Evaluate the usefulness of Marxist theory free essay sample

Evaluate the usefulness of Marxist theory to our understanding of crime and deviance (40 marks) Synopticity Crime Deviance sociological theory Marxist explanations of crime and deviance, like their work on other areas like the family and education, rest on an economic and structural analysis of society that sees a class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This struggle comprises the attempts by the proletariat to free themselves from the domination of the bourgeoisie as they seek to take over the means of production. David Gordon argues that crime is an inevitable product of capitalism and the nequality that it generates. He argues that inequalities in wealth and income create poverty and homelessness for the working class and crime is a rational response to these problems. This idea is supported by research which shows property crime rising during recession. Gordon suggests capitalism encourages values such as greed and materialism which are conducive to all classes committing crime. We will write a custom essay sample on Evaluate the usefulness of Marxist theory or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Such values promote non-economic crimes such as violence, rape, child abuse, vandalism and hooliganism because inequalities in wealth and power lead to frustration, hostility, nw and alienation for some members of the working class who may commit crime in an attempt to retrieve power and status. This theory argues that it is surprising that there is not more working class crime. The idea explained is one of continual conflict and of crime being a continuation or extension of the class battle. However, critics point out that such a view is a bit sweeping, and that the whole of the working class isnt in revolt or criminal. To see all crime as a rebellion against the system ignores individual motivation, choice and the act that many people do choose not to break the law; indeed the majority are law abiding. This point was later took up by the New Left Realists, Taylor and Young, who tried to offer a neo-Marxist analysis which allowed for the fact that people, criminal or otherwise, do make choices and dont have to break the law. They turned to aspects such as deprivation and marginalisation to explain much of youth crime. As well as focusing on working class crime Marxists have looked at crime in a wider focus. One sees elsewhere, as with the education system, that Marxists link xplanations of internal processes, such as selection, streaming and such, to a wider sort of conspiracy theory tied to the power structure of society. In the education system control of the system is in the hands of the bourgeoisie who order the system for their own needs. Similarly with crime and deviance one sees in writings by people They talk of things like crimes of the powerful, noting how some crimes, such as those linked to price rigging, health and safety and so on are seen in a much lesser sight by society. The image we have of the criminal is of the young black male ugger and off working class street crime, and the crime of the middle class is ignored. Marxists further argue that the powerful in society control the law-making system along with everything else and thus are able to pass laws which might appear to be fair and reasonable but which actually work to help preserve their position of power and authority. Yet, these Marxists tend to have a rather simplistic view of the distribution of power in capitalist societies. While the group which Marxists define as a ruling class might have a disproportionate amount of power, it may be misleading to see this group as onopolising power. A range of non-Marxist theories suggest that the distribution of power is more complex than Marxists tend to believe. Stephen Jones points out that the activities of capitalists are sometimes criminalised. He gives the example of insider trading. If it werent illegal, capitalists would be free to make substantial profits out of their knowledge about proposed mergers and takeovers. The illegality of such activity suggests that capitalists cant always get the laws they want. The major problem with Marxist analyses of crime and deviance is with their weeping generalisations, trying to apply actions to all people that clearly apply to only a minority. Similarly, their assumption that everything is driven by the economic class struggle is hard to sustain. A convincing case can be made that Marxism provides one of the best explanations of many phenomena identified within societies, but the politics of the world has changed and Marxism is no longer the major social movement for liberation from oppression that it used to be, so it is argued that Marxisms conceptual apparatus has become less relevant. In a society where most eople have undergone considerable improvements in their standard of living and where peasant struggles which might have been applicable in the 19th century when Marx was writing seem to be no longer of much relevance. This thus suggests that Marxist theories arent useful to our understanding of crime and deviance in contemporary society. Other writers on crime and deviance strongly disagree with the Marxist analysis. For instance Functionalists might attribute more to imperfect socialisation and see crime as a necessary element of society to help bring about social change but also to einforce the collective conscience of society. Interactionists criticise Marxists for ignoring the processes involved in criminality and the system, for instance Becker and Lemert focus much more on processes of labelling to identify how and why people are called delinquent and criminal. Many feminist writers, such as Oakley, argue more in common with Marxist writings but with an emphasis more on the evils of patriarchy rather than capitalism. Indeed, they criticise Marxists for ignoring the role of patriarchy in influencing the way the criminal Justice system operates. crime, at the expense of other types of crime. They argue that crimes such as burglary, robbery, and other violent crimes cause greater harm than Marxist theories seem to imply. The victims of such crimes are usually working class, and the consequences can be devastating for them. To left realists, Marxism offers a rather one-sided view of crime and, in doing so, offers no way of dealing with the types of crimes which are of most concern to most members of the population. In conclusion, one can see that Marxist explanations of crime and deviance are no longer seen as relevant or provable in the modern world and that many from lternative perspectives argue that Marxist thoughts are out of date and invalid. Indeed, Postmodern criminology rejects Marxist criminology as a metanarrative which is neither believable nor defensible. Nonetheless, although it has fallen somewhat out of fashion in recent years, Marxist criminology continues to influence some sociologists who dont call themselves Marxists. In a study of corporate crime, Slapper and Tombs describe their approach as critical social science. They stop far short of advocating communism, but still believe that key features of Marxist analysis are essential to explain corporate crime.

Economics and Figure Essays

Economics and Figure Essays Economics and Figure Paper Economics and Figure Paper Essay Topic: Economics |1. |The total product curve: | |B) |will become flatter as output increases, if there are diminishing returns to the variable input. | Use the following to answer questions 2-3: [pic] |2. |(Table: Total Product and Marginal Product) The marginal product of the second worker is: | |C) |20. | |3. |(Table: Total Product and Marginal Product) The average product of the fourth worker is ________ units. | |B) |22. | Use the following to answer question 4: Figure: Total Product [pic] |4. |(Figure: Total Product) As units of labor are hired between quantities L1 and L2, ________ is ________ and ________ is ________. | |A) |total product; rising; marginal product; positive | [pic] |1. |(Table: Output and Costs) Using the information in the table, when quantity equals three, average total cost equals: | |D) |17. | |2. Cindy operates Birds-R-Us, a small store manufacturing and selling 100 bird feeders per month. Cindys monthly total fixed costs| | |are $500, and her monthly total variable costs are $2,500. If for some reason Cindys fixed cost fell to $400, then her: | |B) |average total costs would decrease. | |3. |Rebecca knows that Becca Furnitures marginal cost curve is above the average total cost curve. This means Becca Furnitures | | |average total cost curve: | |A) |must be rising. Use the following to answer question 4: Figure: Short-Run Costs II [pic] |4. |(Figure: Short-Run Costs II) At six units of output, average total cost is approximately: | |C) |$170. | Use the following to answer questions 1-2: Figure: Cost Curves [pic] |1. |(Figure: Cost Curves) If a firm faced a long-run average total cost curve as shown in the figure, and it expected to produce | | |100,000 units of the good in the long run, the firm should build the plant associated with: | |B) |ATC2. |2. |(Figure: Cost Curves) If a firm currently was producing at point C on the ATC2 in the figure but anticipates increasing output | | |to 225,000 units in the long run, the f irm will build a ________ plant and experience ________. | |D) |larger; diseconomies of scale | |3. |A manufacturing company that benefits from lower costs per unit as it grows is an example of a firm experiencing: | |A) |increasing returns to scale. |1. |A decrease in demand and a decrease in supply will lead to a(n) ________ in equilibrium quantity and a(n) ________ in | | |equilibrium price. | |A) |decrease; indeterminate change | Figure: Average Total Cost Curve [pic] |10. |(Figure: Average Total Cost Curve) In the figure, the total cost of producing five pairs of boots is approximately: | |A) |$408. | Figure: A Perfectly Competitive Firm in the Short Run pic] |17. |(Figure: A Perfectly Competitive Firm in the Short Run) The firm will shut down in the short run if the price falls below: | |D) |P. | |18. |(Figure: A Perfectly Competitive Firm in the Short Run) The firms total revenue from the sale of its most profitable level of | | |output is: | |A) |0GLD. | Use the following to answer question 20: [pic] |20. (Table: Marginal Benefit, Cost, and Consumer Surplus) The table shows six consumers willingness to pay (his or her individual | | |marginal benefit) for one iTunes download of a Jack Johnson song. If the marginal social cost is constant at $0, then the | | |efficient price is ________ and consumer surplus would be ________. | |A) |$0; $37 | Figure: The Restaurant Market [pic] |25. |(Figure: The Restaurant Market) The figure shows curves facing a typical restaurant in a community. Assume that many firms, | | |differentiated products, and easy entry and easy exit characterize the market. If the restaurant shown here is typical of others| | |in the community, then in the long run, we would expect to observe: | |B) |new restaurants entering the market. | |26. |The kinked demand curve model assumes that: | |B) |rivals will follow a price decrease but not a price increase. | Next exam 11/16 |1. Suppose that the market for haircuts in a community is perfectly competitive and that the market is initially in long-run | | |equilibrium. Subsequently, an increase in population increases the demand for haircuts. In the short run, we expect that the | | |market price will ________ and the output of a typical firm will ________. | |A) |rise; rise | Use the following to answer questions 2: Figure: Profit Maximizing [pic] |2. |(Figure: Profit Maximizing) The figure shows cost curves for a firm operating in a perfectly competitive market. If the market | | |price is P4, the firm will produce quantity ________ and ________ in the short run. | |B) |q3; make a profit | |3. |In the perfectly competitive guidebook industry, the market price is $35. A firm is currently producing 10,000 guidebooks; | |(Figure: Profit Maximizing) The figure shows cost curves for a firm operating in a perfectly competitive market. If the market | | |average total cost is $38, marginal cost is $30, and average variable cost is $30. The firm should: | |price is P3, the firm will produce quantity ________ and ________ in the short run. | | | | | |C) | |produce more guidebooks, because the next guidebook produced increases profit by $5. | | | |4. |Consider the following data for a perfectly competitive firm: price is $9, output is 30 units, and average total cost is $7. The| | |firms profits are equal to: | |A) |$60. | |5. |A perfectly competitive firms marginal cost curve above the average variable cost curve is its: | |B) |short-run supply curve. Use the following to answer question 6: [pic] |6. |(Table: Variable Costs for Lots) During the winter, Alexa runs a snow-clearing service, and snow-clearing is a perfectly | | |competitive industry. Her only fixed cost is $1,000 for a tractor. Her variable costs per cleared lot, shown in the table, | | |include fuel and hot coffee. What is Alexas shut-down price in the short run? | |B) |$15 | |1. |The city bus system charges lower fares to senior citizens than to other passengers. Assuming that this pricing strategy | | |increases the profits of the bus system, we can conclude that senior citizens must have a ________ for bus service than other | | |passengers. | |C) |more elastic demand | |2. |Kaile Cakes is currently producing 10 cakes per day. The marginal cost of the tenth cake is $24, and average total cost of 10 | | |cakes is $6. The average total cost of 9 cakes is: | |A) |$4. | |3. |Many furniture stores run â€Å"Going out of Business† sales but never go out of business. In order for the shut-down decision to be | | |the appropriate one, the price of furniture must be ________ than the ________ average variable cost. | |B) |lower; minimum | Use the following to answer question 4: Figure and Table: Variable, Fixed, and Total Costs [pic] [pic] |4. |(Figure and Table: Variable, Fixed, and Total Costs) In the figure, the marginal cost of increasing production from 19 to 36 | | |bushels of wheat is: | |B) |$11. 76. | Use the following to answer question 5: [pic] |5. |(Table: Demand for Lennys Coffee) Lennys Cafe is the only source of coffee for hundreds of miles in any direction. The demand | | |schedule for Lennys coffee is given by the table. If Lennys marginal cost of selling coffee is a constant $2, his | | |profit-maximizing level of output is ________ cups at a price of ________ per cup. | |A) |four; $6 | |6. |At 76 units of labor, a firm finds that average product of labor equals 39. 6 and marginal product of labor equals 42. 9. We can | | |conclude that the average product curve at 76 units of labor is: | |A) |upward-sloping. | 7. |The slope of a long-run average total cost curve exhibiting diseconomies of scale is: | |C) |positive. | Use the following to answer question 8: Figure: Revenues, Costs, and Profits III [pic] |8. |(Figure: Revenues, Costs, and Profits III) In the figure, if the market price is $8, the profit-maximizing quantity of output | | |is: | |A) |0. | |9. One government policy for dealing with a natural monopoly is to: | |B) |impose a price ceiling to eliminate any economic profit. | Figure: Revenues, Costs, and Profits [pic] |10. |(Figure: Revenues, Costs, and Profits) At the profit-maximizing qu antity of output in the figure, total revenue is $________, | | |total cost is $________, and profit is $________. | |B) |90; 70; 20 | |1. |A farm can produce 1,000 bushels of wheat per year with two workers and 1,300 bushels of wheat per year with four workers. The | | |marginal product of the fourth worker is: | |D) |150 bushels. | |2. |Suppose that the market for candy canes operates under conditions of perfect competition, that it is initially in long-run | | |equilibrium, and that the price of each candy cane is $0. 10. Now suppose that the price of sugar rises, increasing the marginal | | |and average total cost of producing candy canes by $0. 05; there are no other changes in production costs. Based on the | | |information given, we can conclude that in the long run we will observe: | |A) |firms leaving the industry. | Use the following to answer question 3: [pic] |3. |(Table: Production of Cabinets) The table shows how many cabinets your firm can make with a variable quantity of labor hired. | | |After which worker does the firm begin to experience diminishing returns to labor? | |B) |second | Use the following to answer question 8: [pic] |8. (Table: Costs of Producing Bagels) Average total cost reaches its minimum value for the ________ bagel. | |C) |fourth | Use the following to answer question 13: [pic] |13. |(Table: Soybean Cost) The costs of production of a perfectly competitive soybean farmer are given in the table. If the market | | |price of a bushel of soybeans is $15, how many bushels will the farmer produce to maximize short-run profit? | |B) |5 | Use the following to answer question 14: Figure: A Firms Cost Curves [pic] |14. |(Figure: A Firms Cost Curves) The curve labeled V represents the firms ________ curve. | |C) |marginal cost | Use the following to answer question 17: Figure: Profit Maximizing [pic] |17. |(Figure: Profit Maximizing) The figure shows cost curves for a firm operating in a perfectly competitive market. Which of the | | |following statements is true? | |B) |AFC is represented in this figure by the vertical distance between Curve N and Curve O at any level of output. |