Asses different Marxist views of the relationship between crime and social class (21 marks)

Class is directly associated with economic, social and political power. Therefore meaning that people on the top of hierarchy tend to have more resources and therefore no need of stealing any more money or committing crimes. On the other hand this is not true as this is neglected by the fact as upper/middle class commit crimes often but they are not prosecuted for them the same way as working class or unemployed.
The link between social class and crime and deviance is so significant that it is incorporated in many theories such as the traditional Marxists that view working class crime as motivated by inequalities and bourgeois crime by greed. They sympathise with working class victims of ruling class crime but not vice versa and believe the criminal justice system favours the ruling class. From their point of view they see that the Laws are made by the state, which represents the interests of ruling class meaning that they are less likely to commit crimes as they will adapt them to their advantage. This line of argument forms the basis of a theory of widespread crime and selective law enforcement; crime occurs right the way through society, but poor criminals receive harsher treatment than rich criminals. Marxists emphasise white collar, corporate crime. They note that crimes of the upper class exert a greater economic toll on society than the crimes of the ordinary people.
Corporate crime is usually applied to a business persons holding power who engage I fraudulent activity on behalf of their company to raise profits. Thio notes that the economic cost of corporate crime is between 24 to 42 times greater than losses accounted for by traditional property crimes. And the term white collar crime is more generic used for a range of crime in business.
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