Conflict Theories on Deviance
Conflict theories of deviance and criminality focus on issues of power and powerlessness. Under the conflict theory, deviance stems from those who have the power and how they attempt to force their values and rules upon those who don't have it.
The power elite are the political, corporate, and military leaders of a society. They are uniquely positioned to commit elite crimes, or crimes of insider nature that typically are difficult to punish and have broad social consequences upon the masses.
The wealthier, more educated, and elite of society typically have the most power. A few recent examples of this might include corporate mismanagement, embezzlement, and fraud, which lead to billions of lost money for stockholders; however, very few executives have actually gone to jail.
Conflict theorists regard power and social inequality as the main characteristics of society. They stress that the power elite that run society also controls the criminal justice system. This group makes certain that laws are passed that will protect its position in society.
Other norms, such as those that govern informal behavior (chewing with a closed mouth, appearing in public with combed hair, and so on), may come from other sources, but they are not as important. Such norms influence our everyday behavior, but they do not determine who has power or who gets sent to prison.
Conflict theorists, like Karl Marx, see the most fundamental division in capitalist society as that between the few who own the means of production and the many who sell their labor. Those why buy labor, and thereby control workers, make up the capitalist class; those who sell their labor form the working class.
Continuing under Marx's theory, the most depressed end of the working class is the marginal working class. These people have few skills, have jobs that are subject to layoffs, low paying, part time, or seasonal.
This class commonly experiences high unemployment and poverty. Criminal activity and crime rates are often linked to unemployment and poverty, so under conflict theories, the social elite perpetuate crime and deviance by their power and capitalist control.
