Karl Marx
The Foundation of Critical Criminology
Social Context
Capitalism emerges:
1. The Industrial Revolution
2. The development of overseas markets and products
Capitalist Effects:
 Overcrowding
 Underpaid/overworked
 Unemployment as machines replace people
 Harsh living conditions (urban mass)
 Capitalists: workers are part of the machine
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
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German philosopher,
economist revolutionary
Most influential theorist
Macro level critique
(theoretical scope)
Not focused on crime in
particular
Crime is merely a part of a
broad social system
Material conditions…
Intellectual context
Enlightenment Influence
Traveled across Europe
Begins with Hegel and notion of society (ideas)

Society evolves ‘naturally’ from tribal to rational
Breaks from Hegel
 People MUST be able to realize their potential
 Focus on material reality
 The culmination of a classless society
 People act in their own interests
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If you don’t, its because needs are hidden from
you...
Outlook shaped by material conditions
Pre-Marx
Consensus Model
Enlightenment ideals assumed:
 Homogeneity
 Laws and Social control practices reflects the morals and
norms of the majority
 CJS operates to benefit majority of the population
 Change occurs: ‘evolution’
 Does not questions what is crime and why....
E.g. Social Contract
Conflict Model (Marx)
Law - in both its application and codification - is not
neutral; Law reflects the interests of powerful
segments of society and functions to benefit certain
populations at the expense of others.
Assumes:
 Pluralism: diverse society
 Definitions of deviance tied to dominant ideologies

morals and norms of the powerful
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Change occurs:‘revolution’
Social institutions (including ‘crime’) are ordered by economy
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Historical Materialism
Method of ‘doing history’ by looking at the ‘real’
conditions during particular periods
Veronica Foster
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Economic conditions >> physical conditions
Historically specific modes of production
1.
2.
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productive forces: labour power & means of
production
social and technical relations of production:
relations between classes of people and the objects
of their work.
Materialism: change economic and social relations

E.g. WW2 Factory Demands
Capitalism:
The Superstructure
Class
People are ordered by their
relationship to production

Proletariat: working class
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only have labour
Bourgeois: own the means of
production (e.g. Trump)
Class conflict will lead to
revolution
Capitalist Mode of Production
Capitalism:
 Economic system whereby the means of
production are privately owned by capitalists
who purchase labour power from those who
do not own or have access to the means of
production (proletariat)
Labour power is purchased for wages
Legal process:
Economic power = political power to control or
create laws
Capitalist Mode of Production
Need for capital to realize profit through the
sale of a product produced by a worker

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Worker is paid less than the value that is
contributed to the value of the product or
service
Exploitive relationship between
worker/capitalists
Class
Consciousness
Development – Social Process
Common Vested Interest in
Collective Political Action
Paternalistic Institution
-Factories
-Disciplined workers
-Shift to Immigrant Labour
Capitalism: The Superstructure
Ideology
Ways of thinking support material
reality
Position of ruling class reflected in
ideology
Presented as natural or ‘common
sense’
False Consciousness
People have natural interests & if
they do not behave in these
interests, it is because they have
been deceived about their interests
Punishment & Production….
The rise of factory & prisons
The use of prisoners & slavery
• Docile Bodies (normal?)
• Class conciseness &
resistance
“You say you want a revolution...”
Conflict is inherent to class structure
Revolt is inevitable...
Eventually the oppressed will become
conscious of their exploitation
Socialism without exploitation....
Social control and legislation focused
on quelling uprisings & not
interested in addressing concerns...
Shift from enlightenment’s belief that the
state was ‘naturally neutral’