Marxism and Criminology: A History of Criminal Selectivity: A History of Criminal Selectivity

by Valeria Vegh Weis

Winner of the 2019 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book Award In recent years the very idea of criminal justice has come under increasing scrutiny by academics, activists, and even casual observers. From the rash of extra-judicial killings by police and other officers of the law, to the manifest inequalities of the system of mass incarceration, hardly a week goes by without some new headline pointing to injustices in the way our society executes its ‘tough on crime’ ethos. In Marxism and Criminology , Valeria Vegh Weis argues that far from being mere excesses, things like racial profiling, prosecutorial discretion, and other expressions of what the author terms over-criminalization have been constitutive features of capitalist society from its beginning. To that end, Weis sets out to rehabilitate the contributions and methodology of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to analyze crime and punishment through the historical development of capitalism in Europe and in the United States. She invites us to revisit their contributions to identify socio-economic and historic patterns of crime and punishment in order to foster transformative changes to our approach to criminal justice.

Genres: Law

368 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2018

Reviews

[Moff · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is a thorough material analysis of the historical development of crime as a construct in capitalist society. it's a good entry into critial criminology, because it builds a very comprehensive foundation. beginning with primitive accumulation in the 15. century it traces the specific needs of the developing capitalist system for specific punishment of the working class. next to critically analyzing the socio-economic links between crime control and social control it also analyzes the narratives that justified crime control in every stage of capitalist development. it closes with the powerful statement that the abolition of crime is only possible with the abolition of a crimogenic system of domintation and control. great, mind-shifting read!

[Owen Risenhoover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a worthwhile take on some current criminological theories through a Marxist lens. Good reference material as well.

[Mills College Library]

364.01 V4229 2017