CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY:
POWER, PEACE, AND CRIME
Critical Criminology
• Came into prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s
• These criminologists lived through the social turmoil of the 1960s
• Vietnam, Kent State, Attica, Watergate, etc.
• Realized inequality was deeply entrenched and those in power wished
to reinforce, and not change, the status quo
• Argued traditional theories are intellectually sterile and dangerous
• Ignored and left unchallenged the powerful interests that benefited from
this inequality
• Also called conflict, radical, and Marxian criminology
Central Themes of Critical Criminology
• Concepts of inequality and power are integral to
understanding crime
• Building off the work of Karl Marx, critical criminology
notes that capitalism enriches some and impoverishes
many
• Produces a wide economic gap
• The state operates to legitimatize
and protect social arrangements
that benefit those profiting from
capitalism
Central Themes of Critical Criminology
• Crime is “political”
• What is and is not outlawed reflects the power structure in society
• Injurious acts of the poor are defined as crime while injurious acts of the
wealthy and powerful are not
• Critical criminologists argue crime should be defined as a violation
of human rights
Central Themes of Critical Criminology
• See the criminal justice system as serving the interests of
the capitalist class
• Set up to process poor and minority offenders
• Ignores rich and corporate offenders
• Criminal justice officials break the law as well
• Police brutality, receiving pay-offs, etc.
• Capitalist class uses power to commit crimes against its own
dissident citizens
Central Themes of Critical Criminology
• See capitalism as the root cause of criminal behavior
• Under capitalism, the human needs of the poor are ignored
• The poor face demoralizing living conditions that foster crime
by stunting healthy development
• Creates fertile environment for crimes by corporations
• Pressure for profits, lax state
regulation, infrequent application
of criminal penalties
• Can lead to huge economic losses
and violence (e.g., exposing people
to toxins, defective products, etc.)
Central Themes of Critical Criminology
• The solution to crime is the creation of a more equitable
society
• Support humane policies aimed at preventing harm
• Engage in political activity advocating a fairer distribution of wealth
and power
• For many, the goal of this reform effort is a socialist economy
combined with a democratic political system sensitive to the needs
of all citizens
Capitalism and Crime
• Marx and capitalism
• Bourgeoisie
• Those who own the means
of production
• Proletariat
• Workers who did not own the means of production and have
to sell their labor for wages
• Capitalism results in the demoralization of the working class
• This condition is only alleviated when workers bond together,
revolt, and create a socialist class
Bonger: Criminality and Economic
Conditions
• Willem Bonger was the first to apply Marxist thought to crime
• Central thesis: The capitalist mode of production breeds crime
• Key proximate cause of criminality is the mental state of egoism
• Egoism is rooted in economic relations
• Ruthless competition and the exploitation of others in the pursuit of profit
• Society based upon exchange isolates individuals by weakening the bond that
unites them
• The larger social good is ignored; people only think of their own interests even
to the detriment of others
• The social sentiment of altruism fosters prosocial behavior, but is stifled
in a capitalist society
Bonger: Criminality and Economic
Conditions
• In a capitalist society, the workingman sells his labor only in order
to not die of hunger
• The capitalists take advantage of this and exploit the workers
• The capitalists (bourgeoisie) do not feel morally tied to others and
view people as “things” meant to serve them
• Capitalists also are opposed to other capitalists in competition with
them
• Want to injure their competitors
• “Bourgeoisie environment”—honesty is only valued as long as it
does not interfere with one’s advantage
• Can commit crime undetected and have little to fear from the law
Bonger: Criminality and Economic
Conditions
• The proletariat
• Are dependent on the bourgeoisie and live in a subordinate
position while feeling poor and deprived
• Sell labor to survive, often at a very early age
• This leads to the young thinking only of their own interests
• They come into contact with people who are bad influences
• They become independent when at an age where they need
guidance
• The above factors can lead to
increases in crime
Bonger: Criminality and Economic
Conditions
• The proletariat
• Often live in very poor housing conditions
• Has an impact on their criminality
• Have to spend much time on the streets
and come into contact with antisocial others
• Exposed to constant turmoil and conflict
• Unemployment is a constant threat so often compete with
one another to maintain work
• Insecurity in working position is very demoralizing
• Often spend wages as soon as they receive them
Bonger: Criminality and Economic
Conditions
• The lower proletariat
• Do not succeed in selling their labor
• Very dire poverty
• Chronic poverty
• Struggles to survive
• Proletariat class has self-respect because they know they are
needed, while the lower proletariat sees self as a detriment to
society
Bonger: Criminality and Economic
Conditions
• Concludes that economic conditions play an
important role in crime
• Capitalism weakens social feelings leading to egoism
• One group (bourgeoisie) can exploit the other
(proletariat)
• Capitalism can be blamed for sexual, violent,
vengeful, economic, and political crime
• To reduce crime, need to replace capitalism with
socialism where the means of production are
commonly held
Richard Quinney
• Richard Quinney postulates in order for a capitalist
society to operate, the capitalist class must exploit the
labor of the working class
• The working class as an exploited class exists as long as labor is
required in the productive process
• Class conflict typifies the
development of capitalism
Richard Quinney
•
•
Argues the contradictions of capitalism heighten
the class struggle and thus increase:
1.
The need to dominate and repress by the capitalist class
2.
The need to accommodate and resist by the classes
exploited by capitalism
The capitalists commit economic crimes, deny
human rights, and use the state to protect their
interests and repress the poor
Richard Quinney
• When the working class begins to recognize that the state
is repressive, crime becomes politically conscious
• At an extreme state, this can lead to a revolt
• Actions against the state with an attempt to overthrow it
Richard Quinney
• To prevent and stop criminal behavior, the only solution is
socialism
• All oppressed people need to come together and form a mass
socialist movement
• Crime is a product of the material and spiritual contradictions of
capitalism
• The socialist struggle requires religious consciousness and class
consciousness
• The transition is both political and religious
Pathways to Crime
• Although Bonger and Quinney’s work sensitized scholars
to the processes involved in producing crime, they did not
detail the specific factors under capitalism that foster
criminal conduct
• Elliott Currie and Mark Colvin have attempted to
illuminate these mechanisms
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
• Capitalism is the root cause of crime, especially the high rate of violent crime in
the U.S.
• Capitalism comes in multiple forms
• “Compassionate capitalism”—stresses social solidarity, equity, and community values
• Bottom-up approach
• Seen in Scandinavia
• “Keiretsu capitalism”—paternalistic
• Top-down approach
• Seen in Japan
• “Contingent” or harsh brand capitalism—seen in the U.S.
• Leads to socially isolated and economically
impoverished minority communities that are highly
conducive to crime
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
• Currie referred to a “market society”
• The pursuit of personal economic gain becomes increasingly
the dominant organizing principle of social life
• Market principles suffuse the whole social fabric (not
confined only to the economy)
• Argues market societies are Darwinian societies
• Offer few “cushions” against the labor market and minimal
public provisions of social support
• Sees the market economy as an amoral force that robs
people of their jobs, fails to care for at-risk kids and families,
and acquits the government from doing much about the
human costs of inequality
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
• This market society explains recent upsurges of violence
in Russia and China and the long-term high violent crime
rates in the U.S.
• Identifies seven pathways through which the market
economy creates high rates of serious crime in the U.S.
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
•
Pathways to crime
Market society breeds violent crime by destroying livelihoods
1.
•
Long-term absence of opportunities for stable and rewarding work
breeds alienation, undercuts having a stake in society, and exerts
pressure to participate in crime
•
Steady work bonds individuals and allows for desistence
•
Long-term unemployment disrupts family formation and diminishes the
capacity for adults to be role models and agents of socialization
•
Overwork in poorly paid jobs reduces the capacity of parents to
provide a nurturing environment
•
Long-term unemployment breeds illicit enterprises
•
Market societies seek to cheapen labor (lower wages)
and/or eliminate it altogether
•
Spends very little on job training services
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
•
Pathways to crime
2.
The market society has an inherent tendency toward
extremes of inequality and material deprivation
• Due to the elimination of good work and the resistance of
market societies against governmental intervention to
offset the inadequacy of labor markets
• The U.S. has an extremely wide spread of inequality and
high child poverty rates
• Evidence for an association between income
inequality/poverty and homicide, aggravated assault, and
child abuse
• Poverty inhibits intellectual and social development among
children and predisposes them toward school failure and
future poverty
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
•
Pathways to crime
The market society weakens other kinds of public support
3.
•
Individuals are forced to rely on individual efforts to secure
resources
•
Parents have to take multiple low paying jobs, thus are not
there to nurture and supervise their children
•
The U.S., unlike other countries, does not provide
universal care for 3- to 5-year-olds
•
The U.S. does not have a national health system
to supply preventative and prenatal healthcare
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
•
Pathways to crime
4.
Market societies withdraw public supports while
simultaneously eroding informal social supports and
networks of care
• Splits extended families and creates communities
characterized by rapid geographical mobility and the
consequent “thinning” of networks of close friendships and
mutual care
• See communities with few public agencies
• Social impoverishment occurs and youth gangs and drug
dealers may become the dominant informal control and
support systems
• Associated with child abuse
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
•
Pathways to crime
5. Market economies produce crime by promoting a culture that
exalts atomized and often brutal individual competition and
consumption over the values of community, contribution, and
productive work
•
Consumer values are pronounced
•
Insistent pressure to acquire and consume
•
Materialism
•
Craft values have declined
•
•
Values of job well done, pleasure in productive work
Normal brutality
•
The advancement of some is contingent on the fall of others
•
Feelings of unconcern and nonresponsibility for others is rampant
•
Unbonded from society—look out only for self
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
•
Pathways to crime
Market societies deregulate the technology of violence
6.
•
Virtual absence of national-level regulations on the sale and
possession of firearms
•
U.S. has a proliferation of firearms, especially handguns
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
•
Pathways to crime
Market societies weaken and erode alternative political values
and institutions
7.
•
If strong political or communal organizations are present to promote
collective well-being, the frustrations of the economy will be
channeled into constructive social action
•
In market societies, these organizations are weak or not present
•
People respond to their frustrations by lashing out and engaging in
criminal behavior
Currie: “Crime in a Market Society”
• To alter these pathways:
• Attempt to have full employment at socially meaningful work
with good wages
• Reasonable work hours
• Expand employment in public and nonprofit sectors of the
economy
• Worksharing and reduction of work time policies
• Have health and mental healthcare,
public schooling, childcare, and skills
training programs
Pathways to Crime
• Mark Colvin also illuminates another pathway to
crime
• He and John Pauly argue parents’ class position in the labor
market shapes the methods they use to exercise control over
their children
• Those employed in the secondary labor market are controlled
through coercive sanctions and import this style of control into
the home coercively disciplining their children
• Coercive parenting is counterproductive, alienates children,
and weakens bonds to parents
• Often leads to problem behavior at school where they associate with
other alienated youth leading to more problem behavior
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• Colvin provides a comprehensive integrated theory of
chronic criminality
• Differential coercion theory
• Attempts to understand how different degrees of coercion
can lead to criminal and non-criminal outcomes
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• Understands coercion is one of the main elements in criminal
behavior
• Coercion is compelling someone to act in a certain way through
either direct force and intimidation or through the pressure of
impersonal economic or social forces
• Can be threats or actions
• Appears in multiple settings (e.g., school, work, family, peers, state)
• Can range from high coercion to complete noncoercion
• Physically and/or emotionally painful
• The other main element is the degree of consistency
• Can range from highly consistent to highly erratic
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
•
These two elements, coercion and consistency, create
four types of control
1.
Noncoercive, consistent control (Type 1)
2.
Noncoercive, erratic control (Type 2)
3.
Coercive, consistent control (Type 3)
4.
Coercive, erratic control (Type 4)
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• In general, the greater the degree of coercion, the greater the
criminal involvement
• People are most at-risk for crime when they endure coercion that is
harsh and erratic
• Social-psychological deficits intervene between the coercion and
the outcome behavior
• Coercion can increase coercive ideation, anger, and humiliation
while decreasing self-control, social bonds, and self-efficacy
• Coercive ideation—the individual views the world as coercive and feels
it can only be overcome from acting coercively in return
• Notice these are factors discussed in other sociological theories of
crime
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• Type 1: Consistent, noncoercive
• Strong social support is provided
• Produces: low
anger, high self-control, internal locus of
control, high self-efficacy, strong social bonds, no
models of coercive behavior, no control surpluses or
deficits
• Leads to:
• Generally, noncriminal behavior
• Strong tendency to engage in prosocial behavior
• Least likely to lead to crime
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• Type 2: Erratic, noncoercive
• Lenient, lax, and permissive with a detached interest of the
controller
• Subject often ignored and often not exposed to serious intervention
• Feeble, erratic social support
• Control to manipulate the subject’s behavior
• Produces: low anger, low self-control, internal locus of control, high
self-efficacy, intermediate bonds, no modeling of coercion, control
surpluses
• Leads to:
• Strong tendency to explore pleasurable deviant activities
• Lying and manipulation of authority figures
(indifferent to authorities)
• Strong predisposition for less predatory, minor street crimes
• Predisposition for white-collar criminality
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• Type 3: Consistent, coercive
• Highly punitive relationship with weak support
• Produces: high self-directed anger, rigid self-control, external locus
of control, low self-efficacy, strong coercive modeling, control
deficits
• Leads to:
• Low probability of criminal behavior
• Low probability of prosocial behavior
• High probability of mental illness
• Potential for enraged assault/murder
• Rewards rarely given
• Become fearful, submissive, and depressed
with a sense of resignation to authority
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• Type 4: Erratic, coercive
• Social support weak to non-existent
• Produces: high other-directed anger, low self-control, external locus
of control, low self-efficacy, weak/negative social bonds, strong
coercive modeling, control deficits, humiliation
• Leads to:
• Defiant/hostile acts toward authority figures
• Coercion/intimidation of others
• Predisposition for chronic involvement in predatory
street crimes
• Subject feels his/her behavior makes little
difference in the long run
• Subjects become very impulsive
Colvin: Crime and Coercion
• Linking back to the U.S., Colvin argues impersonal and
interpersonal coercion is tied to inequality and thus is
especially high in the U.S.
• Supportive social and criminal justice policies that reduce multiple
forms of coercion will lead to a reduction in crime
Pathways to Crime
• Both Currie and Colvin can be seen as falling in to a
brand of critical criminology called “left realism”
• Favor creating a society that is truly equitable and democratic
• Inequality in living conditions and political influence is unjustified
• Support policies for early intervention, universal health and childcare,
public job programs, living wage laws, and progressive tax policies
Peacemaking Criminology
• Later in his career, Richard Quinney postulated
peacemaking criminology
• Attempts to show how individuals and social policies might
create conditions in which the sources of crime will not be
nourished
• Suggests individuals are on a spiritual journey involving
transcending one’s egocentric self to understand the
suffering in ourselves and the world
• Inner peace and peacemaking actions are intertwined and
reinforcing
• Crime is suffering and the ending of crime is possible only with the
end of suffering
• Advancing peace and diminishing suffering requires social justice
Peacemaking Criminology
• Goal of peacemaking criminology is to seek to end
suffering and eliminate crime
• Without peace within us and in our actions, there can be no peace
in our results
• Peace is the way
• Peacemaking criminologists often do
not provide empirical evidence
• However, Fuller and Wozniak (2006) derived a set of 17
propositions to make it testable
• Argue that when underlying social harms are consistently addressed
that individuals who are responsive, mindful, and connected will be less
involved in crime
Peacemaking Criminology
• Criminologists should use their knowledge to create social
justice
• Reject “get tough” responses as fighting suffering with more
suffering
• Favor restorative justice programs
Summary
• Critical criminology came into prominence in the 1960s
and 1970s at a time when there was much distrust in
the government
• Early theories blamed capitalism for the high crime
rates in the U.S. (Bonger; Quinney); however, these
theories did not address the actual pathways that
capitalism led to crime
• Both Currie and Colvin addressed the pathways in
which capitalism and coercion lead to high rates of
crime
• Finally, Quinney proposed a peacemaking criminology
that focuses nonviolent and compassionate interactions
of individuals to control crime