The 1AC homogenizes crime---the motivation is not “dishonesty” but a society unable to meet individual material needs---their monetary punishments won’t solve

Economic criminality This avenue for the investigation of economic crimes takes us into much broader realms of how the economic intrudes upon criminality. Explaining crime by reference to economic motivations and economic criminality is a strong theme in criminological theorizing. Indeed, it is a foundational assumption within critical criminology that human beings have choices, but not in conditions of their own choosing and those crimes they may commit are inextricably bound up with ‘the economic’. This was noted in the early work of Merton (1938, 1968) who suggests that the crimes of fraud, employee theft, gambling, prostitution, burglary and robbery tend to be carried out by ‘innovators’. This is the category of offender who, unable to acquire wealth by institutionalized or legitimate means, devises alternative ways by which wealth can be acquired (Vold et al., 1998). Thus ‘innovators’ use such crimes as economic crimes. The strong left realist tradition within criminology similarly argues that the effects of economic marginalization can combine with political disaffection and engender anti-social behaviour. Such theorizing suggests that crime thrives where the expectations of material rewards cannot be met equally well in all sections of society and hence is greatly influenced by the Mertonian tradition and strain theory. Thus, ‘economic criminality’ becomes conflated and inextricable from ‘economic crimes’. Quotation three illustrates this effectively: [C]rimes committed as a consequence of economic circumstances and resources. . . . sex, fraud and shoplifting. . . . The motive is economic survival and the means are related to opportunity and resources. Women can sell their bodies. . . . their fraud is often related to working while on benefits or use of stolen credit cards. . . . In short people who are not necessarily committed to dishonesty or a criminal career commit ‘economic crimes’ to supply the things that they need Davies: Is economic crime a man’s game? 287 but cannot afford . . . crimes . . . become economic because of the economic circumstances and (lack of) criminal resourcefulness of the perpetrators. (Personal communication) Phrases used as synonymous with ‘economic crime’ noted in the early part of this article also imply, or are used alongside, a particular explanation for the activity or crime.