Market, Crime and Community

Abstract

In this paper I argue that `market societies' — those in which the pursuit of private gain becomes the dominant organizing principle of social and economic life — are especially likely to breed high levels of violent crime. At least seven mechanisms contribute to this vulnerability: the progressive destruction of livelihood; the growth of extremes of inequality and material deprivation; the withdrawal of public services and supports; the erosion of informal networks of mutual support; the spread of a materialistic and neglectful culture; the deregulation of the technology of violence; and the weakening of social and political alternatives. The tendency of market society to breed violent crime helps explain high levels of life-threatening violence in the US, as well as in parts of the Third World and the former Soviet bloc. This has obvious, and troubling, implications for the future in a world hurtling toward global deregulation.