Alternative Explanations of Crime
Sociology: AQA GCSE, topic 4.1.4
Marxist Explanations of Crime
There are different explanations of crime according to Marxists.
Capitalism
- Marxists believe that the structure of society affects people’s behaviour, and this structure is based on conflict.
- We live in a capitalist society which the bourgeoisie benefits from and the proletariat are exploited by.
- Marxist believes that this eventually leads to crime.
Marxist explanations of crime
- Law creation:
- Laws are created by the bourgeoisie to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie
- Law enforcement:
- Even if laws are created to support everyone, many times the criminal justice system may be biased towards certain groups.
Marxist explanations of crime cont.
- Self-interest:
- Capitalist society promotes consumerism by influencing people to want material things and to compete in order to get them.
- Those who might be relatively deprived still share these goals and can turn to crime in order to achieve them.
Criticisms of Marxist explanations
- They ignore other inequalities such as gender and ethnicity and focus too much on class inequalities.
- They see people as being too passive, with no free will to decide for themselves; they see them as doomed to commit crime when this isn’t always true.
Feminist Explanations of Crime
According to feminists, societies are patriarchal. This means that mainstream sociologists focus mainly on men. Key study: Carlen P, Women, Crime and Poverty (1988).
Feminists
- Feminists argue that:
- Women can be offenders.
- Women can be victims.
- Theories that only applied to men in the past now are seen as equally possible to be applicable to women.
Carlen, 1988
- Carlen is a feminist.
- She used control theory where working-class women have been controlled through the promise of rewards.
- Class deal: offers them consumer goods in return for their wage.
- Gender deal: the breadwinner offers them psychological and material rewards in return for their love and domestic labour.
Carlen cont.
- If these rewards are not available then they might turn to crime.
- She claims that criminal behaviour becomes more likely when social control breaks down.
Criticisms of feminist explanations
- Feminists tend to focus solely on gender inequalities and tend to ignore other inequalities such as ethnicity, class, age.
Test yourself on Alternative Explanations of Crime
Which feminist sociologist studied control theory in 1988?