Assess the usefulness of Marxist approaches to an understanding of crime and deviance in contemporary society Marxist criminologists argue that the state passes laws which support ruling-class interests, and maintain its control and power over the subject class. They put forward the view that laws do not reflect value consensus, but instead reflect the values of ruling class ideology. Therefore, laws work towards false class consciousness, as laws only benefit the ruling minority. Many Marxists also argue that there are a vast number of laws protecting property, and Snider (1993) argued the state is often reluctant to pass laws which might threaten profitability. She also argued capitalist states often pour large amounts of money into attracting business; for example offering new investors tax concessions and grants.
Of course, those already in power bitterly resent this; that is why there is such a strong anti-democratic streak in wealthy conservatives and business owners. They complain that democracy allows the poor to legally steal from the rich. (Liberals counter that unregulated capitalism allows the rich to exploit and therefore steal from the poor, and taxes simply correct for that.) But democracy also works in the other direction as well. If we lived in a society where everyone was paid equally, despite their different inputs, people would surely vote to create a system of incentives and rewards.
Pluralists believe that the mass media is reflective of social reality, and acts as a 'mirror'. They state that it has a functional role in meeting the demands of its mass audience, and thus owes a duty to the people. Marxists on the other hand would argue that the media constructs desires and creates social reality. In other words it is a sculptor of a worldview and distorts social reality which is based on exploitation of a powerless majority, thus it is an ideological tool of the powerful bourgeoisie and reflects their interests. Over eighty percent of the media is owned by Trans National Corporations.
Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848). Social class, therefore, is based upon economic criteria and conflict occurs between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and the wage-labourers (proletariat). As well as having economic control over the proletariat, the bourgeoisie also have the power to determine the superstructure; the ruling class can distort perceptions of the world and hide the true nature of social relationships and the exploitation of the proletariat and, above all, promote bourgeoisie interests. Marx defines production as workers selling their labour for wages in order to exchange money for commodities that will meet their most basic needs. As Marx
Marxism sees religion as a feature which is only relevant in a society based on class division I.E the ruling classes and the working classes. They believe that with the beginning of true communism after the social revolution religion, in classless society will disappear. Marxists believe that religion and the institutions linked with it such as churches and the education system is controlled by the same ruling classes which control economic production. They argue that religion as a belief system distorts people’s perception of reality in such a way that benefits the ruling class. For
Weber believed it was linked to the type of job people could get, Weber thought differently to Marx about this, as marx believed it was due to owning factories or other resources, and weber thought it was due to skills and qualifications. Weber’s idea of class influenced the ideas of other sociologists, such as goldthorpe (1980). Goldthorpe derived a stratification scale which includes the Weberian concept of market position. This was felt by sociologists to be a more accurate technique of studying stratification, as a pose to just studying peoples jobs. Weber was skeptical about the possibility of the working class bonding together for revolutionary purposes, for example becoming class-conscious because of differences in status would always undermine any common cause.
Using powerful language, Jack Solomon stresses that advertisers do not persuade us, but they manipulate us into buying what they're offering. They don't offer us product information, but they exercise "behavior modification" : "Pleasing to our subconscious emotions, rather than our conscious intelligences, ads are designed to exploit the discontentments by the American dream, and also the constant desire for social success and the material rewards that accompany it” page 530. Advertisements say a lot about different people and what ideas are important at the time. In America, society is obsessed with status. Therefore, status symbols are very important.
It can be little doubted that if the State of Rhode Island was separated from the Confederacy and left to itself, the insecurity of rights under the popular form of government within such narrow limits would be displayed by such reiterated oppressions of factious majorities that some power altogether independent of the people would soon be called for by the voice of the very factions whose misrule had proved the necessity of it. In the extended republic of the United States, and among the great variety of interests, parties, and sects which it embraces, a coalition of a majority of the whole society could seldom take place on any other principles than those of justice and the general good; whilst there being thus less danger to a minor from the will of a major party, there must be less pretext, also, to provide for the security of the former,
Capitalism for example, thrives on the idea that the Government is democratic, property can be privately owned by its citizens, wealth is not evenly distributed, and there are social classes of people from rich to poor. Capitalism is designed by nature to allow individuals, not the Government, to control resources. Profit is then distributed at the will of the private owner. Capitalism promotes competition and individualism through aggressive business tactics not controlled by any government authority. Capitalism was the child of feudalism, ruled the middle ages, and still thrives in the modern world to date (Hands,
Our society exemplifies a society where both capitalism and democracy coexist the problem is the majority of individual of this nation are unhappy with their economic situation. These are individuals who view their own personal property to be sacred while they want the properties of the rich to be taken by the government. They want to hold sacred the property of the poor while the property of wealthy are taken by the government. This is based upon a view of jealousy since these individuals don’t have as much as the affluent. If we continue along such a mislead path we will only bring about more pain.