Conflict based approach (week 11).docx

Conflict based approach  Lack of consensus among people  4 objectives o Understand deviance and power relations in society o To see how deviants themselves are caught in structures in society o Predisposed to deviance. They are part of a wider structure o Deviance is political and a matter of protest,  Protesting conditions, protesting political and the ruling class o Trace understanding deviance from Marxism to present day Conflict at the Centre of Human Societies  Conflict from diversity and different interests in society  Conflict should be at the centre of inquiry. o Results in competition of status, power, wealth. o Crime is explained by struggles in groups of society. Inter group struggle explains deviance  Interests determines values o Values conceal personal interests and gains.  Eg what good happens is fair and what bad happens is unjust. o State is not representative of common interests.  Represents those with power to translate their interests to the rest of society. o Those with most power can pursue their interests, everyone should live up to these values. o Only benefits those with wealth and status  Inverse relationship between power and crime rates o More power you have, less likely to be labeled as a criminal Austin Turk Theory of Criminalization  Focus on conditions  differences between authority figured and society o Resulting in conflict.  When do people actually conflict each other  What are the conditions that actually lead conflict to crime Descriptive  Organization and parties involved in conflict affect likelihood of conflict o The more organized the more likelihood of conflict, more support from others, less likely to back down from position o Organization and sophistication Lead to conflict Criminalization  Meaning behind the act to the people who have power to label it o Labeling theory- those with power label others o Authority figure find things offensive, they create label and punishment Critical Criminology  Impossible to separate values from research agenda  Should develop agenda that favors the non privileged o Giving voice to unprivileged  Consideration of power o Why people act and why people react  Rationality of actor in larger economic structure o Individuals in a larger structure o How structure impacts behaviour, how we are involved Conflict theory  Ignores source of power, what actually is Critical theory  Focus on what should be and not what actually is, o What is source of power, o How to shift this to equal distribution of power, o Social change and social structure  Inequality and power relates to crimes  Less dissecting meaning, o Less revolutionize social structure  Examining variables of power, how to change it Karl Marx  Context o Social change was occurring, why it happened, o Restructuring of society o Conflict between material forces of production and societal relations of production  Material forces o Societies capacity to produce goods, includes technological equipment and knowledge, o Skill and organization on how to use that equipment  Societal relations of production o Relationships among people, eg. Property relations  Material relations are continuous, always advancing and change.  Social relations Do not change as much, can freeze in power o When material forces change social relations must change  Eg. People being replaced by technology o Over time social relations become inconsistent with material forces o Used to explain changes in European societies , industrial revolution  Shift between capitalism was progressive,  Social relations are required to shift changes in material relations  Capitalism o Survival of the fittest, o Property becomes concentrated to few people,  Bourgeoisie  Increase wealth, those who were at the top slowly move down to proletariat and lose wealth, wage laborer ,  Fewer workers needed with technological advancement, more people in proletariat, and less people in bourgeoisie  Bourgeoisie vs Proletariat o Contradiction of capitalism, o Hinders new material forces of production, stops growth and development  Capitalism prevents anyone from moving forward  Social relations are going to be restructured violently  Should have group wealth  Did not deal with crime in significant way  Lumpen Proletariat o Unemployed and underemployed. o Become unproductive and demoralized  Inequality in distribution of wealth, unequal distribution of power. o Crime results in struggle from isolated individual against structure, o Economic and political conditions. o Rebellion(primitive form of rebellion) little crimes as rebellion for those who are struggling in conditions.