Marxism and Criminological Theory

Marxist ideas have been a perennial feature of theories about crime and criminal justice since the early work of Willem Bonger in the early 20th century, but they have usually been adopted fairly casually and mixed with other theories, such as symbolic interactionism, which stem from different and incompatible traditions. This book provides a justification for the continuing relevance of Marxism in the 21st century. It reflects on the main concepts of Marxism and provides a critical summary of previous criminological work which features Marxism, and a 'toolkit' for using Marxist theories in the analysis of crime and criminal justice.