Teaching Criminology: Part II

In Part I of this last series for socgrad, I made the case that most of the theories celebrated in crim textbooks and used to ground social policy have serious flaws; the best of the lot are those social psychological theories which stress symbolic interaction, societal reaction, identity transformations and in-group dynamics. But, these too are flawed in that they are:

1.  one-sided. They do ignore that fact that such processes are common in all forms of human behavior, not just crime.
2.  reductionist. They ignore the larger social context in which such group dynamics emerge and presevere.
3.  exculpatory. They give a gloss of legitimacy to larger social forms and practices by treating them as unproblematic in something called a criminology.
4.  politically safe. They do not engage the vast power of those who benefit from existing social arrangements which call forth/ encourage/promote crime.
5.  inefficacious. Social policy grounded upon these do not help create/move us toward a low crime society.
6.  mis-directing. The strong truth value they have in explaining human behavior generally, mis-direct us. We conflate between truth value and truth realm.

The theories to which I refer are, again, differential association theory, labelling theory, sub-culture theory, control theory, as well as one genre which I left out, socio-biology. A word about socio- biology later.

Just now, I want to lay out five kinds of crime promoted by capitalism. It is well to remember, as you think about these, that capitalism as an economic form, has made and is making many contributions to the human project; most of us have learned these in some depth: it is the most productive, the most creative, the most flexible, the most responsive and the most enlivening of the major political economies so far instituted within and between societies. It drives a wonderful knowledge process; it tends to destroy ancient systems of inequality which challenge or are useless to its goals of profit, control and growth. It is the negativities of capitalism; especially those which make the most capitalist society of all, at the same time, the most crime- ridden society of all advanced industrialized societies. And it is essential to remember that other forms of inequality drive other forms of crime and feed-back into market dynamics to produce very, very complex and non-linear dynamical processes...but that is another mini-lecture...to come.

Five kinds of crime and their connections to market dynamics:

1.  Street crime: by street crime, I mean those forms of crime which involve direct, face-to-face, use of force or stealth to extract value from a target outside of consent, knowledge, reciprocity or contract. They include: theft, burglary, robbery, arson, some portion of the murders we see, as well as some forms of assault. Generally, they are the Part I crimes in which the FBI is so interested and to which local police forces, rightly enough, give so much attention.

a.  The separation of production and distribution. Of the five major economic forms in human history, capitalism is the only one which separates production from distribution. Primitive communism, slaverly, feudalism and socialism all produce in ' order to consuem...and those who produce wealth have a permanent relationship to the wealth they produce. Women, children, slaves, serfs, peasants, and peons cannot be excluded from the distribution of clothing, food, shelter, health care or other basic resources. They can, of course, be exploited; they can be battered; they can be killed but as long as they have standing/stande/status they must be nourished. The case in not that these economic forms are better; only that, for some, the connection to the means of production depends upon market dynamics.

Those who have no relationship to the means of production or have but a tenuous, relatively marginal relationship have several parallel economic systems to which they may turn for the essentials of life:

1.  There is first the labor market...they can sell their labor power in competition with other marginal workers.
2.  There is the kinship system...most of us depend upon kin much more than we might like to admit. This exchange system is parallel and may be larger in terms of value exchanged than the market itself.
3.  Private Charity. A good many churches, communities, private individuals collect and re-distribute goods and services to the needy...the deserving poor.
4.  state welfare. Since the Elizabethian Poor Laws; since the time of Bismarck especially, the county, state and nation has become ever more involved in re-dist- ributing wealth. Generally, the state collects taxes from the working class and re-distributes it to the surplus population...at which we shall now look,

b.  The surplus population. Capitalism is the only economic system which produces a surplus population...indeed, the very success of capitalism in improving the MEANS of production reduces the need for human labor; as Marx put it, dead capital replaces living capital.

It is important to understand that the under-class is not surplus to their family; they are not surplus to their church; they are not surplus to the human project...to art, music, play or love. They are/become surplus to the production needs of factories, offices, shops, mills, mines and farms owned by private individuals whose only relationship to the under-class is that is provides a surplus labor reserve with which to keep labor costs down.

c.  Surplus Production. Capitalism produces far more than workers--as a class--can possibly buy back. In the first instance, with such improved technology, capitalism can produce 10, 100, 1000, 100,000 times as many pots, pans, knives, spoons, shirts, socks, scarves, pens, pencils, books or pills than can the craftsperson working with hand tools. In agriculture, in transportation, in communication, in pharmaceuticals and in fabrics, machinery ever improves; ever increases production.

And, given the fact that workers do not earn 100% of the value of the wealth they produce--as a class, they cannot possibly buy back 100% of the wealth they produce.

And, given pricing agreements, still more people are excluded from the market...and thus become surplus to the profit needs of private capital.

All this produces a surplus which cannot be sold on the 'free' market. It is important to remember that 'surplus' food is not surplus to human need; surplus transport is not surplus to human desire; surplus housing is not surplus to human misery...it is simply surplus to market dynamics.

The very fact of surplus produces second order dislocations which, given a more substantive definition of crime...would be criminal. These secondary dis-locations include:

a.  ruthless competition between large capitalists and small capitalists for markets leading to wave after wave of bankruptcy...leading to the ever-greater concentration of wealth and power.

b.  ruthless competition for markets between capitalists states leading to wave after wave of warfare...leading to economic imperialism and trans-national exploitation so come between first and third-world economies.

c.  ruthless competition between workers leading to the ugly identity politics which we call racism, ethno-centricism and scab-labor.

d.  ruthless competition between domestic and foriegn workers leading to xenophobia, national chauvinism, mean-spirited religion and a readiness to engineer the death of whole peoples...with high tech, impersonal means of destruction...as well as,

d.  The Colonization of Desire. A large and growing surplus of clothing, cars, cosmetics, beverages, guns, jewelries, television sets, radios, stoves, refrigerators, tires, bicycles, houses and pharmaceuticals...surplus in these commodities leads capitalists to devote some portion of their income to the colonization of desire. As Marcuse put it, layer after layer of 'false needs' are generated.

Count the number of shoes, shirts, sweaters, radios, dishes and pills in your closets and cupboards...if you have more than five of any, your psyche is well colonized. As long as one has discretionary income with which to purchase goods surplus to human need [but not human desire], both market and customer are well matched.

While a great many people benefit from their part in colonizing desire, such colonization creates problems...especially for those in the under- class or those at the margins of the economy...for poor women with children in particular...to which we return in a moment.

For those whose great talent, great genius, great beauty or great wit lends itself to the colonization of desire, the rewards are great. The salaries of ball players come not so much from the strategic importance sports has to the functional integrity of the whole society, as sociologists such as Davis and Moore have told us, but rather to the profit needs of capital intensive lines of production...or labor intensive lines when those lines have available cheap labor. Michael Jordan is case in point...one cannot but admire the grace, dignity, genial good humor of a Michael Jordan...he is, in my opinion, one of the greatest athletes to come along in a long time...Pele, Babe Tarkinson, Gayle Sayers, Babe Ruth and Magic Johnson all have the easy grace of the natural athlete which so engages our esteem and admiration.

Yet for those whose desire for lifeless goods is engaged by such as Jordon or Johnson, serious psychological distortions are enjoined. For those in the underclass, desire joined with joblessness becomes a serious problem for society...this is, in marxian theory summed up by...

e.  The Problem of Re-Unification. If one is a priest or a puritan, the problem of re-unification is small indeed. As Thoreau said, we make ourselves wealthy by making our wants few.

If one is immersed in modern, market societies with all its great skill in creating the dramaturgical impression of need, of agency, of excellence, of efficacy and of the normalcy of possessive materialism, the problem becomes; How to re-unite production by other and consumption by self. The four solutions above suffice for most: family, charity, state welfare and the odd job.

For those in the under-class whose desire matches those in the middle class but whose means do not, there are several solutions which contribute to the indices of street crime:

1.  We can steal what we want/desire/need. Middle classs kids have economic power via their parents which which to satisfy desire. Under-class kids have physical power and sometime use it. They may mug others more vulnerable; small children, aging women, or mature adults vulnerable in time or space. As my good friend, Bill Chambliss pointed out, middle class kids also steal, mug, assault and ravage...but those dynamics come more from the arrogance of power unconfined within values than from the arrogance of desire unconfined to market dynamics.

2.  One can sell one's body for what we want/desire/need. Male and female prostitution alike serve to gain the means to match market to desire...to get the transport, the housing, the entertainment we desire so much; we owe so much to celebrities who sell their soul to advertizers.

3.  We can sell our labor power to organized crime. If the wages of honest labor are low in legitimate labor markets, there is a large and growing labor market for those whose desire exceeds their grasp.

4.  We can join 'deviant sub-cultures' which use 'innovative' means to achieve cultural goals...as so many crim texts tell so many students.

f.  Female crime. If one is a woman in the under-class; a woman with children; a woman with basic needs and/or with desires which outrun one's income, there are several solutions. These were summed up by an anonymous woman who, just before the french revolution in 1789, said that, in order to feed her children, she had to work when she could; steal when she couldn't and sell her body in between times. Again, most poor women do not use these solutions to the re-unification problem...and a good many middle class men and women do so resort when their needs/desires are less pressing.

In summary, the USA has one of the highest crime rates in developed societies; has the largest surplus in shops and stores; the largest population surplus to legitimate mechanisms with which to re-unify production and distribution. The USA has a mean-spirited cheap-jack welfare system which degrades and debases the poor while supporting the wealthy in honor and dignity. This is the seedbed for street crime.

Different dynamics are involved in the other four kinds of crime promoted by market dynamics. I will discuss organized crime in Part III; White Collar Crime in Part IV; corporate crime in Part V and political crime in Part VI...then will conclude this series and the lectures themselves with a discourse on postmodern criminology.

TR Young