The Relationship Between Class And Our Understanding Of Crime

Discussion about the relationship between class and our understanding of crime has been an ongoing debate between sociologists for centuries. Some claim that although, in the past, there was a relationship between the two, that in our modern society, the idea of class has diminished and is in fact, dead. Therefore, how could it be related to criminal activity and our understanding of it? However, on the other hand many claim that the concept of class is very much still alive, and is actually one of the main components in sociology’s study of crime – among those are perhaps two of the most renowned sociologists; Karl Marx and Max Weber, whose theories combined lay the fundamental basis of sociological analysis’s of class and social†¦show more content†¦His explanation of social class was that it was ‘a group of people who stand in a common relationship to the means of production - the means by which they gain a livelihood.’ (Giddons, 2013). U sing Marx’s concept, it can be argued that in every society, past and present, there has been some form of class system; from feudal time when there were the aristocrats and the serfs to more modern society composed of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – those who own and control the means of production, and those who sell their labour for a wage. Marx claimed that those in the bourgeois exploited the proletariat by using their power to take advantage of the systems they could influence in order to please themselves. The bourgeois capitalist ideology was introduced into society through the superstructure, and was extended and drilled into the brains of proletariat through education, employment, politics and the judiciary system to mention a few. Marx therefore argued that there is a subtlety to how the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat. Furthermore, he recognised that in modern society wealth is being created on a massive scale, yet somehow, the working class still remain considerably poorer than the bourgeoisie – he used the