global crime

Question 1

transnational crime

Answer 1

any crime that crosses national borders

Question 2

transnational organised crime

Answer 2

when criminal organisations in different countries form business networks to commit international crimes together for mutual benefit - profit

Question 3

transnational organised crime e.g arms trafficking

Answer 3

illegal supply of weapons to criminal organisations that aren’t supposed to have weapons e.g guerrilla groups - groups in a country opposed to the gov and aim to use violence to overthrow the gov. Sierra Leone - civil war caused by guerrilla group that wanted to overthrow gov who went into villages and forced men and boys to join their illegal army - child soldiers, women and girls were raped and murdered. boys and men forced to work in illegal diamond mines owned by the guerrilla group - slave labour. diamonds sourced from illegal diamond mines - blood diamonds. guerrilla group exchange diamonds to Russians for weapons, Russians create fake certificates for diamonds and sell them in Europe

Question 4

transnational organised crime people trafficking

Answer 4

illegal transportation of people from country to country for: illegal work, women and children forced into prostitution, sex tourism, trafficking of human organs. Illegal immigrants - smuggling people from LEDC to MEDC and forcing them to work for a low wage - 21st century slaves

Question 5

trafficiking of endangered species

Answer 5

Poachers kill baby animal’s parents to capture baby animals and sell them abroad as exotic pets’ or kill and sell elephant tusks or ivory . In MEDC there is demand for illegal goods and services, supply for these are coming from LEDCs.

Question 6

global causes of crime - Taylor

Answer 6

Taylor’s theory explains how globalisation has increased crime and created new patterns of crime but if his theory was correct, all poor people would be criminal but they aren’t.
- globalisation means free market economy has developed on a global scale so production of goods isn’t in its og source as workers are cheaper in poorer countries. This increases w/c and m/c crime - w/c become unemployed as factories relocated in other countries, global free market economy means elite commit WCC and corporate crime such as insider trading and tax evasion.
criticism - fails to explain why only some people turn to crime when majority are still law abiding

Question 7

global cause of crime- Hobbs and Dunningham

Answer 7

glocal crime - globalisation changed way in which crime is organised - crime has now become glocal. In the past crimes were local and criminal organisations were hierarchal but globalisation has changed how crime is organised so now they’re between loose knit non hierarchical criminal groups from different countries.
criticism - ignore the fact that there are still criminal groups that operate on a local level

Question 8

environmental or green crime

Answer 8

any illegal activity that damages the environment.

Question 9

3 groups who commit environmental crime

Answer 9

individuals - dumping of waste, littering, picking protected wild flowers, fox hunting.

businesses - pollution and dumping of waste. The tightening of regulations on the disposal of toxic waste has generated a profitable trade in the global illegal disposal of hazardous waste.

Government- pollution and transport and dumping of waste material. This in particular refers to disposal of nuclear waste from nuclear power plants.

Question 10

traditional criminology

Situ and Emmons

Answer 10

concerned with environmental crimes as defined by national and international laws and regulations concerning the environment

define environmental crimes as acts that violate the law
criticism: accepting the official definitions of

environmental crime which are often created by the powerful groups in society in their own interest.

Question 11

green criminology

Answer 11

sociologists should consider any behaviour that harms environment as a green crime even if it’s legal - takes ecocentric view - belief that humans don’t have the right to damage the environment for our own benefit

anthropocentric views - if it’s benefiting humans its okay to damage the environment

criticism - - definition of green crime is too broad so theory is too idealistic theory is too theoretical so doesn’t offer any real practical solutions to problem of green crime

Question 12

primary environmental crimes

Answer 12

currently seen as environmental issues rather than crimes and are legal under international law. They result directly from the destruction and degradation of the earth’s resources and include water and air pollution, deforestation.

Question 13

3 types of primary crime

Answer 13

crimes of air pollution - burning fossil fuels from industry and transport adds 3 billion tons of carbon the atmosphere annually. The potential criminals are corporations, businesses and individuals.

Crimes of deforestation - e.g in the Amazon, forests were cleared to rear beef cattle. The criminals here are govs and corporation.

Crimes of species decline and animal rights - 50 species a day are becoming extinct, there is trafficking of animals and their body parts. Criminals are organised gangs, individuals, govs and corporations.

Question 14

3 types of secondary environmental crime

Answer 14

State violence against oppositional groups - French government’s secret agents blew up a Greenpeace ship in New Zealand as the shop was there protesting against French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific ocean.

Hazardous waste and organised crime - safe and legal disposal of toxic waste is highly expensive so many companies seek to dispose of it legally

Environmental discrimination - poorer groups are worst affected by pollution.

Question 15

State crime

Answer 15

any illegal activity committed by government departments.

Question 16

examples of state crimes

Answer 16

war crimes- deliberate targeting of civilians by states in times of war, torture, inhumane treatment of prisoners etc.

torture - e.g waterboarding - UK and USA using extraordinary rendition in Iraq war - taking prisoners from country where torture is banned to where it’s allowed

genocide - violent crimes committed against national, ethnic or religious groups, also referred to as ethnic cleansing. e.g - holocaust of 6 million Jews and other groups

Question 17

green and ward -state crime

Answer 17

state crime is one of the most serious forms of crime because of the:
scale of state crime - how widespread crimes committed by gov agencies are state is source of the law - state itself is source of the law so state can legalise criminal actions it has performed
national sovereignty - state has supreme authority within its borders, making it difficult for international organisations such as UN to intervene despite existence of national conventions against such acts
as UN to intervene despite existence of national conventions against such acts

Question 18

domestic law definition of state crime

Answer 18

chambliss - state crime is any act defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their jobs as representatives of the state

criticism - ignores fact that state has power to avoid criminalising its own actions and they can pass laws allowing them to carry out harmful acts, e.g - nazi Germany passed laws allowing it to forcefully sterilise disabled people

Question 19

zemiology definition

Answer 19

michalowski - zemiology should be used as basis for defining state crimes as state crime should be any act committed by state that causes crime, regardless of whether it’s illegal or not
criticism - too vague

Question 20

labelling and societal reaction definition

Answer 20

labelling theory - an act only becomes criminal when society defines it as criminal - state crime is socially constructed and depends on societal reaction to the act
criticism - labelling theory’s definition of state crime ignores fact that state has power to influence public opinion, e.g Nazi Germany used propaganda to turn public against Jewish people

Question 21

international law definition

Answer 21

rothe and mullins - we should use international law to define state crime as any action by or on behalf of a state that breaks international laws, such as those made by the UN - ensures sociologists’ personal opinions don’t affect research into state crime
criticism - international laws are a social construct and powerful countries can influence the passing of international laws in their favour

Question 22

the authoritarian personality

Answer 22

Adorno et al define it as the willingness to obey orders of superior without question. It’s often thought that people who commit acts of genocide are psychopaths.

Question 23

State crimes

Answer 23

are crimes of obedience as they require obedience to higher authority and research shows many people are willing to obey authority even when it involves harming others as a result of the role they are socialised into. Green and Ward argue that in order to overcome the norms against the use of cruelty, those involved in torture have to be re-socialised, trained and exposed to propaganda about ‘the enemy’. To do this, state create enclaves of barbarism such as military bases. This prepares the torturer to regard torture as a 5-9 job from which they can return to normal life.

Question 24

Modernity

Answer 24

Baumann argues that it is the features of modernity that cause genocide such as the Holocaust
1. Division of labour - each person was responsible for small task so no one felt responsible for the atrocity. 2. Science and technology - trains used to transport people to concentration camps, the gas used to kill them.

Question 25

criticism for Baumann

Answer 25

not all genocide occurs through a highly organised systematic way that allows the participants to distance themselves from what they are doing.

Question 26

how states deny and legitimate their crimes

Answer 26

S. Cohen argues states use the spiral of denial to conceal their crimes. It didn’t happen - the state denies the crime so charities and media produce evidence it did happen. If it did happen, it was something else - not a crime, but self-defence , Even if it is what charities and the media say it is, it is justified - the fight against the way on terror.

Question 27

cohen also argues the states use the techniques of neutralisation to justify their crimes

Answer 27

1. denial of the victims - they are terrorists so can’t be victims
2. denial of injury - we’re the real victims, not them
3. denial of responsibility - ‘I was only obeying orders’

Question 28

3 ways the media representations of crime are distorted

Answer 28

1. The media over-represent violent and sexual crimes. For example, a newspaper reporting of rape cases greatly increased from the 1950s to 1980s. Over 60% of the space allocated to crime in newspapers.
2. The media portrays criminals and victims as older and middle class. Felson refers to this as the age fallacy.
3. Media coverage exaggerates clear up rates - police success in solving crimes.

Question 29

News values are the criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the newspaper or news programme.

News values include:

Answer 29

Dramatisation – action and excitement

Personalisation – human interest stories about individuals

Simplification - of the story

Question 30

3 fictional media representations of crime

Answer 30

Property crime is underrepresented, which violent and sex crimes are over-represented

the offenders are often high status, middle class males

the police clear up rate is high so the police are presented in a positive light

Question 31

The media as a cause of crime - relative deprivation

Answer 31

Left Realists argue that the media create crime because they are used by capitalists to promote their products but most people cant afford those products and therefore experience relative deprivation and social exclusion. This can lead to crime to obtain the material goods people can’t afford, but the media portray as desirable.
+C: they trust the OCS which show that w/c are the criminals and therefore ignore the WCC which don’t appear in OCS bc the law is selectively enforced.

Question 32

the media as a cause of crime (deviancy and amplification) and moral panic

Answer 32

Deviancy amplification is the process through which the media create crime through the way in which they label and present certain events and groups in society as a threat to social order.

Moral panic is an exaggerated over-reaction by society to an issue presented as a threat to society by the media.
This is the process through which deviancy amplification and a moral panic are created by the media: The media exaggerate an event as a social problem and identify a group in society as folk devils - a threat to social order. The media demonise the group - present them in a negative, stereotypical light and exaggerate the scale of the problem. The media engage in symbolisation – they focus on the symbols of the group such as clothes and present them as a threat. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the group identified as a problem start to see themselves as a social problem. This causes the group to commit even more of the criminal and deviant activities. This is deviancy amplification – the media
have cause an increase in crime through the way they reported it in the first place. The media report these events in an even more exaggerated manner. This causes the moral panic – the moral entrepreneurs condemn the group and demand a police crackdown on the group. This leads to police targeting that group and the cycle of labelling and increased criminality starts again.

Question 33

The media as a cause of crime (deviancy

amplification) and moral panic

Answer 33

This theory was created by S. Cohen, in his research, Folk devils and moral panics, of Mods
and Rockers, two w/c youth cultures
It was a minor disturbance which was exaggerated – amplified - by the media into violent
clashes.
The media created deviancy amplification and moral panic through:
Exaggeration and distortion – the media exaggerated the numbers of youths involved and the
extent of violence and damage caused.
Prediction – the media assumed and predicted further conflict would happen between the
two groups.
Symbolisation - the symbols of Mods and Rockers – their music, bikes, scooters, hairstyles
and clothes – were labelled negatively.
Cohen argues that moral panics arise in times of boundary crisis created by social change,
when there is uncertainty about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, which was very
much the case in the 1960s.

Question 34

criticism

Answer 34

McRobbie and Thornton argue that moral panics are an outdate notion because:

Frequency - Increasing number of moral panics means they are no longer rare or noteworthy.

Question 35

3 examples of Cyber crime

Answer 35

Cyber trespass – hacking and sabotage such as spreading viruses.
Cyber pornography – such as child pornography.
Cyber violence – such as online bullying.