Marxian vs. Positivism Perspectives free essay sample

Marxian vs. Positivism Perspectives Crime and deviance are issues that dominate the public’s imagination; the study of which involves a number of contributing disciplines, criminology, statistics, psychology, biology to name a few but the largest contributor is sociology. There have been major changes in the way Sociologists perceive and study deviance over the years. In this essay the author will briefly compare and contrast the perspectives of Marxian and Positivism as they relate to the issues of crime and deviant behavior.The author will offer her opinion as to which perspective she feels best relates to her understanding of crime and deviance. According to Goode (2011), deviance is an analytic category; humans evaluate one another according to a number of criteria, including beliefs, behavior and physical traits. If according to the judgment of a given audience doing the evaluation, someone holds the â€Å"wrong† attitude, engages in the â€Å"wrong† behavior, or posse sses the â€Å"wrong† traits or characteristics, he or she will be looked down upon, treated in a negative, punishing, and condemnatory fashion. We will write a custom essay sample on Marxian vs. Positivism Perspectives or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Deviance and crime are linked in an explicit sense because all crime is technically considered deviant behavior, but not all deviant behavior is criminal. A crime is any act which breaks the formal, written laws of a state; formal sanctions (or punishments) await those involved in either committing a crime, or allowing such acts to take place; deviance is any act that breaks society’s unwritten rules, or expected ‘norms’ of behavior (non-conformist behavior); informal sanctions may await those who transgress (Vandenburgh, 2004).Numerous social scientists have studied human behavior in an attempt to figure out why people commit deviant acts; according to Goode (2011), â€Å"When sociologists look at normative violations and censure of the violator, they think along two tracks and investigate two types of questions† (p. 14). Sociologists refer to these two perspectives as essentialism and constructionism; these two approaches are regarded as master visions (Goode, 2011). Essentialism sees deviance as objectively real scientifically explainable; it implies Positivism, the scientific effort to account for why p eople engage in deviant behavior.In contrast, constructionism argues that the most fundamental feature of deviance is the fact that rules, judgments of wrongdoing, and assigning offenders to deviant categories are rendered by specific audiences in specific contexts; Marxism takes a constructionism approach to explaining human behavior (Vandenburgh, 2004). Positivists believe deviants are born, not made, and are identified by visible traits they exhibit, such a physical characteristics and intelligence. Cesare Lombroso, one of earliest supporters of Positivism, believed that people biologically inherited deviant and criminal tendencies, that they were evolutionary throwbacks that could be recognized, â€Å"†¦ by atavistic appearances: heavy brow ridges, large jars, apelike ears and so on† (Vandenburgh, 2004, p. 40). Positivism proposes that if we can figure out why people commit deviant acts, society can then proceed to curb the behavior; unfortunately, these theories have been heavily criticized as they were used by some to justify racism and discrimination.Marxism, taking its name from Karl Marx, a nineteenth-century German intellectual, argued that the way we think at a particular time and place, is a reflection of the economic arrangement of the society in which we live. â€Å"Moreover, in any society, it is the dominant social class whose ideas tend to be most influential† (Goode, 2011, p. 257). Marx looked at large social phenomena to explain human behavior, focusing on the relationship between workers and owners, the unequal distribution of power, wealth and privilege and the struggle between these were thought to be the root cause of social problems. A core belief of Marxism was that crime was inevitable in capitalistic cultures because competition led to exploitation. Despite individual criticism, both perspectives hold that crime and deviance is damaging to society. This author’s beliefs, with regard to crime and deviance, tend to align more with the Marxism perspective than that of Positivism as her views take more of a constructionist approach. She believes that our modern day norms (laws) and their enforcement are every bit a social product.Marx wrote, â€Å" †¦ life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life† and while we know today that a much more complex and less deterministic relationship exists between the economy and our beliefs, the argument can still be made that ideas can influence the economy as much as the economy can influence ideas and that the many institutions, religion and politics are equally capable of adding to that influence (Goode, 2011). Crime and deviance are issu es that continue to dominate the public’s imagination and interest.