Globalisation And Crime

Question 1

New crime: containerisation

Answer 1

This is the transport of goods across the world in container ships which can be interchanged between ships, trains and trucks so drugs, people and weapons can be easily trafficked via these containers and due to the quantities involved it is difficult for law enforcement to check their contents

Question 2

New crime: dark net

Answer 2

Part of the www that is intentionally hidden in which users can anonymously gain access to encrypted websites which offer a range of illegal products and services such as illegal forms of pornography, drugs, weapons and stolen identities

Question 3

Cybercrime

Answer 3

Uk gov. Estimates that the annual cost of cyber attacks for British companies is £27 billion per annum - growth in new communication and media technologies have led to an increase in cybercrime
Organised criminal global networks often focus on :
Identity theft, hacking e.g in 2015 the Islamic state claimed to have hacked not the us military and gov databases

Question 4

Hobbs and Dunnigham

Answer 4

Global criminal networks often serve and feed off established criminal networks in western countries . They argue that crime is increasingly ‘glocal’ in character which means that it is still locally based but is now more likely to have global connections
E.g according to a national crime agency and uk human trafficking centre report, it is estimated that 3000 to 4000 women are trafficked every year into the uk by organised Eastern European gangs in order to work against their will as constrained prostitutes

Question 5

Glenny - cigarettes

Answer 5

Estimates that the uk loses about £6 billion a year in taxes from cigarettes smuggled into Britain from Eastern Europe

Question 6

Crimes of the powerful

Answer 6

Companies now operate globally and many move their manufacturing and services to countries with lower costs and often with less stringent health and safety regulations which can lead to exploitation and negative environmental effects - Taylor points out that the wealthy have also been able to take advantage of the 24 hour digital global banking system and the existence of offshore global tax havens to avoid paying tax

Question 7

Glenny - global criminal economy

Answer 7

Uses the term mcmafia to describe the way that organised global crime networks operate in the same way as legitimate global businesses e.g the global drug economy has zones of production situated in developing countries ( raw materials for heroin in Afghanistan and Pakistan ) then operate zones of distribution and zones of consumption in the developed world

Question 8

Glenny -24 hour digital banking

Answer 8

Mutually advantaged both global banks and global criminal networks. They have made it easier for gangs to launder cash from their illegal activities through mainstream banks and tax havens and so it is more difficult for police to track this

Question 9

Castells- Marxist economist

Answer 9

observes that there is a perverse connection between global capitalism and crime - post communist Russia in the 1990s when it switched to a free market capitalist economy. He argues that corruption, speculation, privatisation, money laundering and investment merged as criminals could take advantage of the political chaos

Question 10

Late modernity - Beck

Answer 10

Risks associated with global crime are the result of new technologies developed by industrial capitalism - the development of cyber and digital technology such as the internet has produced a set of risks unique to our age