Assess the Strengths and Limitations of Marxists Theories in Explaining Crime and Deviance

Assess the strengths and limitations of Marxists theories in explaining crime and deviance

There are many different Marxist views such as traditional Marxism and neo-Marxism. Neo-Marxists are sociologists which have been influenced by many of the ideas put forward by traditional Marxism but they combine these with other approaches such as the labeling theory. Marxist theories of crime, including the more recent neo-Marxist theories, are conflicting approaches. They see society based on conflict between social classes, and social inequality caused by capitalism as the driving force behind crime which helps give a good analysis of crime and deviance and explaining the relation to social class.

Marxists such as Karl Marx believe that society is ideologically manipulated through the law only being applied to less powerful groups such as the young, the working class and blacks. These groups of people are more likely to be arrested, convicted and sent to prison than members of more powerful groups, even if they are causing less damage to society. Statistics show that black people are stopped and searched 5 times more than whites. However, the Marxist explanation of crime as a whole puts too much emphasis on class inequality in relation to crime, and neglects other inequalities such as ethnicity and gender.

Marxists idea of law enforcement believes there is different sentencing for different people, this could be seen as a good issue that Marxists point out when researching crime and deviance and how biased the law can be. Marxists also argue that crime takes place in all classes, but it is mainly the working class who are convicted for their crimes. This is because the police have selective enforcement. Snider argues that there are many white collar and corporate crimes, and argues that these often are more damaging and cost more money and lives than street crimes such as burglary, robbery and murder. Despite the amount of corporate crimes the penalties and...