can illusions that anyone can achieve success, no matter how deprived. In the particular example of law and crime, state ideology holds that the state itself possesses the power of finality, the end of retribution. Those that it kills cannot seek revenge against a faceless entity, even though it is the state’s individual agents doing the deed. Furthermore, the concepts of individualism and “free will” are the cornerstones upon which the United States’ capitalist society is built. These ideological concepts hold that the criminal has chosen to violate the mandate of the majority, and therefore must forfeit his or her life. The individual choice of the criminal is emphasized, whereas the action of the state is made faceless, so that it cannot be the choice of the individual state agents. Thus, the state is never made accountable for its murders—the state is only an abstraction, an omnipotent entity that somehow exists above and beyond its agents.There is also the perception that criminals seek to gratify their own desires while cops enforce the desires of society as a whole. This is a dubious distinction, considering that cops and criminals both gain financially by their endeavors. Cops also depend on criminals for the continued existence of their occupation. The prison industry makes money off each incarcerated individual as well. This suggests an alternative reason for the political scare tactics about crime and the harsh laws passed in their wake, including lowering the age at which a juvenile may be tried as an adult and “three strikes” laws. Violent crime is decreasing, but the police and prison industry are nevertheless increasing. A Marxist would claim that the reason for toughening laws is primarily based on the economics of the crime control industries and the scare tactics they propagate. Furthermore, the different values placed on gain for the self or gain for society are onl...
