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Political Debates in Criminology. Dan Ellingworth Tuesday, 11 March 2014. Lecture Outline. Critical Criminology Right Realism New Labour . Marxist Criminology Fully social theory Conflict Theory (class) Law and Order Ideology Critique of CJS
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Political Debates in Criminology Dan Ellingworth Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Lecture Outline • Critical Criminology • Right Realism • New Labour
Marxist Criminology • Fully social theory • Conflict Theory (class) • Law and Order Ideology • Critique of CJS • Critical of link between class and offending • Awareness of link between class and victimisation • Feminist Criminology • Conflict theory (gender) • “Hidden” Crime • Victimisation • Criminology as part of dominant ideology • Suspicion of Official Statistics • Methodological concerns Critical Criminology • Labelling Theory • Subjectivity: no act is inherently deviant • Variability in the application of social control • Social Construction of deviance • The Law causes Crime
Initial Inspiration: Marxism • All aspects of society seen in terms of revolutionary conflict between the working class (proletariat) and the ruling class (bourgeoisie) • A macro-level perspective • Differs from functionalism in that the maintenance of capitalist society is based on conflict, not consensus • Ultimately, this conflict will bring about the end of capitalism • In order to maintain capitalist society, it is necessary for the ruling class to develop a dominant political ideology to justify their position: the law represents part of this ideology • Was Marx a criminologist? Crime …. the struggle of the isolated individual against the predominant relations” (The German Ideology) • an expression of powerlessness of the ‘dangerous classes’ or lumpen-proletariat
Marxist Criminology • Crime is • Egoism and individualism encouraged by capitalism (Willem Bonger) • The criminal law represents a ruling class definition of deviance, which they themselves can break with impunity. The criminal justice system reflects and reinforces class division (eg. Jeffery Reiman) • An expression of class conflict (Paul Q. Hirst) • the criminal law acts to suppress this by force • socialization acts to internalise ruling class ideology
Left Idealism Left Realism • Ian, Taylor, Paul Walton and Jock Young “The New Criminology” • Crime are acts criminalised by the ruling class in their interest: in a society without widespread inequality (i.e. socialism), the power to criminalise would be removed • Viewed the simplicity of left idealism as unrealistic • Crime cannot be seen as an expression of class consciousness • Most working class crime is against the working class • Idealistic forms of Marxism losing political currency in a climate of the rise of the New Right • Need to consider issues of The State, Society, Offenders and Victims
Left Realism’s “Targets” • Orthodox criminology • Crime is not the result of under-socialization • Socialization into capitalist world of egalitarianism and material deprivation causes crime • Crime is not an individualized response, but a group / cultural response • Reliance on Official Statistics • working class criminality is re-emphasised and exaggerated • Reflects “over-policing”, but over-emphasises real differences: under-estimating middle and upper class crime, but also working-class crime • A critical application of statistical evidence, particularly self-report and victimisation studies can inform theory
Conservative Criminology Understanding the Individual: Rejecting the Social Control Punitive Uncritical Common-sense Morality Management of Crime
Control Theories of Criminality • Very different notion of “human nature” from most criminological theories • Traditionally: • How do social structures work to push people to commit crime? • Control Theories: • Why don’t people commit crime? • Human nature essentially anti-social • need to understand how this is controlled Thomas Hobbes
Travis Hirschi “Delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken” • Criminality can be directly equated, in all circumstances, to low self-control • Social bonds act to contain individuals • 4 elements of social bond • Attachment - Interest in each other: to parents, schools, and peers • Commitment - Time and energy spent pursuing conventional actions produces social capital that would be jeopardised by criminal activity • Involvement - “Devil makes work for idle hands” • Belief - Broad agreement with societal values
Right Realism • Politically conservative: consensus position • Not really concerned with identifying causal explanations for offending • "To people who say "crime and drug addiction can only be dealt with by attacking their root causes", I am sometimes inclined, when in a testy mood, to rejoin: "stupidity can only be dealt with by attacking its root causes". I have yet to see a "root cause" or encounter a government programme that has successfully attacked it...". James Q. Wilson • Non-problematic acceptance of official definitions of crime, measurement of offending, and identification of criminality
Aims of Right Realism Deterrence Prevention Punishment Segregation Punishment the key concept
James Q. Wilson • American criminologist and academic: advisor to numerous US presidents on crime since mid-1960s • “Thinking about Crime” • root causes of criminality cannot be identified • increasing punishment as a deterrent unlikely to work • All we can do is to reduce the impact of crime on people’s lives
James Q. Wilson: “Solutions” • At a societal level • A call for re-moralization of society: emphasizing societal bonds • At a micro-level • Adjust the cost / benefit balance of criminality • Make crime too difficult or risky
Administrative Criminology • “Establishment” criminology in UK and USA • An empirical project • A rational choice perspective • A reaction to the perceived failure of criminology to intervene in causes of criminality
Routine Activities Theory: Marcus Felson Crime event will occur when 3 things coincide in time and space Aim: disrupt this coincidence: remove opportunities for crime Motivated Offender Suitable Victim Lack of Capable Guardian Crime
Conservative and Right Realism:Common Themes • Not concerned with explanations for criminality • Rational Choice perspective • Uncritical use of statistical evidence • Unproblematic Criminal / Non-criminal distinction • Management of crime opportunities: surveillance / dispersal of control
Criticisms of Right Realism • Right Realism is an expression of political expediency: an appeal to base fears of • The working class • Ethnic Minorities • The criminal classes • The rejection of search for causes is actually a rejection of theory • Deterrence is an impractical basis for a criminal justice system • Result in denial of civil liberties for the majority
New Labour and Law and Order • A central plank of the New Labour project • Competency, rather than ideology • Competence = toughness • “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” • In Office • “What Works” Agenda • Reduction in Crime Figures, though fear up • No reduction in sentencing severity • Some more liberal steps: Human Rights Act; Macpherson Report; some Youth Justice changes; multi-agency work; restorative justice • Managerialism