Crime & Deviance: Gloablisation Flashcards
Globalisation (Held et al)
-Increasing interconnectedness of societies so that what happens in one locality is shaped by distant events & vice versa.
-From cultural, to criminal, to financial, to spiritual.
-Caused by the spread of new ICT & influence of global mass media, cheap air travel, competition and easy movement so businesses can relocate.
The global criminal economy
-The same processes that brought about the globalisation of legitimate activities also brought about the spread of transnational organised crime.
-Castells argues because of globalisation, there’s now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per year.
Types of crime include:
-Arms trafficking
-Smuggling illegal immigrants: Estimated $2.5 billion annually (e.g., Chinese Triads).
-Trafficking in body parts: Organ transplants in rich countries.
-Cyber-crimes: Identity theft and child pornography.
-Green crimes: Environmental damage (e.g., toxic waste dumping).
-Terrorism: Now based on global ideological networks (via the internet).
-Smuggling legal goods: Alcohol, tobacco, stolen goods.
-Drug trade: $300–400 billion annually.
Money laundering: Estimated $1.5 trillion per year.
Global criminal economy: Demand & supply
-Poor, drug-producing countries (e.g., Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan) rely heavily on drug cultivation.
-Example: 20% of Colombia’s population depends on cocaine production.
-This means the West demand these services and exploit the supply side.
Global risk consciousness
Globalisation and Risk Consciousness:
-Risk is now perceived as global rather than location-specific.
-Increased migration (economic migrants and asylum seekers) creates anxieties in Western countries about crime, disorder, and border protection.
Media and Moral Panic:
-Media often exaggerate dangers, particularly regarding immigration.
Immigrants are portrayed as terrorists or scroungers “flooding” countries.
-Media-fueled fears lead to moral panics and hate crimes against minorities, especially in Europe and the UK.
2 results of Global risk consciousness
Social Control Intensification:
-UK has tightened border controls, including fines for airlines transporting undocumented passengers.
-No legal limit on detention duration for immigrants in the UK.
-European countries with land borders use fences, CCTV, and thermal imaging to prevent illegal crossings.
International Cooperation and Control:
-Globalised risks have led to increased international collaboration, particularly in “wars” on terror, drugs, and crime.
-Intensified after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Globalisation, capitalism & crime - Taylor (1997) : Socialist
-Globalisation allows free market forces to operate, increasing inequality and crime.
-Crime arises at both ends of the social spectrum.
Impact on the Poor:
-Transnational corporations shift manufacturing to low-wage countries, causing job insecurity, unemployment, and poverty.
-Deregulation reduces government control, cuts welfare spending, and weakens social cohesion.
-Marketisation promotes individualism and materialistic values, undermining social bonds.
-Lack of legitimate job opportunities leads to involvement in crime (e.g., drug trade).
-Example: De-industrialisation in Los Angeles resulted in drug gangs with 10,000 members.
Opportunities for Elite Crime:
-Deregulation of financial markets enables insider trading and tax evasion.
-Transnational bodies (e.g., EU) facilitate fraudulent claims (e.g., $7 billion annually in EU subsidies).
New Employment Patterns:
-Increased subcontracting leads to illegal work, underpayment, and breaches of health and safety laws.
Evaluation of Taylor
:) Links global capitalism trends to changing crime patterns.
:( Fails to explain why not all disadvantaged individuals turn to crime.
Crimes of globalisation
Rothe and Friedrichs (2015): ‘Crimes of Globalisation’
-Examines the role of international financial organisations (e.g., IMF, World Bank).
-These organisations are dominated by major capitalist states (e.g., USA, Japan, Germany, Britain, France).
-Example: Five countries hold over one-third of voting rights in the World Bank (out of 188 member countries).
Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs):
-IMF and World Bank impose neoliberal, pro-capitalist conditions on loans to poor countries.
Requirements include:
-Cutting spending on health and education.
-Privatising public services (e.g., water supply), industries, and natural resources.
Result of Crimes of globalisation
Consequences of SAPs:
-Western corporations benefit by expanding into poor countries.
-SAPs create conditions for crime and social harm:
-Example: Rwanda (1980s) SAPs caused mass unemployment, forming the economic basis for the 1994 genocide.
Maureen Cain (2010): Role of IMF and World Bank:
-Acts as a ‘global state’ by imposing policies that result in social harm.
-Harms occur both directly (e.g., welfare cuts) and indirectly (e.g., consequences like in Rwanda).
Patterns of criminal organisation
-Globalisation and de-industrialisation create new local-level criminal opportunities and patterns.
-Example: Studies by Winlow (bouncers in Sunderland) and Hobbs & Dunningham (post-industrial town).
Hobbs and Dunningham’s Findings:
-Crime organisation is linked to economic changes caused by globalisation.
-Increasingly involves individuals acting as a ‘hub’ in loose-knit networks.
-These networks combine legitimate and illegitimate activities.
Comparison to Past Criminal Structures:
-Modern networks are flexible and opportunistic.
-Contrast with large-scale, hierarchical organisations (e.g., ‘Mafia’-style groups like the Kray brothers in London’s East End).
‘Glocal’ organisation
-New criminal organisations often combine global and local elements.
-E.g. Drug trade involves global supply chains but remains rooted in local networks and contacts for selling and finding opportunities.
Hobbs and Dunningham’s Findings:
Crime operates as a ‘glocal’ system:
-Locally based but influenced by global factors (e.g., international drug availability).
-The structure of crime varies by local conditions, even when globally connected.
Changes in Crime Patterns:
-Shift from old, rigidly hierarchical gangs to loose, flexible, entrepreneurial networks.
-These changes are linked to globalisation.
Limitations of Glocal organisation
-It is unclear if these patterns are entirely new or if older hierarchical structures still coexist.
-Findings may not be applicable to all types of criminal activity in other contexts.
McMafia
McMafia and Globalisation:
-Glenny (2008) to describe criminal organisations emerging in Russia and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism.
-Linked to the globalisation process and the deregulation of global markets.
Origins of McMafia:
-Collapse of the Soviet Union (1989) led to economic deregulation, except for natural resources like oil, gas, and diamonds.
-Former communist officials and KGB generals bought these resources at Soviet prices and sold them internationally for massive profits, creating Russia’s “oligarchs.”
Role of Mafias:
-Increasing disorder after communism’s fall led capitalists to seek protection from newly formed mafias.
-Alliances between former KGB officials and ex-convicts, with groups like the Chechen mafia rising to prominence.
Characteristics of Russian Mafias:
-Unlike Italian and American mafias, they were not based on ethnic or familial ties but were purely economic organisations.
-Chechen mafia became a “brand” that franchised its name to other groups, maintaining its reputation through reliability.
Impact on Global Crime:
-Russian mafias helped protect oligarch wealth and facilitated its movement out of Russia.
-Built global links with other criminal organisations, integrating into the world economy.
Green crime
-Crime against the environment.
-Threats to the planet are increasingly global than local in nature.
-E.g. atmospheric pollution from industry in one country can turn into acid rain that fall in another, destroying its forests.
-E.g. In Ukraine, an accident in the nuclear industry, spread radioactive material over thousands of miles showing worldwide effects.
‘Global risk society’ & the environment
-Major risks and threats to eco-system are of our own making.
-Beck argued that we can now provide adequate resources for all.
-However, the increase in productivity & tech sustaining it, created new, manufactured risks.
-Many of these involve harm to environment and consequences for humanity such as global heating caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
-E.g. in Mozambique (2010), global heating triggered the hottest heatwave in a century causing wildfires leading Russia to introduce export bans
-Mozambique was heavily dependent on food imports and there was a 30% rise in the price of bread, leading to rioting/looting that left a dozen dead.
Green criminology - Traditional criminology
What if the pollution that causes global warming/acid rain is perfectly legal?
Traditional criminology: is not concerned with such behaviour since its subject matter is defined by the criminal law and no law is broken.
-Situ & Emmons define environmental crime as ‘an unauthorised act or omission that violates the law.
:) Clearly defined subject matter.
:( Criticised for accepting offical definitions defined by powerful group who serve their own interests.
