Marxism and Criminological Theory
Also by the author APPROACHES TO MARX (co-edited) DATE RAPE AND CONSENT MAKING SENSE OF SEXUAL CONSENT (co-edited) MARXISM, THE MILLENNIUM AND BEYOND (co-edited) MARX S EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE: (Post) Modern Interpretations (co-edited) POLITICAL ISSUES FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (co-edited) THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO: New Interpretations
Marxism and Criminological Theory A Critique and a Toolkit Mark Cowling Reader in Criminology University of Teesside, UK
Mark Cowling 2008 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-1-4039-4599-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin's Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-52336-8 DOI 10.1057/9780230234710 ISBN 978-0-230-23471-0 (ebook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cowling, Mark. Marxism and criminological theory : a critique and a toolkit / Mark Cowling. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Communism History 20th century. 2. Communism Philosophy. 3. Criminology Philosophy. I. Title. HX44.5.C68 2008 364.01 dc22 2008029983 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
To Amani
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Contents Acknowledgements Preface viii ix Part I Setting the Scene Introduction 3 1 Marxism in the Twenty-First Century 10 2 Marxism and the Definition of Crime 34 Part II The Critique 3 The Classics Criminology Encounters Das Kapital 55 4 Radical US Criminology 72 5 British Critical Criminology 105 Part III The Toolkit: The Possibilities of Marxist Analysis 6 The Lumpenproletariat as the Criminal Class? 149 7 Alienation 162 8 Crime and the Reproduction Conditions of Capitalism 169 9 Marxism and Law 188 10 Marxism, Justice and Criminal Justice 196 11 Communism The End of Crime? 215 Conclusion: Is There a Future for Marxist Criminology? 233 Notes 238 Bibliography 270 Index 285 vii
Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the following: Lawrence and Wishart for kind permission to reproduce passages from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected Works in 50 volumes, London, 1975. Pluto Press for permission to use my chapter of Marx s Eighteenth Brumaire: (Post)Modern Interpretations, London, 2002, which with minor changes forms Chapter 6. viii
Preface The origins of this book lie, paradoxically, in the workings of the market in higher education in the United Kingdom. The University of Teesside introduced various degrees in Politics in response to student demand, but then was forced to close them when this demand waned again. From a lecturer in Politics I was therefore transformed into a lecturer in Criminology. I was delighted to discover that my long-standing interest in Marxism fitted well with my new role in teaching criminological theory. However, although there has been a substantial interest in Marxism amongst writers on criminological theory, it has been relatively unsystematic and usually mixed with other theories such as symbolic interactionism which are founded on assumptions dubiously compatible with Marxism. Hence this volume, in which, after some preliminary reflections on the continuing usefulness of Marxism and the best ways of linking it with types of crime, I start by reviewing the main existing work in the area of Marxism and criminological theory, and then move on to discuss the repertoire of Marxist ideas available for enhancing our understanding of crime and criminal justice systems. I do this in the hope that others will find my elaboration of these useful for further work. In the course of writing this book I have incurred debts to several people. First and foremost come members of the criminology group at Teesside, who made me welcome and have provided a congenial and stimulating atmosphere in which to work. I am also grateful to the management of the School of Social Sciences and Law for providing me with a modest amount of teaching relief. I have presented some of the ideas in the book at various conferences where other people have offered constructive criticism and support. These include several sessions organized by the Political Studies Association Marxism Specialist Group; a seminar at the British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, University of Keele, 2002; a conference to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Marx s Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, held at Tulane University, New Orleans, 2002; a session at the 32nd Annual Conference of the European Group for the study of Deviance and Social Control, University of Bristol, September 2004; and a presentation at the December 2006 meeting of the American ix
x Preface Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, held in Washington, DC. Various people have been kind enough to read and comment on portions of the manuscript: Dave Morland, Craig Ancrum, John Carter, Mike Teague, Terry Hopton, Daniel Chadwick and Paul Reynolds. I would like to thank Access to Work, the British government agency which provides support to keep disabled people in work for the purchase of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels on CD-ROM everyone disabled should be supplied with a copy! The staff at Palgrave are delightful and extremely tolerant people to work with, particularly in view of how late the manuscript was presented to them. Very much in keeping with the themes of this book, the copy editing was carried out by an agency in India, and I would like to thank Vidhya Jayaprakash, the agency manager, and Deepa C., the copy editor, for their very efficient and courteous work. Finally, and most of all, I would like to thank my wife Amani for keeping me sane and fed while working on this book, and for checking the manuscript. She is the love of my life and this book is dedicated to her. I am, of course, responsible for opinions and any errors in the book.