Contemporary U.S. Society and the Criminal Justice System: A Marxist, Pluralist Conflict, or Combina

Part 1: Marxist and Pluralist Conflict Criminology

Task:

Part 1: Considering current economic inequalities and racial disparities in the criminal justice system (see posted lecture slides), do you think a Marxist, pluralist conflict, or combination of both approaches best explains contemporary U.S. society and the workings of the American criminal justice system? Why?

Part 2: Cultural and Postmodern Criminology, in part, raise questions about what should be illegal and who should decide. Feminist Criminology maintains that the history of the world is not class struggle, as Marx argues, but instead patriarchy. Please read the newspaper article that is posted in the Paper Assignments folder on D2L and take a look at the ABC News video located at this link [please let me know if you have difficulty accessing the video]: http://abcnews.go.com/US/tough-words-judge-sends-abuse-victim- jail/story?id=34324384 First, briefly explain how these stories (the article and video) relate to cultural, postmodern, and feminist criminology. Second, when the law is broken, should it be enforced equally, or should the circumstances of the offender (including intentions and motivations) be considered when determining whether to punish the person and the nature of that punishment?

If circumstances should be considered, what circumstances should and should not be considered? Third, and finally, feminist criminologists maintain it is necessary to have separate criminological theories for women. Beyond gender, it is estimated that 80-90% of all criminal defendants qualify for indigent defense (they cannot afford an attorney and need to have one appointed). The imprisonment rates in the U.S. in 2014 for males by race and ethnicity were: white 465, Hispanic 1,091, and black 2,724, per 100,000, and for women the rates were: white 53, Hispanic 64, and black 109. Do wee need different criminological theories to explain why men and women commit crime and/or separate theories to explain crime committed by people with different intersections of race, class, and gender (e.g., wealthy white men compared to poor white women)? Or are more general criminological theories like differential association, low self-control, or strain sufficient explanations of crime for all categories of people? Keeping with the theme of this being a writing intensive course, I ask that you organize your paper so there is an introduction, body, and conclusion. Please use headings and sub-headings. [example of paper organization] INTRODUCTION [Some options for organizing the paper:]

You will want to explain what the paper will accomplish. You can do this however you wish. For example: You could just note that you will be considering whether a Marxist or pluralist conflict approach offers the best explanation of U.S. society and the CJ system and that you will then analyze two cases that illustrate the central arguments of cultural, postmodern, and feminist criminological theories . . . . Etc. Alternatively, you could write a more integrative introduction and conclusion that pull the paper together as a whole. For example: Postmodern theory takes the position that since there is no one reality that is true, modernist theories like Marxist inspired class theories or Weberian pluralist conflict theories cannot accurately explain contemporary U.S. society and the workings of the criminal justice system. In this paper, I first consider existing evidence on stratification in the United States and the nature and functioning of the criminal justice system in relation to Marxist and pluralist conflict approaches in criminology and examine whether one or both of these approaches can help understand contemporary U.S. society and the workings of the criminal justice system. I then analyze examples of cases involving the criminal justice system that provide evidence of arguments made by postmodern, cultural, and feminist criminological theories and discuss whether future criminological theorizing should take the position that there is one or multiple realities. . . . You could then make an argument about the theoretical approach or approaches you believe provide the best explanations of crime and the workings of the criminal justice system. THEORIES Marxist and Pluralist Conflict Criminology Answer Part 1 Questions Here Cultural, Postmodern, and Feminist Criminology Answer Part 2 Questions Here CONCLUSION Summarize what you have done here in the conclusion.