Is gang violence and crime inevitable in a capitalist society? Is this good?

[☭World Views]

According to capitalist mythology, there are "winners and losers" in life, and even though supply and demand market economics can't make everyone happy, "they do the most good for the most amount of people and there is no viable alternative." According to the capitalist sympathizers that is.

According to this clear disregard for human life, isn't crime and gang violence inevitable in a capitalist society?

Different classes are fighting for scarce resources, if there will always be losers under the capitalist world, isn't it common sense that the "losers/the have nots" will resort to violence and crime to get resources?

This does not mean I want to bring gulags to the United States. But I'm not convinced that capitalism is the "end of human history".


Am I on the right track? I have to write about class conflict and how it relates to gang violence.

If my logic is faulty or if you can add some more marxist science to it, thanks.

[Oneironaut]

According to capitalist mythology, there are "winners and losers" in life, and even though supply and demand market economics can't make everyone happy, "they do the most good for the most amount of people and there is no viable alternative." According to the capitalist sympathizers that is.

According to this clear disregard for human life, isn't crime and gang violence inevitable in a capitalist society?

Different classes are fighting for scarce resources, if there will always be losers under the capitalist world, isn't it common sense that the "losers/the have nots" will resort to violence and crime to get resources?

This does not mean I want to bring gulags to the United States. But I'm not convinced that capitalism is the "end of human history".


Am I on the right track? I have to write about class conflict and how it relates to gang violence.

If my logic is faulty or if you can add some more marxist science to it, thanks.


Well it can't be commone sense that the 'losers' will resort to violence and crime to get resources because i know many 'losers' who don't even do that. There are a lot more factors involved than just being a 'loser' to become violent. But I dunno... I still think you are on the right track and it may just be a wording issue.

[Spawn of Stalin]

I disagree, many working class people steal and even use violence in times of great need, crime rates have shot up since the recession began. Crime is an obligatory side effect of capitalist society.

[rebelmouse]

lets say liek this:
I had 16 years of normal life, middle class life, what I needed I could get.
then started separation of Yugoslavia, war, economic inflation, sanctions, and my parents didn't get salary anymore. then I started to do criminal things and I saw there is not worth to make small criminal acts (2 years of prison) for small money(100 - 200 euro). so I stopped. after many years I get again the same point, there is no more chances for me to get a job, in my country or abroad, or at least I don't want jobs which will let me just to survive.
it means after several hungry years, I understood that there is no other thing than criminality if you want to save yourself from poverty. as older, you are not anymore good for capitalist working market, so there is no big choice. as young, people decide to do criminal things to have money for something what they need. as older, people understand, no job, no pension, I must make money for life and I will have to be criminal whole life.
then you start to try to make bigger criminal acts which will secure money to you for longer period. it can bring you more years in prison. some people try to connect themselves with bigger criminals, but they see that bigger criminals are from rich families and they have political protection and you can't become part of it, except you can take a risk and they make money from it (then you are the same exploited like worker in factory).

conclusion: children of workers who become criminals, they will spend many years in prison as they try to make money which will bring them normal life, possibility for medicament and doctor, etc. money will save them also from factory where people are humiliated and exploited, so many criminals are rebels in that sense that they don't want to accept chef and exploitation (they are mostly bandits, robbers of banks). so there are cirminals who will not go in factory even they can, because it is against human dignity to let someone to do to you what workers experience in factories (similar like prisons just bigger freedom of moving).
children of riches will be always politically protected and they are organized criminals. they make big money and mostly they make business with south america (drugs). if they don't have relative or friendship connections, they can use money to corrupt inspectors, secret agency, etc. in any case, organized criminals are from rich families and they are strongly connected with the state (they can sell small criminals to police, they can sell revolutionary who buy explosive from them to the secret agency, etc).
my option: bandits are the best, if they take equal risk and if they distribute taken money in equal way. it is individual choice if they want also to spend money for revolutionary activities, but some of them do it. some of them help to peasants and police needed 30 years to arrest them, because such people/bandits have support at ordinary people.
you should think about all of this if you want to write about criminality and classes.

ops, I forgot to say: yes, I believe that economic criminal acts are result of capitalism. and therefore I say also that every economic criminal, who is imprisoned, is political prisoner. therefore anarchists who robbed banks and finished in prison, I would rather call them revolutionary prisoners (prisoners who have revolutionary consciousness). it is not the same to be political and revolutionary. political is everyone who made economic criminal act, and such people can also try to become new chefs/bosses if they succeed to make money, because they don't have revolutionary consciousness, they just started as rebel against poverty and finished like new boss. revolutionary criminals will never be boss and he will never keep al that money only for himself (it is his/her choice in what way he/she will spend money to contribute to revolution).

[Psy]

The class struggle between capitalists and workers is in no way related to gang violence and crime. The latter is not something the working class as a class would do, but is in the domain of the lumpenproletariat who are the criminal and gangster class that form under capitalism. This class is mostly composed of dangerous elements who will not aid the class struggle in any way.
Actually it is more complex, organized crime has its own class division with lumpen bourgeois (i.e drug barons) that exploit the lumpen proletariat, for example LA riots of 1992 did have the lumpen proletariat challenge the bourgeois capitalist class but the bourgeois state crushed their rebellion, the ruling class is just as scared by the lumpen challenging their masters as they are by the proletariat challenging theirs.

We have to remember that the lumpen bourgeoisie recruits its labor from the army of unemployed, no one wants to work for the lumpen bourgeoisie they don't want to risk their lives so their masters can get rich with little risk. When there is a revolutionary force pulling the lumpen proletariat making them revolutionary they shake their chains meaning they don't go after the capitalists but their capitalist masters.

[mannetje]

I was very money minded back in the day. I only cared about my status. I wanted expensive clothes (now i wear discount) jewelry and other useless materialistic stuff.
But I didn"t had the money for that I was very naive then, somebody i knew introduced me in a organisation of hempgrowers, where i worked in plantages. i made a lot of money. but i came to my senses on time and i stepped out. I don't wanna have anything to do with criminality anymore i'm rather poor like now. what a untrust worthy world was that to live in. I was shocked about how many people from different layers of society where involved. I witnessed some buy offs. and it always seemed to be the people you don't expect it from who took the bribe. living in that kind of world really took a lot of illusions about people away from me. It's very hard for me to find trust in people again. but i try:crying:

[Steve_j]

According to this clear disregard for human life, isn't crime and gang violence inevitable in a capitalist society?

Capitalism essentially encourages people to selfishly make the most from the means available to them and for some, operating outside the law is the the most effecient means avalible to them.

I would also say for many of them it is also a rejection of the humiliation and domination imposed on workers by the capitalist system.

And as for gangs, working with other criminals in the form of a gang offers increased protection from both the state and other criminals, whilst allowing them to pool their resources to make their occupation more efficient.