NCJ Number
88508
Journal
Deviance et societe Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1982) Pages: 353-373
Date Published
1982
Length
21 pages
Annotation
A 1976 West German study surveyed the attitudes toward crime and the criminal justice system of 2,000 citizens and 300 judges. Responses were analyzed for reflections of the power classes' interest in the status quo of the social order through endorsements of the justice system.
Abstract
The Marxist hypothesis is based on the view that the criminal justice apparatus sustains and reproduces the capitalistic social order by providing protection of the wealthy, suppressing the working classes, and persecuting deviants. The survey questionnaire tapped knowledge of the law, personal experience with justice authorities, and attitudes toward criminality; the analysis sought evidence of stereotyped conceptions of these matters. Responses confirmed the social differences -- persons of higher social status reported familiarity and experience with the civil law while respondents indicating contacts with criminal justice authorities were predominantly lower class. Furthermore, the advantaged classes tended to attribute criminal offenses to those socially removed (e.g., juveniles, deviants, the unemployed). They designated theft, armed robbery, and burglary as 'true crimes,' not associated with the 'typical citizen.' Murder, sex offenses, and white-collar offenses were not ranked in the 'truly criminal' category by most middle-class respondents. The stereotyped associations between criminality and the lower classes are deemed to be reinforced by the connotations of everyday linguistic usage and vocabulary by which middle-class citizens refer to matters related to crime and law enforcement. The analysis presented in this article is drawn from only three items of the study instrument. Tabular data and 49 references are given.