Critical Theory

CRITICAL THEORY GENERALLY refers to the social theory with Marxist roots, that questions tradition and the status quo, explores and analyzes the origins of social inequality in capitalist societies and advocate radical social change. In criminology, it is an approach to the study of crime, which locates the principal sources of crime in the structure of class inequality in society.

Drawing particularly on the work of Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels, a primary tenet of critical theory of crime is that capitalism and economic inequality produce crimes. To explain white-collar and corporate crime, critical theorists argue that the problem is not that the individual persons who own and manage business organizations are immoral. Critical theory has adopted a structural explanation instead that focuses on the nature of society itself. A capitalist society in particular has been viewed as a fundamental source of inspiration for such crimes.

The capitalist system rests upon the systematic exploitation of the lower class and therefore encourages a level of impersonality and irresponsibility that is conducive to white-collar and corporate crime. One of the most dangerous conditions creating the propensity to white-collar and corporate crime is the need for capitalism to dehumanize people, transform many objects of human environment into commodities, and create false needs.

Critical theory suggests that crime is a rational or inevitable response to an economic system that generates competitiveness, greed, and egoism. Corporations specifically, with their emphasis on maximizing profit and minimizing cost to survive, will routinely violate antitrust laws, labor laws, worker safety laws, consumer protection laws, tax laws, currency regulations, environmental protection laws, trade laws, and conflict-of-interest laws.

Critical theory says honest capitalists cannot survive long in a real competitive system. The capitalist corporation houses and protects white-collar and corporate criminals. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, professors, and other decent professionals will violate the trust of the office or job they hold to satisfy their drive for private accumulation. One cannot explain white-collar and corporate crime in the terms of biological determination, differential association, or control theory. It is the nature and dynamics of capitalism that drives the rich and the powerful to commit crime on an everyday basis.