patterns are structured in relation to definitions
of crime, and within this context people engage in actions
that have relative probabilities of being defined as
criminal.
IV. How Behavior Patterns
Develop in Relation to
Definitions of Crime
• An ideology of crime is constructed and diffused by the
dominant class to secure its hegemony (or ideological
domination)
V. Constructing an
Ideology of Crime
“Social Junk” vs
“Social Dynamite”
From Steven Spitzer, The Production of Deviance
in Capitalist Society (1975)
8
Deviance within capitalist society
• the capitalist mode of production has two key
features:
• it forms the foundation or infrastructure of society
• it contains internal contradictions
• Marxist theory illustrates the relationship
between specific contradictions, the problems of
capitalist development, and the production of a
“deviant class”
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Infrastructure &
Superstructure
• superstructure: the ideologies that dominate a
particular era, all that "men say, imagine,
conceive," including such things as "politics,
laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc."
• emerges from and reflects the ongoing development of
economic forces (infrastructure)
• in class societies, the superstructure preserves the
hegemony of the ruling class through a system of class
controls, which are institutionalized in:
• family, church, private associations, media, schools & the state
• key function of the superstructure is the regulation and
management of “problem populations”
10
Problem populations become eligible for
management as deviant when they disturb,
hinder, or call into question:
•
•
•
•
•
capitalist modes of appropriation
social conditions of production
patterns of distribution & consumption
capitalist socialization processes
the ideology which supports capitalism
11
problem populations
• tend to share social characteristics
• most important is the fact that their behavior, personal
qualities, and/or position threaten the social relations of
production in capitalist societies
• are not synonymous w/deviant populations
• some members of problem populations are successfully
transformed into supporters of the capitalist order; the rest
are “candidates for deviance processing” (68)
12
Problem populations are created in 2 ways
• directly: as a product of the contradictions of capitalism
• by creating a “relative surplus population,” i.e., people who are
unemployed and disposable, whose labor is not required for the
system
• indirectly: through disturbances in the system of class rule
• when institutions, e.g., mass education, fails to promote the
values of bourgeois/capitalist society
13
Official social control creates two
kinds of problem populations
• social junk
• social dynamite
14
social junk
• a group that fails to participate in the roles supportive
of capitalist society
• they are viewed as costly yet relatively harmless by
the dominant class
• e.g., the officially administered aged, the handicapped,
the mentally ill and mentally disabled
• social control is managed by the therapeutic &
welfare state, i.e., programs like Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid
15
social dynamite
• a group with the potential to call into question
established relationships, esp. relations of
production and domination
• poses a more acute problem that requires rapid
and focused expenditures
• tends to be more youthful, alienated, and
politically more volatile than social junk
• social control is handled by the legal/criminal
justice system
16