‘The ruling class both makes the law and enforces it, in its

To evaluate the above statement I am going to concentrate on the Marxist theories. Although I am concentrating on Marxism, Marx himself did not actually write anything that could be put under the category of crime and deviance.

Marxist sociologists believe that the ruling class both makes the law and enforces it, in their own interests. Marxist criminology began in the 1970s, Marxists use a conflictual model of society thus giving emphasis on the conflict between social classes, in particular the ruling or upper class and the subordinate or lower classes.

The concept of ruling class values being imposed upon the population is commonly known as ‘hegemony’.

Marxists criminologists believe that the legal system is not equal, it works against the subordinate classes and supporting the upper classes.

Frank Pearce agreed with the above view that the legal system is not equal, and that priority should not be working class crimes but white collar crime, because the costs are phenomenal compared to the costs of working class crimes, and that the prosecutions of office crime is to maintain the myth that the law is equal for

The Marxist view is correct, in that studies by William Chambliss have proved this, and that sociologists Frank Pearce and Richard Quinney have both made statements on the topic which agree with Chambliss’ findings and the overall Marxist theory.

However the view that ‘The ruling class both makes the law and enforces it, in its own interest’ is also wrong because some rules protect everyone not just the upper classes.

Marxist criminologists also say that working class behaviour is stereotyped as delinquent and similar behaviour by upper classes is permitted, poor housing and low income may force people to turn to crime for economic reasons.

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