A Critique of Criminology: Toward an Integrated Structural-Marxist Theory of Delinquency Production was first published in the early eighties, in the American Journal of Sociology. The authors, Mark Colvin and John Pauly, mention in the abstract of the study that juvenile delinquency is a byproduct of a capitalist society, and have compared and contrasted other theories under the perspective of Marxism, to create a new theory of delinquency and try to correct this epidemic. However, their ultimate fuel of their research is based off of looking at the structural control in various places that children inhibit.
Aside from taking inspiration from Marx, the two authors note in their introductory paragraph that they take inspiration from Amitai Etzioni’s compliance theory, from 1970. The authors believe that compliance theory will help their analysis of their research, as compliance theory dives into the relationship between the power between those who are in control, and those who are not in control. The authors also believe that delinquency is created from two different phenomenons: class relations in society, along with its hierarchy, and an individual’s encounters within these social institutions. The authors do mention Travis Hirschi (1969), when they begin to discuss the bond between individuals within society. Other theorists are mentioned, too, mainly the more “popular” figures in criminology and sociology: Sutherland, Cressey, Burgess and Akers, Cloward and Ohlin, Durkheim, Merton, and other previous theorists that have already been mentioned in the text (Vold, Turk, Quinney, Chambliss and Seidman, etc.).
According to Colvin and Pauly, compliance within these social institutions normally begin within the family. However, the study begins to get more intricate, as they mention that children and their possible acquisition of delinquency begins from their parents, but where their parents become delinquent (which is then passed on to the child) is from their workplace, the heart of the capitalist system. The authors mention in the text “the relations of workplace control, which take various class-related forms under capitalism, shape the consciousness and behavior of parents who repeatedly produce and reproduce control relations with children.” Back to the children, outside of the control of their parents in school or afterschool programs, they actively choose who they want to socialize with based on past experiences, the authors note. The group itself also chooses if they want to socialize with the child. Once matriculated into a group, and based on the group’s own actions and hierarchy of control, the reinforcement of either conventional behavior or delinquent behavior is executed.
With all of the work by the theorists previously mentioned, the authors believe that having a perspective from a Marxist standpoint can offer a larger point of view, so to speak. Beginning this chapter, the authors talk about the hardcore creation of the capitalist society in the world after the second world war, which is fueled off of competition, resulting in winners and losers. The authors have found, going back to the subject of parents, that Melvin Kohn in 1977 argued that parents will often conform in the workplace to survive physically and financially, which can cause stress to them. Kohn has noted that this stress will cascade onto the child, which supports the statement made earlier regarding the parental impact on children. Going back to Marxian principles, Kohn has also noted that parents who have more control in the workplace are more independent, creative, and show more initiative which their children learn, as opposed to parents who are in a lower socioeconomic standing conform easier, have more alienated ideological bonds, and physically punish their children. Surely, from the detriments created by the capitalist society, and its workplaces (as Marx and Engels have described earlier), do create unhappy parents which then channel their frustration and anger into their children, which creates delinquency.
In the schools, children are classified either in a positive or a negative light, by the school and its agents. The authors declare that schools are necessary for capitalist production, as it molds humans as if they were a raw material, and is later “consumed” by the capitalist masses. When children go into an educational institution for the first time, they are exposed to a new social structure, according to the text. The school is similar to the workplace, with different gradations of control, which are then cascaded onto the students. Children who are delinquent, from the bond of their families, are more likely to be placed into a control structure that is similar to their home life, and the school uses certain tactics like I.Q. tests and other standardized tests to put them on a “track” that is more coercive and regimented. Children who are in the opposite situation, the “good children,” which they could be called, see the I.Q. tests as a desirability to do well. This is just one mechanism. The second mechanism involves learning theory, where a delinquent child can recognize a teacher’s social cues when they are doing something bad, and this is where the “self-fulfilling prophecy” is introduced. Essentially, the children recognize what is happening, but they are socialized into being delinquent, and become what they are labeled as. One of the biggest mechanisms, or factors, that create delinquency in schools are the amount of financial resources the school has to offer for their children. In certain areas, looking at the differences between low-income, working class families, as opposed to the middle class, these schools have a harder time dishing out rewards and punishments based on the actions of children, which results in the school having to choose more structured, coercive methods.
The authors conclude their work by mentioning that crime and juvenile delinquency is created from the failure of the liberal-technocratic approach in society, which introduces their structural-Marxist approach. The authors do recognize the problems they, and other theorists they have mentioned, have found, by they do not offer a solution to the problem, but they do mention that the only way to possibly change this “string of influence” is to change how things are in the workplace, for the parents, mainly.
Авторы завершают свою работу, отметив, что преступность и преступность среди несовершеннолетних создаются из-за провала либерально-технократического подхода в обществе, который вводит их структурно-марксистский подход. Авторы признают проблемы, которые они и другие теоретики, о которых они упоминали, обнаружили, поскольку они не предлагают решения проблемы, но они упоминают, что единственный способ изменить эту «последовательность влияния» - это изменить вещи находятся на рабочем месте, для родителей, в основном.
Conclusion
To conclude this paper, the topic of conflict theory has been heavily reviewed, especially from the historical perspective, from the perspective and works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and the other theorists that have done their own independent research, taking what Marx and Engels have created, and adapting it to their own applications, as well as their own times (like in the sixties). Although this paper only covers one actual study that is based off of conflict theory, more specifically, Marxian principles, it is indeed enough information as it mentions other popular theorists, and the paper itself has already covered other sub-theories and how they are applied in the current day.
В заключение этой статьи тема теории конфликта была тщательно пересмотрена, особенно с исторической точки зрения, с точки зрения и трудов Карла Маркса и Фридриха Энгельса и других теоретиков, которые сделали свои собственные независимые исследования, взяв то, что Маркс и Энгельс создали и адаптировали его к своим приложениям, а также свое время (например, в шестидесятые годы). Хотя этот документ охватывает только одно фактическое исследование, основанное на теории конфликта, а точнее на марксистских принципах, на самом деле информации достаточно, поскольку он упоминает других популярных теоретиков, а сама статья уже охватывает другие подтеории и то, как они применяются в текущий день.
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