PFP 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Conflict Theories
Document Summary
Chapter 8 - conflict, radical, and feminist theories. The consensus model is when members of a society consider certain acts so threatening to community survival that they designate these acts as crimes. If a vast majority of a group"s members share this view, the group has acted by consensus. While labelling theorists and traditional criminologists focus on crime and the criminal, conflict theorists focus on the system itself. Laws represent the interests of specific groups (as opposed to the consensus view that the law reflects shared values). The key concept is power; people who possess power work to keep powerless at a disadvantage. Definitions of crime and criminal mirror the society"s power relationships; norms are relative to time and place. George vold (1896-1967) was the first theorist to relate conflict theory to criminology. He argued that individuals band together in groups because they are social animals with needs that are best served through collective action.
