Castells: Criminal networks & the effects of global crime

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

Manuel Castells (2010) argues that globalisation involves the development of networks – a complex set of interconnections between people &/or things, that are not normally planned or centrally controlled – that cut across national boundaries. This means that the notion of self-contained societies is outdated. These networks have developed because of the growth of an information age in which knowledge as well as goods & people can move quickly, easily & cheaply across national boundaries.

These changes have resulted in the development of a global criminal economy, in which there are complex interconnections between a range of criminal networks, including the American Mafia, Colombian drug cartels, the Russian Mafia, Chinese triads & the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. These criminal networks operate transnationally, because it reduces their risks & increases the profits.

Question 2

criminal activities

Answer 2

Criminal activities tend to be centred & begin in countries where the state & its law enforcement are relatively weak. E.g. Afghanistan is a centre of heroin production & cocaine is produced in Colombia, however, most sales are made in richer & therefore more profitable markets, such as the USA and UK.

Castells identifies the drugs trade as the biggest global criminal business, but illegal arms trading, the trafficking of nuclear material (much from the former Soviet Union), & the smuggling of illegal immigrants (e.g. from Mexico & the Caribbean into the USA) are also significant. There is also trafficking of children & women, the latter often for the purposes of prostitution, which is closely linked to global tourism. Even body parts, which may be bought from donors or obtained through murder, are trafficked. Money laundering is also vital to the global criminal economy, as without it the criminals would be unable to use the proceeds of their crimes.

Question 3

economy

Answer 3

Castells believes that, apart from the harm done to victims, global criminal networks also harm the economy, politics & the culture of the world. In a number of countries (e.g. Columbia), organised crime is closely linked to corruption within the government, which distorts political policies & prevents effective law enforcement.

Question 4

Newburn

Answer 4

Newburn (2007) argues that many types of global crime are not entirely new. E.g. internet fraud is, at one level, simply another type of fraud made possible by new technology. However, globalisation opens up new opportunities & allows new techniques to be used.

E.g. Computer-based cyber-crime certainly makes national boarders much less significant. As well as facilitating fraud & money-laundering, this has also helped the pornography industry to expand rapidly where a number of criminal networks make a lot of money alongside the drugs trade.

Question 5

demand and supply

Answer 5

The global criminal economy has both a demand side & a supply side. Part of the reason for the scale of transnational organised crime is the demand for its products & services in the rich West. However, the global criminal economy could not function without a supply side that provides the source of the drugs, sex workers & other goods & services demanded in the West.

E.g. In Colombia, as estimated 20% of the population depends on cocaine production for their livelihood, & cocaine outsells all Colombia’s other exports combined. To understand globalised drug crime, we cannot confine our attention merely to the countries where the drugs are consumed.