Marxism and criminology : a history of criminal selectivity

Summary: In 'Criminology and Marxism: A History of Criminal Selectivity', Valeria Vegh Weis rehabilitates the contributions and the methodology of Marx and Engels to analyse crime and punishment through the development of capitalism (15th century to the present) in Europe and the United States. She proposes that the concepts of over-criminalization and under-criminalization show that criminal justice has always been unequal. This unfairness has been necessary, the book argues, for the founding and reproduction of a capitalist society. In a moment in which racial profiling, prosecutorial discretion, and mass incarceration do not find easy answers, Vegh Weis proposes to recover Marx and Engels to identify socio-economic and historic patterns of crime and punishment to suggest transformative changes to criminal justice.

Record details

ISBN: 9789004319554 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9004319557 (hardback : alk. paper)
Physical Description: print
xix, 348 pages ; 25 cm.
Publisher: Leiden ; Brill, [2017]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-337) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction -- Criminological Theories and the Notion of `Criminal Selectivity' -- Criminal Selectivity through the Work of Marx and Engels -- Marx and Engels' Contributions Did Not Analyze Crime and Crime Control in Depth -- Marx and Engels' Contributions Understood Crime and Crime Control as Superstructural Aspects -- Marx and Engels' Contributions Lead to the Failure of `Real Socialism' -- Marx and Engels' Contributions Are Necessary to Analyze Crime and Crime Control -- Conceptualization of Criminal Selectivity from a Marxist Perspective -- 2. Original Criminal Selectivity -- Where, How and When of the Primitive Accumulation (Late 15th to Early 18th Century) -- Original Conflict-Control -- Original Under-Criminalization -- Original Over-Criminalization -- Different Application of Penalization and the Transit from Physical Punishment to Workhouses -- Who Were the Social Sectors Targeted by Original Criminal Selectivity? -- Mixed Insertion in the Primitive Accumulation -- Punishment during Original Criminal Selectivity -- Manifest Functions -- Latent Functions -- Brief Reflections -- 3. Disciplining Criminal Selectivity -- Where, How and When of the Disciplining Social Order (Late 18th Century to Late 20th Century) -- Disciplining Conflict-Control -- First Disciplining Phase: Legally-Disciplining Criminal Selectivity (Late 18th Century) -- Second Disciplining Phase: Police-Medically Disciplining Criminal Selectivity (19th Century) -- Third Disciplining Phase: Socio-Disciplining Criminal Selectivity (Early to Late 20th Century) -- Who Were the Social Sectors Targeted by Disciplining Criminal Selectivity? -- Mixed Insertion in the Disciplining Social Order -- Punishment during Disciplining Criminal Selectivity -- Manifest Functions -- Latent Functions -- Brief Reflections -- 4. Bulimic Criminal Selectivity -- Where, How and When of the Bulimic Social Order (Late 20th to 21th Century) -- Economic Exclusion -- Cultural Inclusion -- Bulimic Conflict-Control -- Bulimic Under-Criminalization -- Bulimic Over-Criminalization -- Who Were the Social Sectors Targeted by Bulimic Criminal Selectivity? -- Mixed Insertion in the Bulimic Social Order -- Punishment during Bulimic Criminal Selectivity -- Manifest Functions -- Latent Functions -- Brief Reflections -- 5. Final Reflections -- Afterword / Jonathan Simon -- Critical Theory of the Carceral State: Its Hour Come Again.