Political Debates in Criminology

Dan Ellingworth

Tuesday 18 April 2023

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

Labelling Theory• Subjectivity: no act is inherently deviant• Variability in the application of social control• Social Construction of deviance• The Law causes Crime

Critical Criminology

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

Morality

PunitiveUncritical Common-sense

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

1. Attachment - Interest in each other: to parents, schools, and peers

2. Commitment - Time and energy spent pursuing conventional actions produces social capital that would be jeopardised by criminal activity

3. Involvement - “Devil makes work for idle hands”

4. 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

Prevention Deterrence

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

Crime event will occur when 3 things coincide in time and space

Aim: disrupt this coincidence: remove opportunities for crime

Routine Activities Theory: Marcus Felson

Motivated Offender

Lack of Capable Guardian

Suitable Victim

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