The Construction of Crime in Victoria: A Marxist and Moral Panic Perspective

This paper examines the construction of crime in Victoria using Marxist and moral panic theories. It analyzes the statement that 'The young are often the victims of poverty and class-based inequalities, while also cast in the role of 'folk devils' for society's ills.' The paper explores the principles of Marxism theory and moral panic theory in relation to crime in Victoria.

Criminal Law
INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Author
Class (Course)
Professor (Tutor)
The school (University)
City and State
Date
“The young are often the victims of poverty and class-based inequalities, while also cast in the
role of ‘folk devils’ for society’s ills”.

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Introduction
The state of Victoria abolished the Police Schools Involvement Program in 2006. Since
then, the rate of crime in Victoria has tremendously decreased making Victoria the second with
the least young offenders. There are different theories that explain the construction of crime and
its scope in a society. This paper would be focusing on two of them. The paper will first go
through the situation in Victoria by looking at the principles of Marxism theory. Another theory
that this paper would be analyzing is moral panic theory. Both of these theories would be
explained in the context of the state of Victoria focusing on the statement that “The young are
often the victims of poverty and class-based inequalities, while also cast in the role of ‘folk
devils’ for society’s ills.”
Discussion
The statement “The young are often the victims of poverty and class-based inequalities,
while also cast in the role of ‘folk devils’ for society’s ills” introduces the notion of criminal
selectivity. This is a concept in the Marxism theory of criminology which was characterized by
massive unfairness, stigmatizing, discrimination according to class, ethnicity, religious bias,
race, and gender (Weis, 2017). Using Marxist ideologies, criminologists have borrowed three
main views of crime. Firstly, they understood the position of law as a device used by the ruling
class. Secondly, they have understood crime in the view of an outcome of the struggle. Thirdly,
scholars have used the understanding of Marxism address the problems arising in the
relationships between the construction of crime and the way it affects society. From a conflict
perspective, Chambliss stressed that society is a collection of different groups which are
naturally in conflict (Tischler, 2013, p. 156). When these groups are divided into two, people
either belonged to the ruling class or the less powerful class. The ruling class then take the law as

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tool for fulfilling their functions which include the use their coercive power to stabilize the
conflict. This was the position that Marx talked about in the theory of crime where power and
supremacy are used to construct social norms. However, the application of this Marx principle in
criminology calls for scrutiny in the construction of crimes and deviance.
From Marxist theories, the identification of deviance relies on laws that are created in
favor of the privileged class. It is the ruling class that creates the laws and enforce them to
protect their wealth. The created law is enforced upon the lower class through the police, media,
and the legal systems for the protection of the interests of the wealthy. The theories consider that
the less powerful class are eager to engage in actions that can jeopardize the running of the
economy. The statement that the young are often the victims of poverty and class-based
inequalities falls in this notion which means that due to this status of the youths, they are likely
to engage in crimes.
Marxists contend that it is the economic systems of capitalism that cause crime. In this
belief, the Marxist focus on the exploitive nature of the relationship. That is, the working class is
exploited by the ruling class which leads to increased wealth on the side of the ruling class and
increased poverty on the working class. This statement can be justified on the fact that the
working class who would not afford to earn an amount enough for supporting their basic needs
would turn to crime to get what the ruling class does not provide. Furthermore, Marxists believe
that the exploited class sometimes express frustrations and anger through criminal activities and
violence. In justification of this position, it is a fact that the employees who are struggling with
their life are likely to steal than the employer who is paying them the wages. The same case can
be thought to apply to the youths who have no money or business, yet they need to meet their
financial needs.

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However, this is not the case. The work of (Kauzlarich, 2014) rejected this notion stating
that the image that the law promotes the masses demonstrates democracy and consensus. In
(McGrath, 2009) the author criticized Marxist belief stating that the belief leads causes the public
to view youths as offenders which causes stigmatization. Therefore, it is the stigmatization
through the illegitimate interpretation of Marxism that causes the youths to offend as a defense to
the increased stigmatization. The legal system in Victorian Courts has also proved that viewpoint
as wrong. By focusing on reducing stigma on the juveniles, the youth offending has dramatically
reduced in Victoria (Parliamentary of Victoria, 2017).
The young turning to crime cannot be justified by the fact that they face inequalities.
There are no economic changes for alleviating the social class of youths in Victoria to cause the
reduction of crime. According to the report (Parliamentary of Victoria, 2017), it is the changes in
the youth justice system that have brought the reduction of youth offending which had nothing to
do with Marxism principles. If there was anything, perhaps the change of belief on Marxism and
a focus on children rights. For instance, the Victoria Courts focus on minimizing stigma both in
procedural guidelines and in sentencing principles which is an indication of a move to divert
children from punitive sanctions (Children, Youth, and Families Act, 2005, secs 362(1), 522(1)).
The Marxism belief is closely related to the notion of ‘stereotyping’. By viewing the
young status as a cause for their offending, assertion is reached through commonly perceived
norms of Marxism which is not a fact by stereotypical (Bernard et al., 2016). The study of
(McGrath, 2009) in Australia showed that this form of labeling increased young offenders’
victimization. In the study, the authors interviewed 206 young people immediately after
receiving their sentence from the Children’s Court in NSW. Most of the young offenders
reported feelings of stigmatization which is contrary to the purpose of justice systems.

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Going back to the three ways in which criminologists have seen the application of
Marxism theories, perhaps this in the way ruling-class instrumentalize and manipulate the law to
favor their own interests. For instance, the rich can create laws through financing campaigns that
support legislators, and since these legislators are among the rich class, they can push for a law
that favors their business or a general economic certainty. In contrast, while looking at the
interpretations of the economic structuralist, the state is believed to have a role in determining
and structuring society (Bohm, 2011, p. 124). The structures made by the state and the law
involve the market and the general economy other than specific individuals who occupy state
positions and individual capitalists (Bohm, 2011, p. 124). Also, on the statement that crimes in
capitalist countries are results of conflict among the classes, this is untrue because both the law
and the state are placed at a position where the interest of the ruling class are favored while at the
same time the law and the state have a liberating role (Bohm, 2011, p. 124). For example, the
antidiscrimination laws serve to protect the minority and the less powerful. The laws against
unfair competition are also placed to protect the interest of small businesses.
Moral Panic Theory
A moral panic is simply the publicity and fear that is created when social delinquent is
exaggerated above its actual threat. When Stanley Cohen introduced the concept of moral panics,
he essentially framed it as a media-motivated phenomenon (Cohen, 2011). Cohen was
considering the way mass media such as newspaper, television, and the radio essentially
generated and stocked moral panics on conducts of “folk devils” and the rest of the marginalized
cultures (Cohen, 2011). According to Cohen, moral panics are created from the emerged deviant
among some people in a community. These behaviors are illegal or unlawful such as assault,
theft and some them lawful like playing loud music, wearing exotic attires and other behaviors

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that violate the society’s pre-existing behavioral norms. Cohen found that the offended members
of society create a backlash (Cohen, 2011). The journalists then pick the reaction, exaggerate and
translate the threats into public idioms. Once the media galvanizes the outcry, it then extends to a
certain level of publicity. The panic then is picked by moral entrepreneurs, local activists, and
experts and it becomes a general public conception (Cohen, 2011). Once that stage is reached,
the law enforcement and the society start labeling the offenders as orchestrators of a threat who
are faced with lethal legal repercussions.
Perhaps Stuart Hall was the most influential in contributing moral panic theory. In (Hall
et al., 1978), the author analyzed how corporate media and public officials collaborated to build
a public moral crisis using ambiguous collections of criminal information that were unexpectedly
called “mugging.” Still, in (Hall, 2012), Hall emphasized on the policing of the crisis as practice
for a particular moment which now deserves to be projected as a conjuncture.
The work of (Scott, 2009, p. 148) defined moral panic a process by which the social
concerns on a particular issue are aroused mostly by moral entrepreneurs. This interpretation
follows (Cohen, 2011) understanding of moral entrepreneurs as operating inside the scope of
mass media to create and relay information to the population while intending to influence and
shape the community’s perception. This practice is castigated by (Birch, Ozanne, and Ireland,
2017) who stated that the presenters should observe fairness and justice in their work. The
authors state that media has enormous power in the society which can easily set both political
and social agendas. Therefore, the mass media holds a key responsibility ensuring that they
represent people and groups in the right way observing fairness and justice. The information
should be clean without stereotypes or other negative connotations.

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A real example of how moral panic can affect society is the Australian stories of the ice
epidemic. According to (Healey, 2016), Australia is looking at a nationwide ice epidemic where
it is believed that the use of ice lead to some individuals becoming aggressive and violent. Given
this belief, the work of (McKetin et al., 2014) states that Australian media depict ice users as
being more violent and aggressive than even the users of other drugs. Furthermore, the report of
(Weidner, 2009) argued that the Australian media claimed that the ice caused significant mental
deterioration. It is such media reports Cohen stated that they influence and change the
community perceptions creating inaccurately beliefs where the people who are users of such ice
would be viewed as drug users. The Victorian Court attempts in protecting youths against moral
panics has extended to prohibiting publications that identify children. In (Herald & Weekly
Times Pty Ltd v County Court of Victoria, 2004), Judge Grant stated that the interest of the Court
is to protect children against the community’s victimization by preventing publicization of their
meeting with justice systems.
Essentially, while considering the age of crime perpetrators, the age inversely correlates
to the popularity of their case as represented in the media (Jamieson and Romer, 2014). Where
the age is too low, the popularity of the crime gets higher. The work of (Richards, 2009) stated
that this over-representation of facts regarding young people encounter with police is frequently
seen in Australian media in a very sensationalist manner. Richard extends to say that the over-
representation creates impressions of an emergence of a wave of young people involved in crime
(Richards, 2009). Despite this media tendency to highlight the threats that young people pose
with their offenses in Australia, the reality shows that there infrequent cases where young
offenders are charged with violent offenses (Richards, 2009). Most of the cases that involve
young offenders are minor cases of theft and traffic obstructions. Emphatically, the media only

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takes the infrequent cases of serious crimes which involve young offenders and use that single
case to instill anxiety of the delinquency in the people’s minds which unequivocally misguides
the authorities into creating public policies to deal with youth offenders. Cohen talked about this
when he stated that both the media, legal systems, and police end up developing spirals of
respectable fear which they then counter with policy implementations (Cohen, 2011).
While looking at the concept of moral panic, Jock Young illustrated how media
representations augmented the deviance behaviors of drug-takers (Young, 1971). Young was
perplexed in the way social reaction arose intensely on the basis of a relatively meaningless
issues drug takers. This was supposedly an issue mediated about people who were pursuing
hedonistic lifestyles. Just like Young, Stuart Hall as reported in (Hall et al., 1978) conducted a
wide range of analysis on the development of the concept of moral panic on the supposedly new
form of robbery, the ‘mugging’, which the media had taken as a critical concern. Hall et al had
found that the Newspapers inspired public worry which caused the development of changes in
regulations. The criminal justice system also seemed to follow the reports by arresting and
processing people suspected of mugging. Hall termed that as a self-fulfilling coined form of
deviancy that was amplified by the media (Hall et al., 1978). Therefore, it can be summarized
that media influences are the major cause of societal perceptions which result to moral panics
and exacerbated fear of crime which is disproportionate to authentic rate of victimization
(Healey, 2016).
Conclusion
This paper intended to discuss the issue of the application of Marxism theory and moral
panic theory in the context of youth justice system of Victoria. Ultimately, the paper started by
identifying the position of the Marxism theory. This is where the paper explained the notion of

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law being created to protect the interest of the ruling class. Even if that seemed true, this paper
explained the position as a wrong interpretation. The paper argued that the law protects all
people in the same manner, only that it seems to favor the rich since most criminal activities
affect property, and it is the ruling class have more properties than the working class. Further, the
paper discussed the moral panic theory. Here the paper looked at how media pick a less serious
crimes and exaggerates it causing public fear. This paper emphasized that the media should
ensure fairness and authenticity of their stories to prevent creating problems to the public.

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homophobic aggression in print media through an integrated grounded behavioural linguistic
inquiry (IGBLI) approach’, The Journal of Forensic Practice, 19(3), pp. 239–244. doi:
10.1108/JFP-02-2017-0003.
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‘Does methamphetamine use increase violent behaviour? Evidence from a prospective
longitudinal study’, Addiction (Abingdon, England), 109(5), pp. 798–806. doi:
10.1111/add.12474.
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https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/publications/research-papers/summary/36-research-papers/
13806-youth-justice-in-victoria (Accessed: 13 May 2019).
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Tischler, H. L. (2013) Cengage Advantage Books: Introduction to Sociology. Cengage Learning.
Weidner, R. R. (2009) ‘Methamphetamine in three small Midwestern cities: evidence of a moral
panic’, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 41(3), pp. 227–239. doi:
10.1080/02791072.2009.10400533.
Young, J. (1971) The drugtakers: The social meaning of drug use. MacGibbon and Kee.