Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Class, State, and Crime: On the Theory and Practice of Criminal Justice (1977) by Richard Quinney is one of the most influential Marxist analyses of crime and social control in the United States. The book combines a materialist analysis of society with a radical critique of the state’s penal system and is a key text
Marxist Criminology represents a critical approach that views crime and criminal justice as products of social inequality and class conflict. Building on Marxist social theory, these perspectives argue that law and punishment serve the interests of the dominant class by maintaining existing power structures and controlling marginalized groups. Rather than seeing crime as the result