GLOBALISATION AND CRIME

Question 1

Cyber-crime

Answer 1

• A crime that occurs online, in the virtual community of the Internet, as opposed to the physical world.
• The arrival of new types of media is often met with a moral panic.
• For example, television, videos and computer games have all been accused of undermining public morality and corrupting the young.
• The arrival of the internet has been met with similar criticisms and led to fears of cyber-crime.

Question 2

Thomas and Loader, 2000

Answer 2

• Define cyber-crime as computer-mediated activities that are either illegal or considered illicit by some, and that are conducted through global electronic networks.

Question 3

Jewkes, 2003

Answer 3

• The Internet creates opportunities to commit both ‘conventional crimes’, such as fraud, and ‘new crime using tools’, such as software piracy.

Question 4

Wall, 2001

Answer 4

• Identifies 4 categories of cybercrime:
• Cyber-trespass - crossing boundaries into others’ cyber-property e.g. hacking and sabotage
• Cyber-pornography - including porn involving minors and opportunities for children to access porn online
• Cyber-violence - doing psychological harm or inciting physical harm e.g. cyber-stalking and hate crimes
• Global cyber-crime - the globalised nature of cyber-crime poses problems of policing, distribution of resources and jurisdiction.
• Police culture also gives cyber-crime a low priority because it is seen as lacking the excitement of more conventional policing.
• However, the new information and communication technology (ICT) also provides the police and state with greater opportunities for surveillance and control of the population.

Question 5

Globalisation

Answer 5

The increasing interconnectedness of societies so one locality is shaped by distant events and vice versa

Question 6

Held et al

Answer 6

• Suggests that there has also been a globalisation of crime - an increasing interconnectedness of crime across national borders and transnational organised crime

Question 7

Castells, 1998

Answer 7

• Argues that there is now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per annum taking forms in arms trafficking, trafficking of women and children, smuggling of illegal goods and international terrorism
• The scale of transnational crime is due to the West’s demand of supply of drugs, sex workers and other goods and services.

Question 8

Global risk consciousness

Answer 8

• Globalisation has created new insecurities a new mentality of ‘risk consciousness’ in which risk is seen as global rather than tied to particular places.
• For example, the increased movement of peoples, as economic migrants, refugees or asylum seekers has given rise to anxieties among Western countries about the risks of crime and disorder and the need to protect their borders.
• This can be seen through UK talks about point-based systems and other measures on border control and immigration to prevent “EU crooks from getting in”. Such intensification of social control exemplifies global risk consciousness of perceived crime and deviance.
• Another result of globalised risk is the increased attempts at international cooperation and control over the various ‘wars’ on terror, drugs and crime - especially following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the more recent ones in 2017 including the Manchester bombing, the London Bridge terror attack and the Paris shooting.

Question 9

Taylor, 1997
Globalisation, capitalism and crime

Answer 9

• Globalisation has led to changes in the pattern and extent of crime. By giving free rein to market forces, globalisation has created greater inequality and rising crime
• it has also created crime at both ends of the social spectrum. Deregularisation means that governments have little control over their own economies, for example to raise taxes or create jobs, while state spending of welfare has decreased
• In addition ,left realists argue that the increasing materialistic culture prompted by the global media portrays success in terms of a lifestyle of consumption.
• These factors all combine and create insecurity and widening inequalities that encourage people to commit crime.
• The lack of legitimate job opportunities drives the unemployed to look for illegitimate ones, for instance the lucrative drug trade while the deregularisation of financial markets also presents opportunities for elite groups to move funds around the globe to avoid taxation.
• Therefore, globalisation, according to Taylor, has widened the gap between the working class and he ruling class thus encouraging the poor to resort to illegitimate means to achieve a favourable lifestyle.
• This gap also means that crimes of the powerful are easier to commit.
• For instance, money laundering is simplified by global ties. As such, capitalism is maintained and upheld by capitalism

Question 10

Rothe and Friedrichs, 2015
Crimes of globalisation

Answer 10

*Examine the role of international financial organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in what they call ‘crimes of globalisation’.
*These organisations are dominated by the major capitalist states. For example, the World Bank is comprised of 118 countries but only 5 of them hold over 1/3 of the voting rights.
*They argue that these bodies impose pro-capitalist, neoliberal economic ‘structural adjustment programmes’ on poor countries as a condition for the loans they provide. They often governments to cut on spending on health and education, and to privatise publicly-owned services, such as water supply, and natural resources.
*The higher interest rates and taxes enforced often cause a recession and mass unemployment. This, according to Rothe and Friedrichs, creates conditions of crime.

Question 11

Cain, 2010
Crimes of globalisation

Answer 11

Suggests that in some ways, the IMF and World Bank act as a ‘global state’ and, while they may not break any laws, their actions can cause widespread social harm.

Question 12

Hobbs and Duningham
Patterns of criminal organisation

Answer 12

• Found that the way crime is organised is linked to the economic changes brought by globalisation.
• Increasingly, crime is working as a ‘global’ system, becoming locally-based but with global connections in contrast to the previous large-scale, hierarchal ‘Mafia’-style criminal organisations of the past.
• However, it is not clear whether these patterns are new, whether the older structures have disappeared or whether the two have always co-existed.
• There conclusions may not be generalisable to other criminal activities elsewhere e.g. small instances of burglary do not require global connections.

Question 13

Glenny, 2008

Answer 13

• Patterns of criminal organisation
• Provides another example of the relationship between criminal organisation and globalisation through what they call the ‘McMafia’.
• This refers to the organisations that emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism. At this point in time, the Russian government deregulated most sectors of the economy except for national resources such as oil which remained at their old Soviet prices. Thus, anyone with access to funds - often the former communist officials and KGB generals - could buy up oil, gas, diamonds or metals for next to nothing and sell them abroad for a vast profit. These individuals resultantly became Russia’s new capitalist class (oligarchs) and to protect their wealth alliances were formed with former KGB men and ex-convicts.
  *These mafias, unlike the hierarchal, family-based old Italian and American mafias, were purely economic organisations formed to pursue self-interest
  *Due to globalisation, these fluid and violent organisations could protect the wealth of the wealthy.
  *Both ‘Glocal’ organisations and the ‘McMafia’ are example of global crime networks.