Critical Criminology: Power, Peace, and Crime

1. Critical Criminology: Power, Peace, and Crime

2. Critical Criminology • Came into prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s • These criminologists lived through the social turmoil of the 1960s • Vietnam, Kent State, Attica, Watergate, etc. • Realized inequality was deeply entrenched and those in power wished to reinforce, and not change, the status quo • Argued traditional theories are intellectually sterile and dangerous • Ignored and left unchallenged the powerful interests that benefited from this inequality • Also called conflict, radical, and Marxian criminology

3. Central Themes of Critical Criminology • Concepts of inequality and power are integral to understanding crime • Building off the work of Karl Marx, critical criminology notes that capitalism enriches some and impoverishes many • Produces a wide economic gap • The state operates to legitimatize and protect social arrangements that benefit those profiting from capitalism

4. Central Themes of Critical Criminology • Crime is “political” • What is and is not outlawed reflects the power structure in society • Injurious acts of the poor are defined as crime while injurious acts of the wealthy and powerful are not • Critical criminologists argue crime should be defined as a violation of human rights

5. Central Themes of Critical Criminology • See the criminal justice system as serving the interests of the capitalist class • Set up to process poor and minority offenders • Ignores rich and corporate offenders • Criminal justice officials break the law as well • Police brutality, receiving pay-offs, etc. • Capitalist class uses power to commit crimes against its own dissident citizens

6. Central Themes of Critical Criminology • See capitalism as the root cause of criminal behavior • Under capitalism, the human needs of the poor are ignored • The poor face demoralizing living conditions that foster crime by stunting healthy development • Creates fertile environment for crimes by corporations • Pressure for profits, lax state regulation, infrequent application of criminal penalties • Can lead to huge economic losses and violence (e.g., exposing people to toxins, defective products, etc.)

7. Central Themes of Critical Criminology • The solution to crime is the creation of a more equitable society • Support humane policies aimed at preventing harm • Engage in political activity advocating a fairer distribution of wealth and power • For many, the goal of this reform effort is a socialist economy combined with a democratic political system sensitive to the needs of all citizens

8. Capitalism and Crime • Marx and capitalism • Bourgeoisie • Those who own the means of production • Proletariat • Workers who did not own the means of production and have to sell their labor for wages • Capitalism results in the demoralization of the working class • This condition is only alleviated when workers bond together, revolt, and create a socialist class

9. Bonger: Criminality and Economic Conditions • Willem Bonger was the first to apply Marxist thought to crime • Central thesis: The capitalist mode of production breeds crime • Key proximate cause of criminality is the mental state of egoism • Egoism is rooted in economic relations • Ruthless competition and the exploitation of others in the pursuit of profit • Society based upon exchange isolates individuals by weakening the bond that unites them • The larger social good is ignored; people only think of their own interests even to the detriment of others • The social sentiment of altruism fosters prosocial behavior, but is stifled in a capitalist society

10. Bonger: Criminality and Economic Conditions • In a capitalist society, the workingman sells his labor only in order to not die of hunger • The capitalists take advantage of this and exploit the workers • The capitalists (bourgeoisie) do not feel morally tied to others and view people as “things” meant to serve them • Capitalists also are opposed to other capitalists in competition with them • Want to injure their competitors • “Bourgeoisie environment”—honesty is only valued as long as it does not interfere with one’s advantage • Can commit crime undetected and have little to fear from the law

11. Bonger: Criminality and Economic Conditions • The proletariat • Are dependent on the bourgeoisie and live in a subordinate position while feeling poor and deprived • Sell labor to survive, often at a very early age • This leads to the young thinking only of their own interests • They come into contact with people who are bad influences • They become independent when at an age where they need guidance • The above factors can lead to increases in crime

12. Bonger: Criminality and Economic Conditions • The proletariat • Often live in very poor housing conditions • Has an impact on their criminality • Have to spend much time on the streets and come into contact with antisocial others • Exposed to constant turmoil and conflict • Unemployment is a constant threat so often compete with one another to maintain work • Insecurity in working position is very demoralizing • Often spend wages as soon as they receive them

13. Bonger: Criminality and Economic Conditions • The lower proletariat • Do not succeed in selling their labor • Very dire poverty • Chronic poverty • Struggles to survive • Proletariat class has self-respect because they know they are needed, while the lower proletariat sees self as a detriment to society

14. Bonger: Criminality and Economic Conditions • Concludes that economic conditions play an important role in crime • Capitalism weakens social feelings leading to egoism • One group (bourgeoisie) can exploit the other (proletariat) • Capitalism can be blamed for sexual, violent, vengeful, economic, and political crime • To reduce crime, need to replace capitalism with socialism where the means of production are commonly held

15. Richard Quinney • Richard Quinney postulates in order for a capitalist society to operate, the capitalist class must exploit the labor of the working class • The working class as an exploited class exists as long as labor is required in the productive process • Class conflict typifies the development of capitalism

16. Richard Quinney • Argues the contradictions of capitalism heighten the class struggle and thus increase: • The need to dominate and repress by the capitalist class • The need to accommodate and resist by the classes exploited by capitalism • The capitalists commit economic crimes, deny human rights, and use the state to protect their interests and repress the poor

17. Richard Quinney • When the working class begins to recognize that the state is repressive, crime becomes politically conscious • At an extreme state, this can lead to a revolt • Actions against the state with an attempt to overthrow it

18. Richard Quinney • To prevent and stop criminal behavior, the only solution is socialism • All oppressed people need to come together and form a mass socialist movement • Crime is a product of the material and spiritual contradictions of capitalism • The socialist struggle requires religious consciousness and class consciousness • The transition is both political and religious

19. Pathways to Crime • Although Bonger and Quinney’s work sensitized scholars to the processes involved in producing crime, they did not detail the specific factors under capitalism that foster criminal conduct • Elliott Currie and Mark Colvin have attempted to illuminate these mechanisms

20. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Capitalism is the root cause of crime, especially the high rate of violent crime in the U.S. • Capitalism comes in multiple forms • “Compassionate capitalism”—stresses social solidarity, equity, and community values • Bottom-up approach • Seen in Scandinavia • “Keiretsu capitalism”—paternalistic • Top-down approach • Seen in Japan • “Contingent” or harsh brand capitalism—seen in the U.S. • Leads to socially isolated and economically impoverished minority communities that are highly conducive to crime

21. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Currie referred to a “market society” • The pursuit of personal economic gain becomes increasingly the dominant organizing principle of social life • Market principles suffuse the whole social fabric (not confined only to the economy) • Argues market societies are Darwinian societies • Offer few “cushions” against the labor market and minimal public provisions of social support • Sees the market economy as an amoral force that robs people of their jobs, fails to care for at-risk kids and families, and acquits the government from doing much about the human costs of inequality

22. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • This market society explains recent upsurges of violence in Russia and China and the long-term high violent crime rates in the U.S. • Identifies seven pathways through which the market economy creates high rates of serious crime in the U.S.

23. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Pathways to crime • Market society breeds violent crime by destroying livelihoods • Long-term absence of opportunities for stable and rewarding work breeds alienation, undercuts having a stake in society, and exerts pressure to participate in crime • Steady work bonds individuals and allows for desistence • Long-term unemployment disrupts family formation and diminishes the capacity for adults to be role models and agents of socialization • Overwork in poorly paid jobs reduces the capacity of parents to provide a nurturing environment • Long-term unemployment breeds illicit enterprises • Market societies seek to cheapen labor (lower wages) and/or eliminate it altogether • Spends very little on job training services

24. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Pathways to crime • The market society has an inherent tendency toward extremes of inequality and material deprivation • Due to the elimination of good work and the resistance of market societies against governmental intervention to offset the inadequacy of labor markets • The U.S. has an extremely wide spread of inequality and high child poverty rates • Evidence for an association between income inequality/poverty and homicide, aggravated assault, and child abuse • Poverty inhibits intellectual and social development among children and predisposes them toward school failure and future poverty

25. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Pathways to crime • The market society weakens other kinds of public support • Individuals are forced to rely on individual efforts to secure resources • Parents have to take multiple low paying jobs, thus are not there to nurture and supervise their children • The U.S., unlike other countries, does not provide universal care for 3- to 5-year-olds • The U.S. does not have a national health system to supply preventative and prenatal healthcare

26. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Pathways to crime • Market societies withdraw public supports while simultaneously eroding informal social supports and networks of care • Splits extended families and creates communities characterized by rapid geographical mobility and the consequent “thinning” of networks of close friendships and mutual care • See communities with few public agencies • Social impoverishment occurs and youth gangs and drug dealers may become the dominant informal control and support systems • Associated with child abuse

27. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Pathways to crime • Market economies produce crime by promoting a culture that exalts atomized and often brutal individual competition and consumption over the values of community, contribution, and productive work • Consumer values are pronounced • Insistent pressure to acquire and consume • Materialism • Craft values have declined • Values of job well done, pleasure in productive work • Normal brutality • The advancement of some is contingent on the fall of others • Feelings of unconcern and nonresponsibility for others is rampant • Unbonded from society—look out only for self

28. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Pathways to crime • Market societies deregulate the technology of violence • Virtual absence of national-level regulations on the sale and possession of firearms • U.S. has a proliferation of firearms, especially handguns

29. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • Pathways to crime • Market societies weaken and erode alternative political values and institutions • If strong political or communal organizations are present to promote collective well-being, the frustrations of the economy will be channeled into constructive social action • In market societies, these organizations are weak or not present • People respond to their frustrations by lashing out and engaging in criminal behavior

30. Currie: “Crime in a Market Society” • To alter these pathways: • Attempt to have full employment at socially meaningful work with good wages • Reasonable work hours • Expand employment in public and nonprofit sectors of the economy • Worksharing and reduction of work time policies • Have health and mental healthcare, public schooling, childcare, and skills training programs

31. Pathways to Crime • Mark Colvin also illuminates another pathway to crime • He and John Pauly argue parents’ class position in the labor market shapes the methods they use to exercise control over their children • Those employed in the secondary labor market are controlled through coercive sanctions and import this style of control into the home coercively disciplining their children • Coercive parenting is counterproductive, alienates children, and weakens bonds to parents • Often leads to problem behavior at school where they associate with other alienated youth leading to more problem behavior

32. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • Colvin provides a comprehensive integrated theory of chronic criminality • Differential coercion theory • Attempts to understand how different degrees of coercion can lead to criminal and non-criminal outcomes

33. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • Understands coercion is one of the main elements in criminal behavior • Coercion is compelling someone to act in a certain way through either direct force and intimidation or through the pressure of impersonal economic or social forces • Can be threats or actions • Appears in multiple settings (e.g., school, work, family, peers, state) • Can range from high coercion to complete noncoercion • Physically and/or emotionally painful • The other main element is the degree of consistency • Can range from highly consistent to highly erratic

34. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • These two elements, coercion and consistency, create four types of control • Noncoercive, consistent control (Type 1) • Noncoercive, erratic control (Type 2) • Coercive, consistent control (Type 3) • Coercive, erratic control (Type 4)

35. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • In general, the greater the degree of coercion, the greater the criminal involvement • People are most at-risk for crime when they endure coercion that is harsh and erratic • Social-psychological deficits intervene between the coercion and the outcome behavior • Coercion can increase coercive ideation, anger, and humiliation while decreasing self-control, social bonds, and self-efficacy • Coercive ideation—the individual views the world as coercive and feels it can only be overcome from acting coercively in return • Notice these are factors discussed in other sociological theories of crime

36. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • Type 1: Consistent, noncoercive • Strong social support is provided • Produces: low anger, high self-control, internal locus of control, high self-efficacy, strong social bonds, no models of coercive behavior, no control surpluses or deficits • Leads to: • Generally, noncriminal behavior • Strong tendency to engage in prosocial behavior • Least likely to lead to crime

37. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • Type 2: Erratic, noncoercive • Lenient, lax, and permissive with a detached interest of the controller • Subject often ignored and often not exposed to serious intervention • Feeble, erratic social support • Control to manipulate the subject’s behavior • Produces: low anger, low self-control, internal locus of control, high self-efficacy, intermediate bonds, no modeling of coercion, control surpluses • Leads to: • Strong tendency to explore pleasurable deviant activities • Lying and manipulation of authority figures (indifferent to authorities) • Strong predisposition for less predatory, minor street crimes • Predisposition for white-collar criminality

38. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • Type 3: Consistent, coercive • Highly punitive relationship with weak support • Produces: high self-directed anger, rigid self-control, external locus of control, low self-efficacy, strong coercive modeling, control deficits • Leads to: • Low probability of criminal behavior • Low probability of prosocial behavior • High probability of mental illness • Potential for enraged assault/murder • Rewards rarely given • Become fearful, submissive, and depressed with a sense of resignation to authority

39. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • Type 4: Erratic, coercive • Social support weak to non-existent • Produces: high other-directed anger, low self-control, external locus of control, low self-efficacy, weak/negative social bonds, strong coercive modeling, control deficits, humiliation • Leads to: • Defiant/hostile acts toward authority figures • Coercion/intimidation of others • Predisposition for chronic involvement in predatory street crimes • Subject feels his/her behavior makes little difference in the long run • Subjects become very impulsive

40. Colvin: Crime and Coercion • Linking back to the U.S., Colvin argues impersonal and interpersonal coercion is tied to inequality and thus is especially high in the U.S. • Supportive social and criminal justice policies that reduce multiple forms of coercion will lead to a reduction in crime

41. Pathways to Crime • Both Currie and Colvin can be seen as falling in to a brand of critical criminology called “left realism” • Favor creating a society that is truly equitable and democratic • Inequality in living conditions and political influence is unjustified • Support policies for early intervention, universal health and childcare, public job programs, living wage laws, and progressive tax policies

42. Peacemaking Criminology • Later in his career, Richard Quinney postulated peacemaking criminology • Attempts to show how individuals and social policies might create conditions in which the sources of crime will not be nourished • Suggests individuals are on a spiritual journey involving transcending one’s egocentric self to understand the suffering in ourselves and the world • Inner peace and peacemaking actions are intertwined and reinforcing • Crime is suffering and the ending of crime is possible only with the end of suffering • Advancing peace and diminishing suffering requires social justice

43. Peacemaking Criminology • Goal of peacemaking criminology is to seek to end suffering and eliminate crime • Without peace within us and in our actions, there can be no peace in our results • Peace is the way • Peacemaking criminologists often do not provide empirical evidence • However, Fuller and Wozniak (2006) derived a set of 17 propositions to make it testable • Argue that when underlying social harms are consistently addressed that individuals who are responsive, mindful, and connected will be less involved in crime

44. Peacemaking Criminology • Criminologists should use their knowledge to create social justice • Reject “get tough” responses as fighting suffering with more suffering • Favor restorative justice programs

45. Summary • Critical criminology came into prominence in the 1960s and 1970s at a time when there was much distrust in the government • Early theories blamed capitalism for the high crime rates in the U.S. (Bonger; Quinney); however, these theories did not address the actual pathways that capitalism led to crime • Both Currie and Colvin addressed the pathways in which capitalism and coercion lead to high rates of crime • Finally, Quinney proposed a peacemaking criminology that focuses nonviolent and compassionate interactions of individuals to control crime