The social reality of crime

Formulation of definitions of

crime

Application of definitions of

crime

Construction of the ideology of

crime

Development of behavior patterns

in relation to definitions of

crime

Class Struggle & Class Conflict

Conflict Theory of CrimeFrom Richard Quinney, Criminology (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975), pp. 37-41.

I. The Official Definition of Crime

• Crime as a legal definition of human conduct is created by agents of the dominant class in a politically organized society

II. Formulating Definitions of Crime

• Definitions of crime are composed of behaviors that conflict with the interests of the dominant class

III. Applying Definitions of Crime

• Definitions of crime are applied by the class that has the power to shape the enforcement and administration of the law

IV. How Behavior Patterns Develop in Relation to 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.

V. Constructing an Ideology of Crime

• An ideology of crime is constructed and diffused by the dominant class to secure its hegemony (or ideological domination)

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“Social Junk” vs “Social Dynamite”

From Steven Spitzer, The Production of Deviance in Capitalist Society (1975)

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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”

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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 • ideology which supports capitalism

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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 it capitalist order; the rest are “candidates for deviance processing” (68)

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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

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Official social control creates two kinds of problem populations

• social junk

• social dynamite

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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

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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