Social Conflict Theory

Conflict promotes crime by creating a social atmosphere in which the law is a mechanism for controlling dissatisfied, have-not members of society while the wealthy maintain their power.
1. Crime is a political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes at the expense of the poor.
Founded by Karl Marx.
The Social Reality of Crime - Richard Quinney proclaimed that in contemporary society, criminal law represents the interests of those who hold power in society. He formulated several basic principles that inform the relationship between law, power, and crime: Where there is conflict between social groups—the wealthy and the poor—those who hold power will create laws that benefit themselves and keep rivals in check. Law is not an abstract body of rules that represents an objective moral code. Rather, law is an integral part of society, a force that represents a way of life, and a method of doing things. Crime is a function of power relations and an inevitable result of social conflict. Criminals are not simply social misfits but people who have come up short in the struggle for success and are seeking alternative means of achieving wealth, status, or even survival.
Supranational criminology - the study of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the supranational penal system in which such crimes are prosecuted and tried.
State organised crime - acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials, both elected or appointed, while holding their positions as government representatives.
1. Political corruption - State crimes can involve violation of citizen trust through soliciting bribes (usually money or some other economic benefit, such as a gift or service).
2. Illegal Domestic Surveillance - This occurs when government agents listen in on telephone conversations or intercept emails without proper approval in order to stifle dissent and monitor political opponents.
3. Human Rights Violations - Some governments, routinely deny their citizens basic civil rights, holding them without trial and using "disappearances" and summary executions to rid themselves of political dissidents.
4. State–Corporate Crime - This type of state crime is committed by individuals who abuse their state authority or who fail to exercise it when working with people and organizations in the private sector.
5. State Violence - Sometimes governments engage in violence to maintain their power over dissident groups. An army of police officers may form death squads — armed vigilante groups that kill suspected political opponents or other undesirables.
As more people are thrust outside the economic mainstream—a condition referred to as marginalization —a larger portion of the population is forced to live in areas conducive to crime. Once people are marginalized, commitment to the system declines, producing another criminogenic force: a weakened bond to society.
Globalisation - refers to the process of creating transnational markets and political and legal systems. Globalization has replaced imperialism and colonization as a new form of economic domination and oppression.
1. Threats from globalisation - Growing global dominance and the reach of the free-market capitalist system, which disproportionately benefits wealthy and powerful organizations and individuals. Increasing vulnerability of indigenous peoples with a traditional way of life to the forces of globalised capitalism. Growing influence and impact of international financial institutions (such as the World Bank). The relative decline in the power of local or state-based institutions. Nondemocratic operation of international financial institutions
Marginalization —a larger portion of the population is forced to live in areas conducive to crime
U.S. authorities have condoned harsh interrogation techniques that combine physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, waterboarding, and exposure to extreme cold.
Instrumental theory - the law and justice system serves the powerful and rich and enables them to impose their morality and standards of behavior on the entire society. Under the capitalist system, the poor are driven to crime because frustration naturally exists in a society in which affluence is well publicized but unattainable.
1. According to instrumental theory Criminological theories that focus on family structure, intelligence, peer relations, and school performance keep the lower classes servile by showing why they are more criminal, less intelligent, and more prone to school failure and family problems than the middle class.
structural theory , the law is designed to keep the system operating efficiently, and anyone, worker or owner, who rocks the boat is targeted for sanction.
Critical criminologists rarely use standard social science methodologies to test their views because many believe the traditional approach of measuring research subjects is antihuman and insensitive.
Research by Albert Meehan and Michael Ponder found that police are more likely to use racial profiling to stop black motorists as they travel farther into the boundaries of predominantly white neighborhoods
Both white and black offenders have been found to receive stricter sentences if their personal characteristics (single, young, urban, male) show them to be members of the "dangerous classes."
Left realism - Approach that sees crime as a function of relative depravation under capitalism and favours pragmatic community based crime prevention and control.
1. Street criminals prey on the poor and disenfranchised, thus making the poor doubly abused, first by the capitalist system and then by members of their own class.
2. The left realists wish, however, that police would reduce their use of force and increase their sensitivity to the public.
3. Preemptive deterrence is an approach in which community organization efforts eliminate or reduce crime before police involvement becomes necessary. The reasoning behind this approach is that if the number of marginalized youths (those who feel they are not part of society and have nothing to lose by committing crime) could be reduced, then delinquency rates would decline.
Critical feminist theory - views gender inequality as stemming from the unequal power of men and women in a capitalist society, which leads to the exploitation of women by fathers and husbands. Under this system, women are considered a commodity worth possessing, much like land or money.
1. James Messerschmidt argues that capitalist society is marked by both patriarchy and class conflict. Capitalists control the labor of workers, and men control women both economically and biologically. This "double marginality" explains why females in a capitalist society commit fewer crimes than males. Because they are isolated in the family, they have fewer opportunities to engage in elite deviance (white-collar and economic crimes).
2. Because capitalism renders lower-class women powerless, they tend to commit less serious, nonviolent, self-destructive crimes, such as abusing drugs.
3. Women's victimization rates decline as they are empowered socially, economically, and legally.
4. Power-control theory
  1. John Hagan's view is that crime and delinquency rates are a function of two factors: (1) class position (power) and (2) family functions (control).
  2. In paternalistic families , fathers assume the traditional role of breadwinners, while mothers tend to have menial jobs or remain at home to supervise domestic matters. Within the paternalistic home, mothers are expected to control the behavior of their daughters, while granting greater freedom to sons.
  3. In egalitarian families —those in which the husband and wife share similar positions of power at home and in the workplace—daughters gain a kind of freedom that reflects reduced parental control. These families produce daughters whose law-violating behavior mirrors their brothers'.
Peacemaking criminology - the main purpose of criminology is to promote a peaceful, just society. a key avenue for preventing crime is, in the short run, diminishing the suffering poverty causes and, in the long run, embracing social policies that reduce the prevalence of economic suffering in contemporary society.
restorative justice - Using humanistic, non punitive strategies to restore social harmony.

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Social Conflict Theory

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	Created by Wendy Frogley over 10 years ago