Crime And Capitalism: Readings in Marxist Crimonology

Glossary

751 Glossary accumulation The process by which capital increases over time. See also primitive accumulation. alienation When something one has produced becomes a hostile, alien object , the relationship between producer and object is alienated. This is an objective relationship, not a matter of subjective feelings (though it can certainly have subjective manifestations). In capitalism, the relationship between workers and their products is alienated because the products are used to enrich capitalists, not workers. For similar reasons, workers and capitalists are alienated from one another. anomie As used by Durkheim, anomie is ,a state of normlessness in a society . For Merton, anomie is a social condition that prevails when legitimate aspirations cannot be achieved through legitimate means because opportunities for doing so are blocked. base The material foundations of society, its technological and economic spheres. Base is contrasted with superstructure. Beccaria. Cesare 11738-17941 A Milanese aristocrat, social reformer, and author of On Crimes and Punishments. He was a central figure in the classical school of criminology. bourgeoisie Capitalists; those who own capital, employ workers, and keep the profits. In a capitalist social formation, they are the ruling class. capital Wealth, such as raw materials, instruments of production, and money that can be used to produce further wealth. In Marxist theory the term also embodies a social relationship. capitalism A mode of production in which all means of production are purchased as commodities, including labor. Direct producers are separated from the means of production and work for wages, employed by capitalists who own the means of production and appropriate the product . capitalist See bourgeoisie. class A category ofpeople defined by a common relationship to the means of production. Marx's attempt to clarity this definition at the end ofCapital , volume 3, was never completed. 752 Glossary classical school A school of criminology that saw human behavior, including crime, as based on rational weighing of gains and losses. Its view of punishment was utilitarian. communism Asocialformation in which the means of production are held in common and used for collective benefit. Marx regarded communism as the final stage of social evolution, preceded by socialism. Because classes and class antagonisms do not exist in communist social formations by definition, such social formations will be stateless. The development of theforces ofproduction will have eliminated scarcity, so that distribution will be on the basis of the principle "to each according to their need." contradiction Those features of an existing relationship that tend to transform the relationship. crime A violation of the criminal law. dialectical Having to do with contradictions and their resolution through a transcendence or overcoming. differential association A social-psychological theory of crime causation which posits that normal learning of criminal techniques, values, and attitudes through face-to-face interaction is the process through which criminality is transmitted. The theory was devised by Edwin H. Sutherland . Durkheim, Emile (1858-19171 A French sociologist, known for his functionalist analyses. Engels, Friedrich (1820-18951 A German socialist, lifetime collaborator of Marx, and contributor to the development of Marxist theory. floating surplus population Aform of the relative surplus population. Workers whose irregular employment is contingent on businesses' moment3JY need for labor. forces of production The tools, technical knowledge, human labor, and raw materials used to carry on production, together with the way these elements are all combined. functionalism Asocial theory that analyzes social arrangements in terms of how they selVe to maintain those arrangements. Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich (1770-18311 German philosopher who interpreted world history as the dialectical movement of a World Spirit. Marx "stood Hegel on his head," keeping the dialectic but eliminating the mysticism from Hegel's ideas. ideology Widely held ideas that have unrecognized roots in social experience . More naITowly the term refers to ideas that mask political aims or class interests. infrastructure The economic structure of a society, particularly its forces and relations of production. Glossary 753 instrumental theory of the state A conception of the state as totally controlled by a ruling class, which uses the state governing apparatus as a tool to achieve its ends. Kant, Immanuel 11724-1804) German philosopher and advocate of retributive philosophy ofpunishment. labeling theory A perspective in deviance theory and criminology that studies the creation, application, and consequences of labeling a person or group as deviant, with particular atltention to the consequences that tend to amplifY or increase deviance. latent surplus population Agricultural laborers who are not needed in agriculture , and who...