Karl Marx's theory attempted to explain the conflict between the growth of economy and the changes that occur in society, politics and history. His main theory explained how society's ability to produce knowledge, technological equipment and other material goods, struggled against the creation and sustenance of relationships among people which determine how resources dispersed. When social forces (relationships) are first created they assist in economic g

It is also important to mention that there is little doubt that individual level social relationships are affected by the overall political economy. Family and acquaintance relationships change when resource deprivation occurs. Within Marxist political and economical structures there is equal access to wealth and resources for all members of a community. There is no need to compete for the resources one needs to survive; resources are overwhelming available or shared. Within capitalist political and economic structures there is unequal access to resources and therefore a struggle to maximize what resources are available to an individual. Family structure is a perfect example of this phenomenon. In socialist or communist structures extended family units are common. Many generations of families share in the wealth each member brings in. There are resources available so no one must struggle to achieve their share. While in capitalist structures the nuclear family is the most effective means of maximizing wealth and rising in the economic strata. One only has to support immediate members of the family. Capitalism also promotes consumerism, and a nuclear family is in need of more products than an extended family (they share products).

Crime can be explained in both articles as a result of modern views of material economic and political structures. The measure of wealth is defined by a society that hoards the available wealth breading aggression and increasing the potential for crime. As in the Berland article, the Negro's "Red Summer" (one summer in the early 1900s during which large numbers of riots were occurring) showed how aggression could lead to violence when an economic system leaves some of it's members without necessary resources to compete on a equal playing ground, be it political, economic, or social.

When the state and its law are the tool of the power class to control the working class and production, while protecting capitalist economic order, it is referred to as instrumental Marxism. Structural Marxism, the more popular of the two divisions of the theory, states criminal law is explained via socio-economic origins. Laws don't always support the ruling class but support the capitalist system, overall.

The second article "The Emergence of the Communist Perspective on the 'Negro Question" in America: 1919-1931" by Oscar Berland, explains how the communist organizations in America during the early 1900s helped bring about Negro civil rights into the American political arena.

Modern Marxist criminologists have set aside the ideas of rebellion and the instrumental view of Marxism and now use a "left realism" view. Theories that fall under this classification state that the criminal problems created by the working class can be responded to without throwing away capitalism. Enforcement of laws penalizing the upper-class, prison reformation, addressing social issues such as housing, health care and education, and control of a nation's drug problem can result in equal enforcement and contentment within the capitalistic economic structure. (Vold, 1998).

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Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)