Week 3.1 Crime

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Learning Objectives LO1 Be familiar with the ideas that underpin critical criminology.

LO2 Link globalization to crime and criminality.

LO3 Define the concept of state (organized) crime.

LO4 Know the goals and findings of critical research.

LO5 Know some of the basic ideas of critical feminism.

LO6 Discuss how restorative justice is related to peacemaking criminology.

AP Photo/US State Department

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orFact FictiOn?

chapter Outline Origins of Critical Criminology Contemporary Critical Criminology

Defining Crime and Justice Instrumental vs. Structural Theory

The Cause of Crime Globalization State (Organized) Crime Policies and Issues in Criminology MaSS DeCepTIOn

Crime and Social Institutions Profiles in Crime RuSSIa’S DeaTh SquaDS

Forms of Critical Criminology Left Realism Critical Feminist Theory power–Control Theory peacemaking Criminology

Critical Theory and Restorative Justice The Concept of Restorative Justice Reintegrative Shaming The process of Restoration

Fact FictiOn? or dd It is illegal for the police to

monitor people in public places with cameras and secretly record their activities.

dd The CIA has sent terror suspects to foreign prisons where they can be subjected to harsh interrogation tactics.

On February 11, 2011, a popular revolt

overthrew the regime of longtime Egyptian

dictator Hosni Mubarak, ushering in a

period of turmoil in the Middle East that has

become known as the “Arab Spring.” Similar

protests broke out in Tunisia and Yemen, and

a popular uprising aimed at toppling the

government of dictator Muammar Gaddafi

started a civil war in Libya that resulted in

his ouster. However, when protests erupted

in Syria against the government of Bashar

al-Assad, troops loyal to the ruling party

cracked down hard. More than 70,000

people were killed. One youth, 13-year-old

Hamza al-Khatib, was brutally tortured and

killed by Syrian security forces and became

an international symbol of government

oppression. Not surprisingly, Syrian

government officials blamed the violence

on “terrorist groups” or “armed gangs.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

denounced the violent crackdown as a

“barbarity” that is “inhumane” and “cannot

be digested.”1 The turmoil continued, and

in September 2012, the US ambassador to

Libya, J. Christopher Stevens (see photo on

previous page), and three other Americans

were killed in an attack on the US consulate

in Benghazi. At first it was suspected that the

deaths were the result of rioting prompted

by an American-produced film that insulted

the Prophet Muhammad. Later it appeared

that the attack was planned by a Libya-based

extremist group with links to al-Qaeda.2

8

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The civil rights violations and executions carried out in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East are extreme examples of the social conflict that dominates and shapes contemporary society. We live in a world rife with political, social, and economic turmoil in nearly every corner of the globe. Conflict comes in many forms, occurs at many levels of society, and involves a whole slew of adversaries: workers and bosses, the United States and its overseas enemies, religious zealots and apostates, citizens and police. It occurs within cities, in neighborhoods, and even within the family.

Social conflict can be destructive when it leads to war, violence, and death; it can be functional when it results in positive social change. Conflict promotes crime by creating a social atmosphere in which the law is a mechanism for controlling dis- satisfied, have-not members of society while the wealthy maintain their power. This is why crimes that are the province of the wealthy, such as illegal corporate activities, are sanctioned much more leniently than those, such as burglary, that are considered lower-class activities.

Criminologists who view crime as a function of social conflict and economic r ivalry have in the past been known by a number of titles, such as social conflict, Marxist, left, or radical criminologists, but today they are most commonly referred to as critical criminologists and their field of study as critical criminology.

As their title hints, critical criminologists view themselves as social critics who dig beneath the surface of society to uncover its inequities. They reject the notion that law is designed to maintain a tranquil, fair society and that criminals are malevolent people who wish to trample the rights of others. They believe that the law is an in- strument of power, wielded by those who control society in order to maintain their wealth, social position, and class advantage.

They consider acts of racism, sexism, imperialism, unsafe working conditions, inadequate child care, substandard housing, pollution of the environment, and war-making used as tools of foreign policy to be the “true crimes.” The crimes of the helpless—burglary, robbery, and assault—are expressions of rage over unjust eco- nomic conditions more than actual crimes.3 Some groups in society, particularly the working class and ethnic minorities, are seen as the most likely to suffer oppressive social relations based on class conflict and racism and hence to be more prone to criminal behavior.

Contemporary critical criminologists try to explain crime within economic and social contexts and to express the connection between social class, crime, and social control.4 They are concerned with issues such as these:

• The role government plays in creating a criminogenic environment • The relationship between personal or group power and the shaping of criminal law • The prevalence of bias in justice system operations • The relationship between a capitalist, free enterprise economy and crime rates

Critical criminologists sometimes reject legal definitions of crime, viewing rac- ism, ageism, sexism, and classism as causing greater social harm than burglary, robbery, and rape.5 Coming from the left, they want to publicize the fact that while conservatives work to cut spending on social programs and education they believe it is appropriate to fund a vast military establishment. Critical criminologists believe they are responsible for informing the public about the dangers of these right-wing developments.6 They scorn mainstream criminologists who accept government funding to carry out research that supports the status quo rather than exposing the hypocrisy rampant in the capitalist system. They find it contemptible that a system of crony capitalism has developed that punishes the poor, unemployed, and desperate and generously rewards corporate executives who fire employees and move jobs overseas.7

This chapter briefly reviews the development of critical criminology. It covers its principal ideas, and then looks at policies that have been embraced by critical thinkers that focus on peace and restoration rather than punishment and exclusion. Figure 8.1 illustrates the various independent branches of critical theory.

social conflict The struggle for power in society. Human behavior in social contexts results from conflicts between competing groups.

critical criminologists Criminologists who believe that the cause of crime can be linked to economic, social, and political disparity.

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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199Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

Origins of Critical Criminology The roots of critical criminology can be traced to the political-economic vision created by philosopher Karl Marx who believed that modern capitalism had turned workers into a dehumanized mass who lived an existence that was at the mercy of their employers. Young children were being sent to work in mines and factories from dawn to dusk. Workers were being beaten down by a system that demanded obedience and cooperation and offered little in return. These oppres- sive conditions led Marx to conclude that the character of every civilization is determined by its mode of production—the way its people develop and produce material goods.

Structural Theory

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Critical Criminology Social Conflict Theory

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Left Re

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Critic al Feminism

Power–Control Theor y

Postmodern Theory

Peacemaking Criminology Restorative Justice

Social and po

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Exploitation of the working class

SOCIAL CONFLICT

Bonger Dahrendorf

Vold Marx

FIGURE 8.1 The Branches of Critical Theory

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200 Part 2 • theorieS of Crime CAUSAtion

Marx’s vision of economic inequality, and the resulting social conflict it produced, had a profound influence on twentieth-century thought. Marx’s vision was used by a number of important criminological thinkers, including Willem Bonger, Ralf Dahren- dorf, and George Vold, to identify the crime-producing social and economic forces in capitalist society.8 For example, the Dutch scholar Bonger proclaimed in his 1916 work Criminality and Economic Conditions that in every society that is divided into a ruling class and an inferior class, penal law serves the will of the ruling class. Even though criminal laws may appear to protect members of both classes, hardly any act is punished that does not injure the interests of the dominant ruling class. Crimes, then, are considered to be antisocial acts because they are harmful to those who have the power at their command to control society. Under capitalism, the legal system discriminates against the poor by defending the actions of the wealthy. Because the proletariat are deprived of the materials that are monopolized by the bourgeoisie, they are more likely to violate the law.9

However, it was the social ferment of the 1960s that gave birth to critical criminology and placed it within the criminological mainstream. In 1968, a group of British sociologists formed the National Deviancy Conference (NDC). With about 300 members, this organization sponsored several national symposiums and dialogues. Members came from all walks of life, but at its core was a group of aca- demics who were critical of the positivist criminology being taught in British and American universities. More specifically, they rejected the conservative stance of criminologists and their close association with the government that funded many of their research projects. The NDC called attention to ways in which social con- trol might actually cause deviance rather than just being a response to antisocial behavior. Many conference members became concerned about the political nature of social control.

In 1973, critical theory was given a powerful academic boost when British schol- ars Ian Taylor, Paul Walton, and Jock Young published The New Criminology.10 This brilliant, thorough, and well-constructed critique of existing concepts in criminology called for the development of new methods of criminological analysis and critique. The New Criminology became the standard resource for scholars critical of both the field of criminology and the existing legal process. Since its publication, critical criminolo- gists have established a tradition of focusing on the field itself and questioning the role criminology plays in supporting the status quo and collaborating in the oppres- sion of the poor and powerless.11

US scholars were also influenced, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, by the widespread unrest and social change that shook the world. The war in Vietnam, prison struggles, and the civil rights and feminist movements produced a climate in which criticism of the ruling class seemed a natural by-product. Mainstream, posi- tivist criminology was criticized as being overtly conservative, pro-government, and antihuman. Critical criminologists scoffed when their fellow scholars used statistical analysis of computerized data to describe criminal and delinquent behavior. Several influential scholars embraced the idea that the social conflict produced by the unequal distribution of power and wealth was the root cause of crime. William Chambliss and Robert Seidman wrote the well-respected treatise Law, Order and Power, which docu- mented how the justice system protects the rich and powerful.12 Chambliss and Seid- man’s work showed how control of the political and economic system affects the way criminal justice is administered and demonstrated that the definitions of crime used in contemporary society favor those who control the justice system.

In The Social Reality of Crime, sociologist Richard Quinney also proclaimed that in contemporary society, criminal law represents the interests of those who hold power in society.13 Where there is conflict between social groups—the wealthy and the poor—those who hold power will create laws that benefit themselves and keep rivals in check. Criminals are not simply social misfits but people who have come up short in the struggle for success and are seeking alternative means of achieving wealth, status, or even survival.

As you may recall from Chapter 1, the philosophical and economic analysis of Karl Marx forms the historical roots of the conflict perspective of criminology.

CONNECTIO

N S

power The ability of persons and groups to control the behavior of others, to shape public opinion, and to define deviance.

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201Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

In his numerous works, in- cluding Disobedience and Democracy, historian and social commentator Howard Zinn forcibly argued that the American criminal justice sys- tem was far from just. He lambasted unjust laws and a judicial tyranny that created cruel punishments that treated convicted criminals as less than human. The application of due process, Zinn argued, was coun- terbalanced by the unchecked dis- cretion and arbitrary judgments of those given state-sanctioned author- ity over the lives of others. And of course, wealthy white-collar crimi- nals are not treated in the same harsh fashion as street criminals even if the social harm they cause is significantly greater.14

As a group, these social think- ers began to show how, in our postindustrial, capitalist society, the economic system invariably produces haves and have-nots.15 The mode of production shapes so- cial life. Because economic competitiveness is the essence of capitalism, conflict increases and eventually destabilizes both social institutions and social groups.16

Contemporary Critical Criminology Today, critical criminologists devote their attention to a number of important themes and concepts. One is the use and misuse of power, or the ability of persons and groups to determine and control the behavior of others and to shape public opinion to meet their personal interests. Because those in power shape the content of the law, it comes as no surprise that their behavior is often exempt from legal sanctions. Those who deserve the most severe sanctions (wealthy white-collar criminals whose crimes cost society millions of dollars) usually receive lenient punishments, whereas those whose relatively minor crimes are committed out of economic necessity (petty thieves and drug dealers) receive stricter penalties, especially if they are minority group members who lack social and economic power.17 And once they have done their time, they face a bleak future in a jobless economy in which the poor, minority group members and those with a criminal record find it tough to gain meaningful employment.18

Critical criminologists also critique the field of criminology, questioning the role criminologists play in supporting the status quo and aiding in the oppression of the poor and powerless.19 After all, criminologists may spend their time creating effective crime control mechanisms that swell the nation’s prisons with indigent and desperate people while corporate executives make fat profits.

Critical criminologists have also been deeply concerned about the current state of the American political system and the creation of what they consider to be an Ameri- can empire abroad. Ironically, recent events such as the war in Iraq and the efforts to penalize immigrants and close US borders have energized critical thinkers; their vision seems as pertinent today as it was during its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s.20 The conservative agenda, they believe, calls for dismantling welfare and health programs; lowering labor costs through union busting; increasing tax cuts that favor the wealthy; ending affirmative action; and reducing environmental control and regulation.21

People carry placards in a march opposing California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. issues such as gay marriage, abortion, and gun control illustrate the divisions and discord found in contemporary society, where conflict and not consensus is the norm.

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202 Part 2 • theorieS of Crime CAUSAtion

Corporations are now more powerful than ever. Spending is being cut on so- cial programs, and the idea of universal health care is attacked because paying for it would cut into corporate profits. The rapid buildup of the prison system and passage of draconian criminal laws that threaten civil rights and liberties—the war on drugs, the death penalty, three-strikes laws, and the Patriot Act—are other elements of the conservative agenda. The war on drugs has resulted in millions of people being incar- cerated, most of whom are poor and powerless. Critical criminologists believe they are responsible for informing the public about the dangers of these developments.22

Critical criminologists have turned their attention to the threat competitive capi- talism presents to the working class. In addition to perpetuating male supremacy and racism, they believe that modern global capitalism helps destroy the lives of workers in less developed countries. Capitalists hailed China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a significant economic event. However, critical thinkers point out that the economic boom has significant costs: the average manufacturing wage in China is 20 to 25 cents per hour; many thousands of workers are killed at work each year and millions more are disabled.23

DEMYSTiFYiNG DOMiNATiON Another central theme of critical criminology is the concept of domination: how one class or group works to dominate another and retain power. For example, by controlling the justice system, the elites can preserve political-economic, racial, and ethnic domination. Lower classes are demonized while the malfeasance of the wealthy is typically ignored. Domination is manifested in the racism and sexism that still pervades the American system and manifests itself in a wide variety of social practices, ranging from the administration of criminal justice to the “whitening” of the teaching force because the mechanism for filling its ranks rests upon a racially skewed selection process.24 Laws banning gay marriage and restricting gay rights are another example of how one group uses the legal system to promote their interests over others.25

Defining Crime and Justice According to critical theorists, crime is a political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes at the expense of the poor. Some, but not all, would include in a list of “real” crimes such acts as violations of human rights due to racism, sexism, and imperialism and other violations of human dignity and physical needs and necessities. Part of the critical agenda, argues criminologist Robert Bohm, is to make the public aware that these behaviors “are crimes just as much as burglary and robbery.”26 Take for instance what Alette Smeulers and Roelof Haveman call supranational crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other human rights violations. Smeulers and Haveman believe that these types of crimes should merit more attention by criminologists, and therefore they call for a separate specialization.27

In our advanced technological society, those with economic and political power control the definition of crime and the manner in which the criminal justice sys- tem enforces the law.28 Consequently, the only crimes available to the poor are the severely sanctioned “street crimes”: rape, murder, theft, and mugging. Members of the middle class cheat on their taxes and engage in petty corporate crime (employee theft), acts that generate social disapproval but are rarely punished severely. The wealthy are involved in acts that should be described as crimes but are not, such as racism, sexism, and profiteering. Although regulatory laws control illegal business activities, these are rarely enforced, and violations are lightly punished. One reason is that an essential feature of capitalism is the need to expand business and create new markets. This goal often conflicts with laws designed to protect the environment and creates clashes with those who seek their enforcement. In our postindustrial society, the need for expansion usually triumphs. For example, corporate spokespeople

Checkpoints

dc Critical criminology focuses on identifying “real” crimes in US society, such as profiteer- ing, sexism, and racism.

dc Critical criminologists view themselves as social critics who dig beneath the surface of society to uncover its inequities.

dc they consider acts of racism, sexism, imperialism, and unsafe working conditions as tools of foreign policy to be the “true crimes.”

dc Contemporary critical crimi- nologists try to explain crime within economic and social contexts and to express the connection between social class, crime, and social control.

dc one of the roots of crimino- logical theory is the political- economic vision created by philosopher Karl marx.

dc even though criminal laws may appear to protect mem- bers of both classes, hardly any act is punished that does not injure the interests of the dominant ruling class.

supranational criminology Comprising the study of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the penal system in which such crimes are prosecuted and tried.

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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203Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

and their political allies will brand environmentalists as “tree huggers” who stand in the way of jobs and prosperity.29

The rich are insulated from street crimes because they live in areas far removed from crime. Those in power use the fear of crime as a tool to maintain their control over society. The poor are controlled through incarceration, and the middle class is di- verted from caring about the crimes of the powerful by their fear of the crimes of the powerless.30 Ironically, they may have more to lose from the economic crimes committed by the rich than the street crimes of the poor. Stock market swindles and savings and loan scams cost the public billions of dollars but are typically settled with fines and probationary sentences.

Because private ownership of property is the true measure of success in American society (as opposed to, say, being a wor- thy person), the state becomes an ally of the wealthy in protect- ing their property interests. As a result, theft-related crimes are often punished more severely than are acts of violence because although the former may be interclass, the latter are typically intraclass.

instrumental vs. Structural Theory Not all critical thinkers share a similar view of how crime is defined and how society works to control criminal behavior. instrumental theorists view criminal law and the criminal justice system solely as instruments for controlling the poor, have-not members of society. They view the state as the tool of capitalists. In contrast, structural theorists believe that the law is not the exclusive domain of the rich; rather, it is used to main- tain the long-term interests of the capitalist system and to con- trol members of any class who threaten its existence.

iNSTRUMENTAL THEORY According to the instrumental view, the law and justice system serve the powerful and rich and enable them to impose their morality and standards of behav- ior on the entire society. Those who wield economic power are able to extend their self-serving definition of illegal or criminal behavior to encompass those who might threaten the status quo or interfere with their quest for ever-increasing profits.31 The concentration of economic assets in the nation’s largest industrial firms translates into the political power needed to control tax laws to limit the firms’ tax liabilities and control elections to make sure the gov- ernment reflects their capitalistic views.32 Some have the economic clout to hire top attorneys to defend them against antitrust actions, making them almost immune to regulation.

The poor, according to this branch of critical theory, may or may not commit more crimes than the rich, but they certainly are arrested and punished more often. Under the capitalist system, the poor are driven to crime because a natural frustration exists in a society in which affluence is well publicized but unattainable. Because of class conflict, a deep-rooted hostility is generated among members of the lower class toward a social order they are not allowed to shape and whose benefits are unobtainable.33

STRUCTURAL THEORY Structural theorists disagree with the view that the rela- tionship between law and capitalism is unidirectional, always working for the rich and against the poor.34 If law and justice were purely instruments of the wealthy, why would laws controlling corporate crimes, such as price-fixing, false advertising, and illegal restraint of trade, have been created and enforced?

instrumental theorists Critical criminologists who view the law and justice system as serving the interests of the upper classes.

structural theorists Critical criminologists who believe the law is designed to keep the capitalist system operating in an efficient manner.

According to structural theories, the law is not the exclusive domain of the rich; rather, it is used to maintain the long-term interests of the capitalist system and to control members of any class who threaten its existence. Unless a capitalist breaks the rules that they themselves create, their money- making schemes are above the law. here, in 2012, r. Allen Stanford enters the Bob Casey federal Courthouse in houston, where he was sentenced to 110 years in prison for bilking investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history. Stanford did not play fair and was punished by the system.

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204 Part 2 • theorieS of Crime CAUSAtion

To a structuralist, the law is designed to keep the system operating efficiently, and anyone, worker or owner, who rocks the boat is targeted for sanction. For example, antitrust legislation is designed to prevent any single capitalist from dominating the system. If the free enterprise system is to function, no single person can become too powerful at the expense of the economic system as a whole. Structuralists would regard the efforts of the US government to break up Microsoft as an example of a conservative government using its clout to keep the system on an even keel. The long prison sentences given to corporate executives who engage in insider trading are a warning to capitalists that they must play by the rules.

The Cause of Crime Critical thinkers believe that the key crime-producing element of modern corporate capitalism is the effort to create surplus value—the profits produced by the labor- ing classes that are accrued by business owners. Once accumulated, surplus value can be either reinvested or used to enrich the owners. To increase the rate of surplus value, workers can be made to toil harder for less pay, be made more efficient, or be replaced by machines or technology. Therefore, economic growth does not benefit all elements of the population, and in the long run it may produce the same effect as a depression or recession.

As the rate of surplus value increases, more people are displaced from productive relationships and the size of the marginal population swells. As corporations down- size to increase profits, high-paying labor and managerial jobs are lost to computer- driven machinery. Displaced workers are forced into service jobs at minimum wage. Many become temporary employees without benefits or a secure position.

As more people are thrust outside the economic mainstream, a condition referred to as marginalization, a larger portion of the population is forced to live in areas con- ducive to crime. Once people are marginalized, commitment to the system declines, producing another criminogenic force: a weakened bond to society.

The government may be quick to respond during periods of economic decline because those in power assume that poor economic conditions breed crime and social disorder. When unemployment is increasing, public officials assume the worst and devote greater attention to the criminal justice system, perhaps building new prisons to prepare for the coming “crime wave.”35 Empirical research confirms that economic downturns are indeed linked to both crime rate increases and government activities such as passing anticrime legislation.36 As the level of surplus value increases, so too do police expenditures, most likely because of the perceived or real need for the state to control those on the economic margin.37

Globalization The new global economy is a particularly vexing development for critical theorists and their use of the concept of surplus value. Globalization, which usually refers to the process of creating transnational markets and political and legal systems, has shifted the focus of critical inquiry to a world perspective.

Globalization began when large companies decided to establish themselves in foreign markets by adapting their products or services to the local culture. The pro- cess took off with the fall of the Soviet Union, which opened new European markets. The development of China into a super industrial power encouraged foreign inves- tors to take advantage of China’s huge supply of workers. As the Internet and the communication revolution unfolded, companies were able to establish instant com- munications with their far-flung corporate empires, a technological breakthrough that further aided trade and foreign investments. A series of transnational corporate mergers and takeovers, such as when Ford bought Swedish car maker Volvo in 1999

Checkpoints

dc According to critical theorists, crime is a political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes at the expense of the poor.

dc those with economic and political power control the definition of crime and the manner in which the criminal justice system enforces the law.

dc the rich are insulated from street crimes because they live in areas far removed from crime.

dc instrumental theorists view criminal law and the criminal justice system solely as instruments for controlling the poor, have-not members of society. they view the state as the tool of capitalists.

dc Structural theorists believe that the law is used to main- tain the long-term interests of the capitalist system and to control members of any class who threaten its existence.

surplus value The excess profits that are produced by the laboring classes and accrued by business owners.

marginalization Displacement of workers, pushing them outside the economic and social mainstream.

globalization The creation and maintenance of transnational markets.

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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205Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

and then in 2010 sold Volvo to the Chinese car company Geely, produced ever-larger transnational corporations.

Some experts believe globalization can improve the standard of living in third- world nations by providing jobs and training, but critical theorists question the al- truism of multinational corporations. Their motives are exploiting natural resources, avoiding regulation, and taking advantage of desperate workers. When these giant corporations set up a factory in a developing nation, it is not to help the local popula- tion but to get around environmental laws and take advantage of needy workers who may be forced to labor in substandard conditions. In some instances, transnational companies take advantage of national unrest and calamity in order to engage in profi- teering. For example, recent examinations of illegal mineral expropriation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) highlight the role that transnational corpora- tions and international marketplaces played in the theft of Congolese gold. Although these companies did not directly encourage the conflict or the massive human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed in the region, they took advantage of the existing disorder and violence to make a huge profit.38

Globalization has replaced imperialism and colonization as a new form of eco- nomic domination and oppression and now presents, according to critical thinkers, a threat to the world economy:

• Growing global dominance and the reach of the free market capitalist system, which disproportionately benefits wealthy and powerful organizations and individuals

• Increasing vulnerability of indigenous people with a traditional way of life to the forces of globalized capitalism

• Growing influence and impact of international financial institutions (such as the World Bank) and the related relative decline of power of local or state-based institutions

• Nondemocratic operation of international financial institutions39

Globalization may be responsible for the recent unrest in the financial systems and in so doing has created a fertile ground for contemporary enterprise crimes. By expanding the reach of both criminal and noncriminal organizations, globalization also increases the vulnerability of indigenous people with a traditional way of life.40 With money and power to spare, criminal enterprise groups can recruit new mem- bers, bribe government officials, and even fund private armies. International orga- nized crime has globalized its activities for the same reasons legitimate multinational corporations have expanded around the world: new markets bring new sources of profits. As international crime expert Louise Shelley puts it:

Just as multinational corporations establish branches around the world to take advantage of attractive labor or raw material markets, so do illicit businesses. Fur- thermore, international businesses, both legitimate and illicit, also establish facilities worldwide for production, marketing, and distribution needs. Illicit enterprises are able to expand geographically to take advantage of these new economic circum- stances thanks to the communications and international transportation revolution.41

Shelley argues that two elements of globalization encourage criminality: one technological, the other cultural. Technological advances such as efficient and wide- spread commercial airline traffic, improvements in telecommunications (ranging from global cell phone connectivity to the Internet), and the growth of international trade have all aided the growth in illicit transnational activities. These changes have facilitated the cross-border movement of goods and people, conditions exploited by criminals who now use Internet chat rooms to plan their activities. On a cultural level, globalization brings with it an ideology of free markets and free trade. The cultural shift means less intervention and regulation, conditions exploited by crime groups to cross unpatrolled borders and to expand their activities to new regions of the world. Transnational crime groups freely exploit this new freedom to travel to

The enforcement of laws against illegal business activities such as price fixing, restraint of trade, environmental crimes, and false advertising will be discussed in Chapter 12. Because of recent scandals such as the savings and loan scandal and subprime mortgage frauds, white-collar criminals are being punished more severely than in the past, a fact that supports the structural view.

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regions where they cannot be extradited, base their operations in countries with inef- fective or corrupt law enforcement, and launder their money in countries with bank secrecy or few effective controls. Globalization has allowed both individual offenders and criminal gangs to gain tremendous operational benefits while reducing the risks of apprehension and punishment.

Globalization may have a profound influence on the concept of surplus value. Workers in the United States may be replaced in high-paying manufacturing jobs not by machines but by foreign workers. Instant communication via the Internet and global communications, a development that Marx could not have foreseen, will speed the effect immeasurably. Globalization will have a profound effect both on the econ- omy and eventually on crime rates.

State (Organized) Crime While mainstream criminologists focus on the crimes of the poor and powerless, criti- cal criminologists focus their attention on the law violations of the powerful. One area of concern is referred to as state (organized) crime—acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials, both elected or appointed, in pursuit of their jobs as government representatives. Their actions, or in some cases failure to act, amount to a violation of the criminal law they are bound by oath or duty to uphold.

Among the most controversial claims made by critical criminologists are those linking the United States to state (organized) crime and violence. The Policies and Issues in Criminology feature reviews a recent book that makes just such a claim.

Those who study state crime argue that these antisocial behaviors arise from ef- forts to either maintain governmental power or to uphold the race, class, and gender advantages of those who support the government. In an industrial society, the state will do everything to protect the property rights of the wealthy while opposing the real interests of the poor. They might even go to war to support the capitalist classes who need the wealth and resources of other nations. The desire for natural resources such as rubber, oil, and metals was one of the primary reasons for Japan’s invasion of China and other Eastern nations that sparked their entry into World War II. Fifty years later, the United States was accused by many media commentators and political pundits of invading Iraq in order to secure its oil for American use.42

There are a number of categories of state crime, and these are set out in some detail below.43

iLLEGAL DOMESTiC SURvEiLLANCE This occurs when government agents lis- ten in on telephone conversations or intercept e-mails without proper approval in order to stifle dissent and monitor political opponents. Sometimes the true purpose of the surveillance is masked by the need for national security while in reality it is illegal organizational policy and practice that has in some cases been sanctioned by heads of state for political purposes. The dangers of illegal surveillance have become magnified because closed-circuit TV cameras are now routinely used by metropolitan police agencies. Many cities, including Washington, New York, Chicago, and Los An- geles, have installed significant numbers of police-operated cameras trained on public spaces. While ostensibly used to deter crime, once these surveillance facilities are put in place, police departments can use them to record the faces of political demonstra- tors, to record what people are reading, and to store photographs of people on com- puter databases without their knowledge or permission. This capability worries both civil libertarians and critical criminologists.44

HUMAN RiGHTS viOLATiONS Some governments, such as Iran, routinely deny their citizens basic civil rights, holding them without trial and using “disappearances” and summary executions to rid themselves of political dissidents. After students rioted against governmental controls, more than 70 simply disappeared, another 1,200 to 1,400 were detained, and dozens were killed when security forces broke up demonstrations.45

state (organized) crime Criminal acts committed by government officials.

It is illegal for the police to monitor people in public places with cameras and secretly record their activities.

FictiOn It is routine for metropolitan police agencies to use surveillance cameras to monitor streets and to store photographs of people on computer databases.

Fact FictiOn? or

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207Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

Policies and Iss ues in Criminolo

gy

Mass DeCepTiOn In his 2010 book, Mass Deception, criminologist Scott Bonn argues that the George W. Bush administration manufac- tured public support for war with Iraq by falsely claiming that its leader, Saddam Hussein, was involved in the terror- ist attacks of 9/11 and that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Bonn explains that the war was a function of a “moral panic” engineered by the Bush administration with the support of the US news media. A moral panic occurs when the general population begins to feel threatened by a person or group even though there may be little actual evidence to support the intensity of feeling expressed by the population. Bonn believes that despite overwhelming evidence that the attacks had been solely orchestrated by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the Bush administration initiated a campaign to link 9/11 to Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and his Ba’ath Party. They convinced the US public and the world that Iraq (a) was involved in the attacks of 9/11, (b) possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and (c) represented a grave and growing threat to US security. In 2002, President Bush proclaimed that “the Iraqi dictator must not be permitted to threaten America and the world with horrible poisons and diseases and gases and atomic weapons.” Although the United States was never directly threatened or provoked by Iraq, President Bush declared war allegedly to “disarm Iraq . . . and to defend the world from grave danger.” The Bush administration’s propaganda campaign was so successful that 70 percent of the US pub- lic believed Iraq was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11 when the US-led invasion of Iraq began.

According to Bonn, the cost of Bush’s deception was high. Iraq has been embroiled in a civil war, more than 4,000 US soldiers and more than 1 million Iraqis (3.7 per- cent of the population) have been killed, and the war has cost the American taxpayer $10 billion per month.

Bonn believes that the war in Iraq amounts to state organized crime. It was precipitated by the Bush administration and reinforced by the news media, which exploited preexisting negative stereotypes of Arabs. The Bush administration perpetrated state crimes and war crimes as well as violations of international crimi- nal law when they invaded Iraq. What was the real cause of the war? While the truth may never be known, one pos- sibility is the unfinished Bush family business with Sad- dam Hussein resulting from the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Another motivation was the Bush administration’s desire to control Iraq’s oil production and massive oil reserves.

Bonn critiques the war and the occupation of Iraq as violations of both US and international laws. He believes that despite what amounted to committing war crimes, the Bush administration enjoyed both political and bureau- cratic exemptions from prosecution under international law; it is unlikely ever to be held accountable for its ac- tions. Bonn introduces a unique, integrated, and interdis- ciplinary theory called “critical communication” to explain how and why political elites and the news media periodi- cally create public panics that benefit both parties.

Source: Scott A. Bonn, Mass Deception: Moral Panic and the U.S. War on Iraq (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010).

Critical Thinking Is it fair to brand the war in Iraq as state organized crime? Does Bonn have it right, or were Bush’s mo- tives more genuine: to protect the Iraqi people and the world from an evil dictator’s ambitions?

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208 Part 2 • theorieS of Crime CAUSAtion

Similar violent actions to break up demonstrations took place in the wake of the disputed election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Another state crime involves the operation of the correctional systems in nations that are notorious for de- priving detainees of basic necessi- ties and routinely using hard labor and torture to punish political dissi- dents. During the Bush presidency, the United States’ Central Intelli- gence Agency (CIA) used a practice known as extraordinary rendition, in which suspected terrorists were sent to secret prisons abroad, without trial or indictment. There they were subject to harsh interrogation tactics forbidden in the United States; it is unknown whether the practice still continues.46

STATE-CORPORATE CRiME This type of state crime is committed by individuals who abuse their state au- thority or who fail to exercise it when working with people and organiza- tions in the private sector. For ex- ample, a state environmental agency may fail to enforce laws, resulting in the pollution of public waterways.

State-corporate crime is particularly alarming, considering that regulatory law aimed at controlling private corporations is being scaled back while globalization has made corporations worldwide entities both in production and in advancing the consump- tion of their products.47

STATE viOLENCE Sometimes nations engage in violence to maintain their power over dissident groups. Army or police officers form death squads—armed vigilante groups that kill suspected political opponents or other undesirables. These groups commit assassinations and kidnappings using extremely violent methods to intimi- date the population and deter political activity against the government.

The use of death squads is common in third-world countries, but police violence and use of deadly force are not uncommon in Western industrialized nations. In some nations, such as during the civil war in the Russian province of Chechnya, almost all political detainees are subjected to torture, including electric shocks, burnings, and severe beating with boots, sticks, plastic bottles filled with water or sand, and heavy rubber-coated cables. The rest are subject to psychological pressure, such as threats or imitation of sexual abuse or execution, as well as threats to harm their relatives.48 The Profiles in Crime box focuses on this abuse.

Crime and Social institutions Critical thinkers often focus on contemporary social institutions to show how they operate as instruments of class and racial oppression. Critical scholars find that class bias and racial oppression exist from the cradle to the grave. There are significant

one element of state organized crime is the censuring and intimidation of political dissidents. here, Chinese dissident Chen guangcheng (center) holds hands with US Ambassador to China gary locke in Beijing. Chen is a Chinese civil rights activist who, blind from an early age, is self-taught in the law. he is best known for exposing alleged abuses in official family-planning practices, often involving claims of violence and forced pregnancy termination. Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to march 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. During his trial, Chen’s attorneys were forbidden access to the court, leaving him without a proper defender. on August 24, 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. he was released in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or “soft detention” at his home. Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance.

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extraordinary rendition The practice of sending suspected terrorists to foreign prisons that permit torture in the interrogation of suspects.

The CIA has sent terror suspects to foreign prisons where they can be subjected to harsh interrogation tactics.

Fact The CIA has admitted to the practice of extraordinary rendition, which sends terror suspects to foreign prisons for interrogation using tactics forbidden in the United States.

Fact FictiOn? or

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209Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

race-based achievement differences in education, ranging from scores on standardized tests to dropout and high school completion rates. There are a few high schools, mostly in poverty-stricken inner-city neigh- borhoods, where the high school completion rate is 40 percent or less; these are referred to as dropout factories. There are more than 1,700 of these failing schools in the United States. Although they represent only a small fraction of all public high schools in America, they account for about half of all high school drop- outs each year.49

One reason for these persistent problems may be linked to differences in discipline meted out in poor and wealthy districts. As you may recall, African American children receive more disciplinary infractions than children from other racial categories, despite the fact that their behavior is quite similar. Having a higher per- centage of black students in a school translates into a greater use of disciplinary tactics, a factor that may explain why minor- ity students fare less well and are more likely to disengage from schools at a younger age than whites.50 Critical thinkers might suggest that these class- and race-based bur- dens make crime inevitable.

The problems faced by underclass kids and racial minorities do not stop at the schoolhouse door. According to the racial threat theory, as the number of minority group members in the community increases, law enforcement agents become more punitive. Research now shows that racial threat is a universal phenomenon, occur- ring in the United States and abroad.51

There are cries for more “law and order” even when crime rates are declining. As a result, charges of racial profiling have become common. Police are more likely to use racial profiling to stop black motorists as they travel further into the boundar- ies of predominantly white neighborhoods: black motorists driving in an all-white neighborhood set up a red flag because they are “out of place.”52 All too often these unwarranted stops lead to equally unfair arrests.53

Considering this unfair treatment, it is not surprising to critical theorists that po- lice brutality complaints are highest in minority neighborhoods, especially those that experience relative deprivation (African American residents earn significantly less money than the European American majority).54

Critical research also shows that racial and economic bias is present in pros- ecution and punishment. Surveys show that as the numbers of racial and ethnic minorities in the population increase, so too do calls for harsher punishments. Un- warranted fear drives people to believe that a defendant’s race and ethnicity should be considered during sentencing.55 These attitudes then find traction in the justice system: African American defendants are more likely to be prosecuted under habit- ual offender statutes if they commit crimes where there is a greater likelihood of a white victim—for example, larceny and burglary—than if they commit violent crimes that are largely intraracial; where there is a perceived “racial threat,” punishment is enhanced.56 After conviction, criminal courts also are more likely to dole out harsh punishments to members of powerless, disenfranchised groups.57 Both white and

dropout factories High schools in which the completion rate is consistently 40 percent or less.

State (organized) crimes are criminal acts committed by state officials, both elected and appointed, in pursuit of their jobs as government officials. here, state (organized) criminal, hamilton township mayor John Bencivengo (center), 58, walks from federal court with his attorney Jerome A. Ballarotto (right), in trenton, new Jersey, after surrendering to the fBi to face an extortion charge. he was released on a $100,000 bond. federal prosecutors allege Bencivengo took $12,400 in bribes in exchange for using his influence over a health insurance contact with the township’s school district.

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black offenders have been found to receive stricter sentences if their personal char- acteristics (single, young, urban, male) show them to be members of the “dangerous classes.”58 Unemployed racial minorities may be perceived as “social dynamite” who present a real threat to society and must be controlled and incapacitated.59 Critical analysis also shows that despite legal controls the use of the death penalty seems to be skewed against racial minorities.60

The rush to punish must be observed through the lens of race: as the percentage of minority group members increases in a population, the imprisonment rate does

Profiles in Crime

Russia’s DeaTh squaDs The Chechen war prompted creation of Russian death squads. Here, Movsar Barayev, leader of armed Chech- ens who seized a crowded Moscow theater in 2002, is seen with another male captor (center) and a woman captor (left), somewhere inside the theater. Forty attack- ers, some of them widows of ethnic Chechen insur- gents, stormed the theater just before the second act of a popular musical. Russian security forces pumped gas into the theater, causing the death of all the attack- ers and about 130 hostages.

Russia’s two wars against breakaway province Chechnya went on from the mid-1990s until 2009, when with massive firepower they crushed the sepa- ratist rebel groups; hundreds of thousands died dur- ing the conflict. As the war raged, Chechen fighters launched suicide attacks against civilians in the Mos- cow metro and at a rock festival. In 2002, a gang that included 18 female suicide bombers seized more than 800 hostages in a Moscow theater, 129 of whom died

when the Russians pumped poisonous gas into the building on day three of the siege. In 2004, rebels took hundreds of schoolchildren and their

relatives hostage in Beslan. After a three-day siege, Russian security forces stormed the school; 334 hos- tages died, more than half of them children.

Enraged by the Chechen actions, the Russians cre- ated death squads made up of elite Russian special forces, commandos who would stop at nothing to find, torture, and kill enemy combatants. In one incident, when a rebel was captured who had been instructing other women to become suicide bombers, death squad commandos tortured her to gain information and then shot her to death. One of the death squad members told reporters, “We disposed of her body in a field. We placed an artillery shell between her legs and one over her chest, added several 200-gram TNT blocks and blew her to smithereens. The trick is to make sure abso- lutely nothing is left. No body, no proof, no problem.” The technique was known as pulverization. The young recruits she was training were taken away by another unit for further interrogation before they, too, were ex- ecuted. Not only were suspected rebels victimized, but also people close to them were systematically tracked, abducted, tortured, and killed. Intelligence was often extracted by breaking limbs with a hammer, administer- ing electric shocks, and forcing men to perform sexual acts on each other. The bodies were either buried in un- marked pits or pulverized. The scenes would occasion- ally be filmed and circulated among enemy combatants as a form of psychological warfare.

The Russian government publicly condemned tor- ture and extrajudicial killing and denied that its army committed war crimes in Chechnya. Despite govern- ment protestations, the truth seems to be different. Far from being the work of a few ruthless mavericks, these methods were widely used by death squads among the special forces.

Source: London Times, April 26, 2009, “Russian Death Squads ‘Pulverise’ Chechens,” www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/ world_news/article165191.ece (accessed December 2012).

AP Photo/ntv russian Channel

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211Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

likewise.61 States with a substantial minority population have a much higher imprisonment rate than those with predominantly white populations.62

Taken in sum, critical criminologists claim that these and other studies underpin the foundations of their view: social in- stitutions are designed to favor the rich and powerful and to op- press those who lack economic power and social standing.

Forms of Critical Criminology Critical criminologists are exploring new avenues of inquiry that fall outside the traditional models of conflict and critical theories. The following sections discuss in detail some recent developments in the conflict approach to crime.

Left Realism Some critical scholars are now addressing the need for the left wing to respond to the increasing power of right-wing conserva- tives. They are troubled by the emergence of a strict “law and order” philosophy, which has as its centerpiece such policies as aggressive police patrol, severe sentences for drug offenders, capi- tal punishment, and punishing juveniles in adult court. At the same time, they find the focus of most critical scholarship—the abuse of power by the ruling elite—too narrow. It is wrong, they argue, to ignore inner-city gang crime and violence, which often target indigent people while focusing solely on the depravations of the rich and powerful.63

This branch of critical theory, referred to as left realism, is most often connected to the writings of British scholars John Lea and Jock Young. In their well-respected 1984 work What Is to Be Done About Law and Order? they reject the utopian views of ideal- ists who portray street criminals as revolutionaries.64 They take the more “realistic” approach that street criminals prey on the poor and disenfranchised, thus making the poor doubly abused, first by the capitalist system and then by members of their own class.

Lea and Young’s view of crime causation borrows from conventional sociological theory and closely resembles the relative deprivation approach, which posits that ex- periencing poverty in the midst of plenty creates discontent and breeds crime. As they put it, “The equation is simple: relative deprivation equals discontent; discontent plus lack of political solution equals crime.”65

In Crime in Context: A Critical Criminology of Market Societies, Ian Taylor recognizes that anyone who expects an instant socialist revolution to take place is simply engag- ing in wishful thinking.66 He uses data from both Europe and North America to show that the world is currently in the midst of multiple crises that are shaping all human interaction, including criminality. These crises include lack of job creation, social in- equality, social fear, political incompetence and failure, gender conflict, and family and parenting issues. These crises have led to a society in which the government seems incapable of creating positive social change: people have become more fearful and iso- lated from one another and some are excluded from the mainstream because of racism and discrimination; manufacturing jobs have been exported overseas to nations that pay extremely low wages; and fiscal constraints inhibit the possibility of reform. These problems often fall squarely on the shoulders of young black men, who suffer from ex- clusion and poverty and who now feel the economic burden created by the erosion of manufacturing jobs due to the globalization of the economy. In response, they engage in a form of hypermasculinity, which helps increase their crime rates.67

Critical thinkers often focus on contemporary social institutions to show how they operate as instruments of class and racial oppression. Critical scholars find that class bias and racial oppression exist from the cradle to the grave. here, Juan guillermo “Willie” vasquez shows the tube he now requires to remove waste from his body as a result of kidney injuries. the 16-year-old youth sued Denver police, alleging police brutality after gang officer Charles Porter stomped up and down on vasquez, lacerating his liver as well as damaging his kidneys. Porter was fired and vasquez received a settlement of more than $800,000.

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left realism An approach that is left-leaning but realistic in its appraisal of crime and its causes. Crime is seen as class conflict in an advanced industrial society.

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LEFT REALiSM AND CRiME Left realists view the cause of serious violent crime as a function of economic inequality, community deprivation, and lack of supportive institutions that characterize today’s postmodern society. The economic disparity that puts some citizens at risk of crime and protects others from harm can be directly laid at the feet of crony capitalism. Rewarding CEOs with multimillion-dollar bonuses for firing workers and sending jobs overseas increases corporate profits at the expense of workers’ pay. As economic disparity increases, so too do drug abuse and crime. Here left realism can be distinguished from traditional liberal criminology, which views criminals as people who have trouble making it in society and see crime as a result of their failures. People commit crime, liberals claim, because their opportunities are blocked. Left realists counter that legitimate opportunities are not blocked because in reality they never actually existed. As legal scholar Elliott Currie claims, our present capitalist socioeconomic system is such that it generates “inequality, injustice, social fragmentation and a ‘hard’ and unsupportive culture.” This view separates left realists from liberal criminologists.68

Although implementing a socialist economy might help eliminate the crime problem, left realists recognize that something must be done to control crime under the existing system rather than waiting for the development of an ideal society. They argue that crime victims in all classes need and deserve protection; crime control re- flects community needs. They do not view police and the courts as inherently evil tools of capitalism whose tough tactics alienate the lower classes. In fact, they recog- nize that these institutions offer life-saving public services. The left realists wish, how- ever, that police would reduce their use of force and increase their sensitivity to the public.69 They want the police to be more responsive to community needs, end racial profiling, and improve efforts at self-regulation and enforcement through citizen re- view boards and other control mechanisms. Left realists call for an end to aggressive policing, arguing that the use of force and formal arrest with minor crimes convinces many people to withhold support and information that the police need to solve much more serious crimes.70

Left realists also decry the use of mass incarceration as a crime control device, fearing that it has racial overtones. In her provocative book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010), legal scholar Michelle Alexander notes that the number of people in prison has skyrocketed in the past 30 years; there are now more African Americans behind bars than there were slaves at the time of the Civil War. This system of mass incarceration now works as a “tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collec- tively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.”71 In a sense, the Jim Crow laws, which worked to segregate minorities and prevented them from voting, have been replaced by the War on Drugs, which has placed mil- lions behind bars and restricted their civil rights upon release; existing laws prevent convicted felons from gaining employment, education, or housing, obtaining loans, and voting.

In contrast to these harsh measures, left realists believe that community-based efforts hold the greatest promise of crime control. According to left realists, it is pos- sible for community organization efforts to eliminate or reduce crime before police involvement becomes necessary, a process they call preemptive deterrence. The rea- soning behind this approach is that if the number of marginalized youths (those who feel they are not part of society and have nothing to lose by committing crime) could be reduced, then delinquency rates would decline.72

Surprisingly, this left realist perspective may be gaining traction even in the na- tion’s most conservative states (including Texas), which have begun to reduce their prison expenditures while funding treatment, reentry, and alternative to incarcera- tion programs. In part this policy shift corresponds to a change in public opinion: as crime rates have declined and state budgets are in crisis, the public demands low-cost alternatives to the “lock ‘em up” policies that have been predominant for the past

preemptive deterrence Efforts to prevent crime through community organization and youth involvement.

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few decades. It’s possible that a more realistic vision of punishment may be on the horizon.73

LEFT REALiSM AND TERRORiSM Left realists have focused their attention on street crime and how it affects its targets: lower-class citizens are forced to live in dan- gerous neighborhoods and communities. Recently, left realist Jennifer Gibbs applied the basic concepts to explain the motivation for terrorist activity. She finds four key elements of left realism that should, if valid, underpin terrorist involvement:

• People are recruited into terrorist organizations because of relative deprivation. • Terrorist organizations are subcultures that provide peer support. • Victims/targets are selected based on opportunity/routine activities. • Get-tough policies that create a police state may backfire.

Gibbs finds evidence to support the first proposition: terrorists are drawn not from extremely poor populations but from those who realize they have fallen behind other groups. Absolute deprivation (e.g., the inability to provide basic necessities) is not the cause of terrorism; relative deprivation (e.g., being less well off than one’s peers) seems to carry more weight, an association predicted by left realism. Feelings of deprivation are exacerbated by the new technology. Advancements like the Inter- net make communication easier, and people can see how much better off others are, increasing the perception of relative deprivation.

Second, left realist theory argues that men who experience stress as a result of relative deprivation and do not have socially appropriate coping mechanisms turn to similarly situated peers, who provide support; they often form subcultures. Likewise, terrorist group members seek peer support with like-minded people, forming subcultures supportive of these values or ideology. In today’s postmodern world, technology has created the opportunity for virtual peer groups and subcul- tures. Peer support does not necessarily need to be face to face within groups but can exist in blogs and chat rooms. Those adhering to a particular ideology may find peer support in written communications such as online forums, Twitter, and other social media.

Gibbs finds weaker support for the role of opportunity in terrorist activities be- cause they tend to be planned rather than spontaneous events. However, there is some evidence that opportunity plays a role in choosing victims: targeting businesses and citizens is easier than targeting government entities or military installations or personnel. Other reasons may include having the “biggest bang for the buck” by tar- geting businesses—symbolic of capitalism—or civilians, whose deaths generate wide- spread attention.

The final proposition of left realist theory addressed by Gibbs is that get-tough policies will not reduce crime. She notes that left realism focuses on individualized or community-focused responses to crime. Get-tough policies alienate people and le- gitimate terrorist organizations. The “war” on terror legitimized groups like al-Qaeda, attracting more terrorism instead of decreasing it. Also, the military response to ter- rorism is not a deterrent. Military “solutions,” in particular, lead to retaliation, gener- ating a cycle of violence because they tend to be reactive rather than proactive. They provide short-term solutions that fail to address the underlying causes that lead to terrorism in the first place. Instead, left realism theory directs policy toward minimal official response and maximizing informal social control. With terrorism, attempting to address the underlying grievances may be helpful.74

Critical Feminist Theory Like so many theories in criminology, most of the efforts of critical theorists have been devoted to explaining male criminality.75 To remedy this theoretical lapse, a number of feminist writers have attempted to explain the cause of crime, gender

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214 Part 2 • theorieS of Crime CAUSAtion

differences in crime rates, and the exploitation of female victims from a critical perspective.

Critical feminism views gender inequality as stemming from the unequal power of men and women in a capitalist society, which leads to the exploitation of women by fathers, boyfriends, and husbands. Under this system, women are considered a commodity worth possessing, like land or money.76

The origin of gender differences can be traced to the development of private property and male domination of the laws of inheritance, which led to male control over property and power.77 A patriarchal system developed in which men’s work was valued and women’s work was devalued. As capitalism prevailed, the division of labor by gender made women responsible for the unpaid maintenance and repro- duction of the current and future labor force, which was derisively called “domestic work.” Although this unpaid work done by women is crucial and profitable for capitalists, who reap these free benefits, such labor is exploitative and oppressive for women.78 Even when women gained the right to work for pay, they were exploited as cheap labor. The dual exploitation of women within the household and in the labor market means that women produce far greater surplus value for capitalists than men.

Patriarchy, or male supremacy, has been and continues to be supported by capi- talists. This system sustains female oppression at home and in the workplace.79 Al- though the number of traditional patriarchal families is in steep decline, in those that still exist, a wife’s economic dependence ties men more securely to wage-earning jobs, further serving the interests of capitalists by undermining potential rebellion against the system.

PATRiARCHY AND CRiME Critical feminists link criminal behavior patterns to the gender conflict created by the economic and social struggles common in postindus- trial societies. In Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Crime, James Messerschmidt argues that capitalist society is marked by both patriarchy and class conflict. Capitalists control the labor of workers, and men control women both economically and biologically.80 This “double marginality” explains why females in a capitalist society commit fewer crimes than males. Because they are isolated in the family, they have fewer opportu- nities to engage in elite deviance (white-collar and economic crimes). Although pow- erful females as well as males will commit white-collar crimes, the female crime rate is restricted because of the patriarchal nature of the capitalist system.81 Women also are denied access to male-dominated street crimes.

Because capitalism renders lower-class women powerless, they are forced to commit less serious, nonviolent, self-destructive crimes, such as abusing drugs. Re- cent efforts of the capitalist classes to undermine the social support of the poor has hit women particularly hard. The end of welfare, concentration on welfare fraud, and cutbacks to social services all have directly and uniquely affected women.82

Powerlessness also increases the likelihood that women will become targets of violent acts.83 When lower-class males are shut out of the economic opportunity structure, they try to build their self-image through acts of machismo; such acts may involve violent abuse of women. This type of reaction accounts for a significant per- centage of female victims who are attacked by a spouse or intimate partner. It is not surprising to find that incarcerated female offenders report higher rates of interper- sonal violence and mental health problems than incarcerated men and that there is a strong association between suffering intimate partner violence, mental health issues, and involvement with the justice system.84 Female victimization should decline as women’s place in society is elevated and they are able to obtain more power at home, in the workplace, and in government. Empirical research seems to support this view. In nations where the status of women is generally high, sexual violence rates are significantly lower than in nations where women do not enjoy similar educational and occupational opportunities.85 Women’s victimization rates decline as they are

critical feminism The view that gender inequality is a result of the exploitation of women in a male-dominated society.

patriarchal A system of society or government controlled by men.

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215Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

empowered socially, economically, and legally.86

MASCULiNiTY AND CRiME Ac- cording to the concept of hegemonic masculinity, each culture creates an ideal vision of male behavior. In US culture, there is a hierarchy of mas- culine behavior that glorifies com- petitiveness and reflects a tendency for males to seek to dominate other males, to be homophobic, and to sub- ordinate females.87

In his classic work Masculinities and Crime, Messerschmidt expands on these themes.88 He suggests that in every culture males try to emu- late “ideal” masculine behaviors. In Western culture, this means being authoritative, in charge, combative, and controlling. Failure to adopt these roles leaves men feeling effeminate and unmanly. Their struggle to domi- nate women in order to prove their manliness is called “doing gender.” Crime is a vehicle for men to “do gen- der” because it separates them from the weak and allows them to demon- strate physical bravery. Violence di- rected toward women is an especially economical way to demonstrate man- hood. Would a weak, effeminate male ever attack a woman?

Feminist writers have supported this view by maintaining that in contemporary society men achieve masculinity at the expense of women. In the best-case sce- nario, men must convince others that in no way are they feminine or have female qualities. For example, they are sloppy and don’t cook or do housework because these are “female” activities. More ominously, men may work at excluding, hurt- ing, denigrating, exploiting, or otherwise abusing women. Even in all-male groups, men often prove their manhood by treating the weakest member of the group as “woman-like” and abusing him accordingly. Men need to defend themselves at all costs from being contaminated with femininity, and these efforts begin in children’s playgroups and continue into adulthood and marriage.89

ExPLOiTATiON AND CRiMiNALiTY Critical feminists also focus on the social forces that shape women’s lives and experiences to explain female criminality.90 They at- tempt to show how the sexual victimization of girls is a function of male socialization because so many young males learn to be aggressive and to exploit women. Males seek out same-sex peer groups for social support; these groups encourage members to exploit and sexually abuse women. On college campuses, peers encourage sexual vio- lence against women who are considered “teasers,” “bar pickups,” or “loose women.” These derogatory labels allow the males to justify their actions; a code of secrecy then protects the aggressors from retribution.91

According to the critical feminist view, exploitation triggers the onset of fe- male delinquent and deviant behavior. When female victims run away and abuse

Domestic abuse is not unique to the United States. li yang, the founder of Crazy english, a nontraditional method of learning english in mainland China, was ordered to pay his American wife, Kim lee, more than 12 million yuan ($1.9 million) in a divorce granted because of his domestic abuse. in addition, lee was granted custody of their three daughters, aged 10, 6, and 4, and child support of 100,000 yuan a year for each until they reach the age of 18. Beijing Chaoyang District Peoples Court also ruled that li should pay 50,000 yuan to lee for psychological trauma and agreed to lee’s request for a three-month restraining order against him. on hearing the verdict, lee (shown here) broke down, but she soon regained her composure to tell reporters that Chinese women must defend their rights. in 2011, lee, who filed for the divorce, uploaded pictures showing injuries, including a bleeding left ear, swollen forehead, and bruised knees; she said these injuries had been caused by her husband.

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hegemonic masculinity The belief in the existence of a culturally normative ideal of male behavior.

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216 Part 2 • theorieS of Crime CAUSAtion

paternalistic families Families in which fathers assume the traditional role of breadwinners, while mothers tend to have menial jobs or remain at home to supervise domestic matters.

role exit behaviors The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new identity.

egalitarian families Families in which the husband and wife share similar positions of power at home and in the workplace.

substances, they may be reacting to abuse they have suffered at home or at school. Their attempts at survival are labeled as de- viant or delinquent behavior.92 When the exploited girl finds herself in the arms of the justice system, her problems may just be beginning. Boys who get in trouble may be considered “overzealous” youth or kids who just went too far. Girls who get in trouble are seen as a threat to acceptable images of femininity; their behavior is considered even more unusual and dangerous than male delinquency.93

Power–Control Theory John Hagan and his associates have cre- ated a critical feminist model that uses gender differences to explain the onset of criminality.94 Hagan’s view is that crime and delinquency rates are a function of two factors: class position (power) and family functions (control).95 The link be- tween these two variables is that, within the family, parents reproduce the power relationships they hold in the workplace; a position of dominance at work is equated

with control in the household. As a result, parents’ work experiences and class position influence the criminality of children.96

In paternalistic families, fathers assume the traditional role of breadwin- ners, while mothers tend to have menial jobs or remain at home to supervise domestic matters. Within the paternalistic home, mothers are expected to control the behavior of their daughters while granting greater freedom to sons. In such a home, the parent–daughter relationship can be viewed as a preparation for the “cult of domesticity,” which makes girls’ involvement in delinquency unlikely, whereas boys are freer to deviate because they are not subject to maternal con- trol. Girls growing up in patriarchal families are socialized to fear legal sanctions more than are males; consequently, boys in these families exhibit more delin- quent behavior than their sisters. The result is that boys not only engage in more antisocial behaviors but have greater access to legitimate adult behaviors, such as working at part-time jobs or possessing their own transportation. In contrast, without these legitimate behavioral outlets, girls who are unhappy or dissatisfied with their status are forced to seek out risky role exit behaviors, including such desperate measures as running away and contemplating suicide.

In egalitarian families—those in which the husband and wife share similar po- sitions of power at home and in the workplace—daughters gain a kind of freedom that reflects reduced parental control. These families produce daughters whose law- violating behavior mirrors their brothers’. In an egalitarian family, girls may have greater opportunity to engage in legitimate adult status behaviors and less need to enact deviant role exits.97

Ironically, Hagan believes that these relationships also occur in female-headed households with absent fathers. Hagan and his associates found that when fathers and mothers hold equally valued managerial positions, the similarity between the rates of their daughters’ and sons’ delinquency is greatest. By implication, middle- class girls are the most likely to violate the law because they are less closely controlled than their lower-class counterparts. In homes in which both parents hold positions of

Critical feminist theory focuses on the oppression of women in contemporary society. here, nicole Clark, 17, revisits her onetime sleeping spot in Ashland, oregon. At 14, she ran away from her group home in medford, oregon, and spent weeks sleeping in parks and under bridges. finally, she grew so desperate that she accepted a young man’s offer of a place to stay, a situation that resulted in 14 months of forced prostitution before she escaped from his control.

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217Chapter 8 • SoCiAl ConfliCt, CritiCAl Criminology, AnD reStorAtive JUStiCe

power, girls are more likely to have the same expectations of career success as their brothers. Consequently, siblings of both sexes will be socialized to take risks and en- gage in other behavior related to delinquency.

EvALUATiNG POwER–CONTROL So far, power–control theory has received a great deal of attention in the criminological community because it encourages a new approach to the study of criminality, one that includes gender differences, class posi- tion, and the structure of the family. Empirical analysis of its premises has gener- ally been supportive. Brenda Sims Blackwell’s research supports a key element of power–control theory: females in paternalistic households have learned to fear legal sanctions more than have their brothers.98

Not all research is as supportive.99 Some critics have questioned its core assump- tion that power and control variables can explain crime. More specifically, critics fail to replicate the finding that upper-class girls are more likely to deviate than their lower- class peers or that class and power interact to produce delinquency.100 Some research- ers have found few gender-based supervision and behavior differences in worker-, manager-, or owner-dominated households.101 Research indicates that single-mother families may be different than two-parent egalitarian families, though Hagan’s theory equates the two.102

It is possible that the concept of family employed by Hagan may have to be reconsidered. Power–control theorists should consider the multitude of power and control relationships that are emerging in postmodern society: blended families, families where mothers hold managerial positions and fathers are blue-collar work- ers, and so forth.103

Finally, power and control may interact with other personal traits, such as per- sonality and self-control, to shape behavior.104 Further research is needed to deter- mine whether power–control can have an independent influence on behavior and can explain gender differences in the crime rate.

Peacemaking Criminology To members of the peacemaking movement, the main purpose of criminology is to promote a peaceful, just society. Rather than standing on empirical analysis of data, peacemaking draws its inspiration from religious and philosophical teachings ranging from Quakerism to Zen.105 For example, rather than seeing socioeconomic status as a “variable” that is correlated with crime, as do mainstream criminologists, peacemak- ers view poverty as a source of suffering—almost a crime in and of itself. Poverty enervates people and becomes a master status that subjects them to lives filled with suffering. From a peacemaking perspective, a key avenue for preventing crime is, in the short run, diminishing the suffering poverty causes and, in the long run, embrac- ing social policies that reduce the prevalence of economic suffering in contemporary society.106

Peacemakers view the efforts of the state to punish and control as crime- encouraging rather than crime-discouraging. These views were first articulated in a series of books with an anarchist theme written by criminologists Larry Tifft and Dennis Sullivan in 1980.107 Tifft argues, “The violent punishing acts of the state and its controlling professions are of the same genre as the violent acts of individuals. In each instance these acts reflect an attempt to monopolize human interaction.”108

Sullivan stresses the futility of correcting and punishing criminals in the context of our conflict-ridden society: “The reality we must grasp is that we live in a culture of severed relationships, where every available institution provides a form of banishment but no place or means for people to become connected, to be responsible to and for each other.”109 Sullivan suggests that mutual aid rather than coercive punishment is the key to a harmonious society. In Restorative Justice, Sullivan and Tifft reaffirm their

power–control theory A criminological theory that maintains that the structure of gender relations within the family explains gender differences in the crime rate.

peacemaking An approach that considers punitive crime control strategies to be counterproductive and favors the use of humanistic conflict resolution to prevent and control crime.

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218 Part 2 • theorieS of Crime CAUSAtion

belief that society must seek humanitarian forms of justice without resorting to brutal punishments:

By allowing feelings of vengeance or retribution to narrow our focus on the harmful event and the person responsible for it—as others might focus solely on a sin com- mitted and the “sinner”—we tell ourselves we are taking steps to free ourselves from the effects of the harm or the sin in question. But, in fact, we are putting ourselves in a servile position with respect to life, human growth, and the further enjoyment of relationships with others.110

Today, advocates of the peacemaking movement, such as Harold Pepinsky and Richard Quinney, try to find humanist solutions to crime and other social prob- lems.111 Rather than punishment and prison, they advocate such policies as media- tion and conflict resolution.112

Concept Summary 8.1 summarizes the various emerging forms of critical criminology.

Critical Theory and Restorative Justice Some critical theorists believe that crime will only vanish when there is a reorder- ing of society so that capitalism is destroyed and a socialist state is created. Others call for a more “practical” approach to crime control, making use of inclusionary, nonpunitive strategies for crime prevention and control, an approach known as restorative justice.113 The next sections discuss the foundation and principles of restorative justice.