NCJ Number
76137
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1981) Pages: 24-47
Date Published
1981
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Following an examination of Marxist theories, this essay shows how conservative trends in current criminal justice policies are characteristic responses of capitalist states to economic crisis.
Abstract
The introductory discussion of Marxism as a social theory refutes Carl Klockar's 1979 criticisms of Marxist criminology, with particular attention to the concept of class. Marxism's central proposition contends that when a social totality is understood as an organization for the production of material life, its other features can be explained as expressions of, supports for, and responses to this organization. Marx did not consider all products of private ownership of the means of production as evil, but recognized capitalism's significant cultural and material achievements. By seeing labor as the substance of value and then viewing capitalism as a system in which value is produced and distributed, Marx made possible the scientific study of capitalism. Marx also stated that capitalism's drive for increased productivity led to a reduction in the profitability of production and thus to the possibility of a slowdown. Several factors counteract the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, notably increased surplus value produced by the worker as a result of higher productivity. However, when these counteracting influences are not sufficiently strong, a crisis can occur. Marx held that capitalism needed a pool of unemployed workers to be brought into production whenever capitalists saw the opportunity for profitable investment. Because of social unrest, governments have tried to soften these natural tendencies by increasing the money supply and supporting inefficient businesses. The result is inflation, as evidenced in the 1974-75 recession and subsequent years. Economic conditions that swell the ranks of the lowest classes will increase the incidence of ordinary crime. An economic crisis also forces all businesses to engage in blatant forms of competitive grabbing for their survival and thus threatens the belief in the distinction between these and ordinary crimes. In order to support the economic system and brand the ordinary criminal as evil, a return to the moralistic, punitive justice model can be expected. This is exemplified in the current rejection of rehabilitation as a goal, affirmation of retribution and punishment as the focus of correctional policy, and hardening of penalties for serious crimes. A similar shift in attitudes during the economic decline and depression of the 1920's and 1930's partially confirms the Marxist hypothesis that current criminal justice policy is a characteristic response of capitalism to economic crisis. Over 40 footnotes are included. (Author abstract modified)