Toward a Marxian Theory of Deviance

Abstract

This paper considers the prospects for the development of a Marxian interpretation of deviance and control. The weaknesses of conventional perspectives are identified and an approach is suggested which applies the insights of Marxian theory to an investigation of deviance production in modern society. This process is explored with special attention to the capitalist mode of production, the system of class control in capitalist societies, the genesis and maintenance of “problem populations,” the channeling of these populations into deviant statuses, and the distinctive character of deviant groups. The emergence of monopoly and state capitalism is examined in an attempt to understand the dynamics of structural change, deviance production and social control. The overproduction of deviance in advanced capitalist societies and attempts at the “solution” of this problem are also discussed.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 490 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.