The “Luzinski Theory” of Crime and Punishment

1. Dr. Tom Luzinski The “Luzinski Theory” of Crime and Punishment

2. Part I: Criminal Anthropology There was a time, science thought criminals born. Criminals were thought to be biologically different from non-criminals. For instance, compared with normal individuals, science thought criminals… are less intelligent, are more aggressive, lack forethought and impulse control, are deficient in conscience and compassion.

3. Moreover, science thought there were biological human races with significant differences. • Blacks for instance… • Were believed to be significantly more likely to possess traits conducive to criminal behavior. • There was theoretical support for this position

4. J. P. Rushton’s Race, Evolution, and Behavior • Examples of charts Rushton uses to summarize his theory.

5. He draws on Darwinian jargon • To argue that the differences between the races are the result of natural selection

6. J. P. Rushton’s Race, Evolution, and Behavior Head size  Brain size 

7. Rushton, continued IQ scores  Crime rates 

8. This approach lent itself to a simple solution to crime. • Find ways to reduce the number of crime-prone persons and races—population control. • Sterilization—both chemical and surgical. • Incapacitation—lock people up.

9. The Definitive Refutation to Criminal Anthropology

10. Gould's thesis is that, • At their best, science and morality occupy separate intellectual spheres and have usually pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence • Summarized in the acronym "NOMA," or "Non-Overlapping Magisteria." • By "magisterium" he means only something like a distinctive zone of reflection, discussion and debate.

11. His position flows from an apparently straightforward claim: • Science concerns itself with empirical realities • Scientific findings conflict with humanity and have often been the result of a misdirected desire to resolve anxiety about our place in the universe, • This conflict is psychologically, morally, ethically, scientifically and religiously unnecessary.

12. Gould's argument is informed by a deep suspicion of ideological appeals to nature • Especially in the guise of anything resembling Social Darwinism. • He insists that we ought not to give ethical authority to science; rather, "we must simply admit that nature offers no moral instruction at all."

13. Phase II: Conservative-Behaviorism • This perspective implicates cultural traditions in the creation of criminogenic environments. • Conservatives blame “black culture.” Black thought and behavior perpetuate a “culture of poverty.” • Which means there must be a White Culture that has values that are threatened by Black Culture, to the extent they are characterized as “criminogenic.”

14. Characterized by negative attitudes towards learning and achieving • Lack of self-reliance • Poor labor force attachment • Inability to delay gratification • Promiscuity • Violent tendencies

15. Conservatives blame “black family structure.” Typical images of the “inadequate mother.” • The black family culturally differs from the white family culture. • Black families tend to be headed by single women • Black women have many children out of wedlock • Single women cannot control their offspring

16. Conservatives blame “bleeding heart liberals.” • Liberal social welfare policies during the 1950s-70s combined “dysfunctional black traditions” and “broken families” with government-induced “learned helpless.” • “Liberal permissiveness” in criminal justice policy combined with the culture of poverty to drive up crime rates.

17. Solutions to the problem of crime from a conservative perspective: • Put “get tough” judges on the bench, • Increase the number of police on the street, • Pass tougher crime laws and expand the range of criminal behaviors, • Impose longer prison terms more frequently, • Expand the penitentiary system, • Restrict judicial discretion, and curtail probation and parole, • Eliminate social support for minority (black) families.

18. Part II: Marxism and Class Conflict • Exploiting classes (Bourgeoisie) attempts to morally justify their class rule by portraying them, as the highest, most natural form of social development, deliberately concealing the system of exploitation by disguising and distorting the truth. • The present day Capitalist class, through their professional hirelings and hangers on, have elaborately evolved a whole new philosophy and morality to justify their ruling position in society.

19. The working class, on the contrary • Or, the Proletariat, has no material interest in distorting the truth, and sets itself the task of laying bare the realities of Capitalism in order to consciously prepare for its emancipation. • Far from seeking a special position for itself, the working class has the aim of abolishing Capitalism and with it all class distinctions and privileges. • To do so it must reject the outlook of the Capitalists, and seek for itself a new Marxist method of understanding.

20. In Marxism… • Class conflict originates from the opposing interests of these two major classes. • Marx speaks of an “untermensch,” or people so low in social status, they are not worth mentioning…street people might be a contemporary equivalent. • According to Marx, it is in the interest of the Capitalist class to expand its control over the economic apparatus of society, to maximize profits, and, therefore, to keep the wages of laborers as low as possible.

21. On the other hand, • The working class, denied ownership and control of the products of its own labor, becomes alienated from the entire productive process. • As the dominant, bourgeois class pursues its interests and strengthens its monopolistic control over the economic order, it becomes increasingly in the interest of the working class to overthrow the capitalist system that holds it captive and exploits its labor. • As we know, Marxism failed as a social, economic and political theory in 1988.

22. Which brings about Neomarxism • Marx did not develop a systematic theory of deviance or crime, • Neo-Marxists have attempted to extend his view that the legal and political systems of capitalist societies are products of an underlying, historical process of conflict between opposing economic classes.

23. Therefore, neo-Marxist theories • Focus particular attention on the economic structure of Capitalist society and on the relationship of societal definitions of deviance to the process of class conflict. • As those forces criminalize certain deviant behaviors (of the Proletariat) while at the same time legitimize other behaviors as standards, of the Bourgeoisie class.

24. Friedrich Engels’ The Conditions of the Working Class in England (1845) Messner and Rosenfeld’s Crime and the American Dream (1995) Neo Marxism has its roots in…

25. Is predicated in a UCR Relationship(uniform crime report) • Graphic comparison between UCR and unemployment statistics show relationship between recession and arrests. • Ted Chiricos examined over sixty empirical studies and found overwhelming evidence of a relationship.

26. Because unemployment tends to follow increases in the rate of exploitation, these correlations are even more reflective of the underlying cause of unemployment—the accumulation process.

27. Their solution to Crime? • Eliminate capitalism and replace it with some Marxist based system. • Probably ainna gonna happen!

28. The Concept of Crime • Crime is any human conduct that violates a criminal law and is subject to punishment. • Why are some things against the law? • Who should decide this? • How do we get laws?

29. The Consensus and Conflict Views of Law and Crime • The consensus model follows the theory that the majority of the people believe that some identified behavior should be illegal. They act by consensus and enact laws for the greater good of the majority. • That is how we do things in the United States – by majority—right?

30. The Consensus and Conflict Views of Law and Crime • Conflict model states that the values of (a) the ruling class in a society and the criminal justice system is a means of controlling the classes that have no power. • Explain this please! • Conflict theorists claim that a struggle for power is a far more basic feature of human existence than is consensus.

31. Left-Realist Criminology aka Conflict Theory • Left-realists share some of the logic of liberal-structuralism —they look to structural conditions to explain crime. • However, they differ in the extent of critique of capitalism, stance towards U.S. institutions, and solutions to crime.

32. Left Realism • Disenfranchised lower classes are persistently victimized by street crime. • Society seeks a crime control agenda, capable of being implemented in a capitalist system, that will protect the more vulnerable members of the lower classes from crime and the fear of crime. • Conservative right wingers have the green light to promote a repressive law and order agenda.

33. Street crime is caused by Interest Group Conflict manifested by: • Material deprivation, • Alienation, • Nihilistic culture-ideology created by capitalism. • However, they do not necessarily reject capitalism.

34. Theories of Interest Group Conflict • Tend to be based on the pluralistic assumption that all modem societies contain a number of groups with conflicting or competing interests and values.

35. Working with a more diversified conception of the political process than the neo-Marxists, • Interest group theorists contend that changes in the law or in systems of social control may be generated by conflicts between various cultural, religious, or ethnic groups as well as by conflict between groups with divergent economic interests. • The question becomes…who’s culture is best and who has the means to create and use the law to enforce what are in essence only cultural affronts to the “dominant culture’s” values!

36. In general, interest group theorists fit more in the mold of conventional scientific investigators • They manifest less concern with social criticism and political activism than do the neo-Marxists. • Nonetheless, all conflict theorists share a sociological interest in the large-scale, political processes through which societal definitions of deviance are created and maintained.

37. Liberal-Structuralism • Liberal-structuralism reflects a social welfare liberal tradition. • It is the depressed inner-city conditions are the root of crime and violence.

38. Liberal Structuralism, continued • It is the so called “white flight,” resulting in residential segregation, race prejudice which has created an underclass. • Hegemonic, Historic and Institutional forces has located blacks in criminogenic environments.

39. Blacks have become disproportionately involved in various forms of street crime and the sex and drug trades. Ordinary policing is concentrated in impoverished minority neighborhoods where crime rates are higher. Being situated in the underclass leads to overrepresentation in crime for two reasons:

40. Solutions to the problem of crime from a L.S. perspective: • Education and job training, • Affirmative action, • Welfare, jobs programs, health care services, • Treatment and rehabilitation.