Crime And Globalisation Flashcards
Causes of globalisation
The spread of ict, influence of mass media, deregulation of financial markets
Global criminal economy stats
Increasing interconnectedness of crime across boarders.
Castells- global criminal economy worth over 1 trillion per annum
Trafficking, nuclear materials, sex work, drug.
Drug trade- 300/400 billion a year
Global risk consciousness
New insecurities because risk is now global.
Results of this- intensification of social control at national level eg uk tightened border control regulations.
Globalisation, capitalism and crime
Taylor-globalisation has lead to more crime
Transnational corporations have moved manufacturing to low wage countries to gain higher profits, producing job insecurity and poverty
Governments have little control over their own economies
Rising crime and new patterns-
The greater insecurity turns people to crime
Globalisation creates large scale criminal opportunities.
New employment patterns creates new opportunities for crime.
Crimes of globalisation
Rotherhithe and Friedrichs- IMF commits ‘crimes of globalisation’ by imposing structural adjustment programmes on poorer countries, requiring them to cut public spending.
Patterns of criminal organisations
Global- hobbs and Dunnigham
Individual as a hub , loose knit network forms. Different from hierarchical mafia style of the past. Organisations have global links but are rooted in local contexts.
McMafia- Russia and Eastern Europe, after fall of communism. Prices of fuel kept at old soviet pries, well connected citizens bought cheaply and sold on world market, new elite ‘oligarchs’.
Turned to new mafias. Criminal organisations were vital for the new Russian capitalists to enter the world economy
Green crime - global risk society and the environment
Harms and crimes to environment
Threats to human well being are human made. ‘Manufactured risks’.
Serious consequences for humanity.
Increasingly on a global scale- ‘global risk society’
Green criminology
Traditional criminology- studies patterns and causes of LAW breaking.
Green criminology- starts from notion of harm rather than law
Legal cannot provide a consistent global standard.
Many of worst environment harms not illegal/
Transgressive criminology.
Two views of harm
Nation-states and TNCs- anthropocentric. Human centred. Humans have the right to dominate nature for economic benefit.
Green- ecocentric view, humans and environment are interdependent, environmental harm hurts humans also.
Types of green crime
Primary- destruction and degradation of the earth- air pollution, deforestation, species decline and water pollution.
Secondary- flouting of rules aimed at preventing o regulating environmental disasters.
Toxic waste dumping
Businesses dispose of toxic waste through eco mafias.
Ship it off to third world countries who have less laws.
Not even illegal
State crime- scale of state crime
Four categories-
Political, economic, social/cultural and crimes by security or police forces.
Scale- extremely large scale, widespread victims eg Cambodia between 1975 and 78, killed a fifth of countries population.
Conceal crimes and evade punishment
Avoid own harmful actions.
Difficult for external authorise to intervene.
Genocide in RWANDA 800,00 tusks were slaughtered by state backed Hutu militia.
State corporate crime
State initiated- direct, initiate or approve
State facilitated- fails to regulate or control
War crimes- illegal eg falsely claiming war is in self defence
Crimes committed ring war, eg bombing civilians.
Ways of defining state crime
Domestic- acts defined by age as criminal and committed by state officials
Social harms and zemiology- the study of harms whether they are against the law or not. Prevents state from ruling themselves out.
Labelling- only a crime if labelled that way.
State crime is socially constructed.
International;. Violates international or states own domestic law.
Human rights
Crime in terms of violation of basic human rights eg imperialism, sexism, exploitation.
However cohen- economic exploitation is not self-evidently criminal.
Culture of denial. Legitimate crimes/
Dictatorships- deny committing human rights abuse
Democratic states- legitimate actions
Neutralisation- neutralise their crimes- denial of victim, injury, responsibility, condemning the condemners.
