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The rate of surplus value and crime. A theoretical and empirical examination of Marxian economic theory and criminology

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Abstract

Radical criminology is often dismissed on the claim that it is not empirically verifiable. In this paper we argue that grounding the radical approach in Marx's theory of surplus values creates an empirically testable Marxian theory applicable to understanding rates of criminal offending and official responses to criminal behavior. Our analysis demonstrates that the rate of surplus value is a statistically significant predictor of the rate of property crimes known, property crime arrests, violent crimes known, violent crime arrests and total index crimes known to police in the U.S. from 1950 to 1974 controlling for the effects of predictor variables identified in earlier research on crime rates. The theoretical implications of this finding and the importance of the theory of surplus value to the development of radical criminology are also discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, USA

    Michael J. Lynch

  2. Department of Humanistic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA

    W. Byron Groves

  3. School of Criminal Justice, State University of New York at Albany, USA

    Alan Lizotte

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  1. Michael J. Lynch
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  2. W. Byron Groves
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  3. Alan Lizotte
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Lynch, M.J., Groves, W.B. & Lizotte, A. The rate of surplus value and crime. A theoretical and empirical examination of Marxian economic theory and criminology. Crime Law Soc Change 21, 15–48 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01307806

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