Globalisation and crime

Question 1

Held and McGrew (2007) define globalisation as

Answer 1

“the widening, deepening, and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness”

Question 2

Globalisation involves a process of deterritorialisation

Answer 2

meaning that an increasing number of social, political and economic activities are no longer attached to one country, but are transnational and stretch across the globe

Question 3

The nature and extent of global crime

Answer 3

• Karofi and Mwanza (2006) and Castrells (2010) - globalisation has led to a global criminal economy
• new opportunities for crime and new types of crime are available eg illegal trade of weapons/nuclear materials/body parts/drugs, human trafficking, cybercrimes, green crimes etc

Question 4

The international drug trade

Answer 4

• estimates of the value of global drug trade are very difficult to calculate and vary widely as it it a hidden activity
• UNODC (United Nationals Office on Drugs and Crime) suggested in 2007 that international drug trade was worth $322 billion each year, higher than the GDP of 88% of countries
• The Home Office estimates that half of acquisitive crime (eg theft, burglary) is drug related, as people steal to support their drug use

Question 5

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) definition

Answer 5

the total value of goods and services produced by a country in a particular year

Question 6

Human-trafficking

Answer 6

• the illegal movement and smuggling of people, for a variety of purposes, ranging from illegal organ transplants, exploitation of women and children for prostitution, forced labour and more
• National Crime Agency (2014) - as many as 13,000 people in Britain who are victims of slavery
• related to the global criminal network of illegal immigration

Question 7

Money-laundering

Answer 7

• concerned with making money obtained illegally look like it came from legal sources
• Castells calls this ‘the matrix of global crime’ because criminals deal with large amounts of cash, which they need to ‘launder’ to avoid detection
• technology and global financial development make it possible to lauder money through complex financial transactions involving the almost instantaneous repeated electronic transfer of money, making it hard for law-enforcement agencies to find the money’s source

Question 8

Cybercrime

Answer 8

• range of criminal acts committed using communication and information technology (mostly the internet)
• cybercrimes are ‘glocal’ in the sense that many offenders in the UK have links outside the country
• cybercrime is growing
• Detica (2011) estimates that financial cybercrimes (identity theft, scams, fraud, intellectual property theft) cost the UK £27 billion each year

Question 9

Examples of cybercrimes

Answer 9

• internet-based fraud such as financial scams, credit card fraud and money laundering - last year UK residents received 208 million scam emails
• child pornography
• terrorist websites and network (eg fears of ISIS recruiting on social media - Shamima Begum recruited 2015)
• cyber-attacks such as viruses or hacking for personal info (eg I Love You virus early 2000s)
• identity theft (mostly for use of credit cards, loans etc)

Question 10

Transnational Organised Crime

Answer 10

• Castells - globalisation has created transnational networks of organised crime
• these often work in collusion with corrupt state officials and legitimate businesses
• Farr (2005) - 2 types of global criminal networks: Established mafia and new organised crime groups
• these organisation control human-trafficking, drugs trade etc
• Glenny (2009) used the term ‘McMafia’ to describe the way their activities mirrors legal transnational corporations

Question 11

Farr (2005) - 2 types of global criminal networks: Established mafias

Answer 11

• long-established groups (Italian-American mafia, Japanese Yakusa etc)
• often organised around family and ethnic characteristics
• adapted to take advantage of new opportunities opened up by globalisation

Question 12

Farr (2005) - 2 types of global criminal networks: Newer organised crime groups

Answer 12

• emerged since globalisation began
• Glenny (2009) - groups in Eastern Europe stem from the dismantling of the soviet union, as those in security, policing, army etc had no other work (eg in Russia, Albania etc)
• including cartels like Colombia - all work together with one another and established mafias to form a network of transnational organised crime

Question 13

From global to local - glocalisation

Answer 13

• Hobbs and Dunnighan (1998) - global criminal networks work within local communities as interdependent local units
• eg drugs trade needs networks of dealers to organise supply at a local level (eg County Lines)
• Hobbs (1998) coined the term ‘glocal’ to describe the interconnectivity between global and local crime

Question 14

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime

Answer 14

• cultural globalisation - spread of consumerist ideology
• disorganised capitalism - marketisation, deregulation, privatisation, lack of cohesion and opportunity, more insecurity
• global risk society - insecurity and uncertainty
• growing individualisation
• more opportunities for crime
• supply and demand - poorer developing companies supply criminal products to more developed ones
• more inequality

Question 15

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime: Disorganised capitalism

Answer 15

• Lash and Urry (1987) - globalisation has been accompanied by less regulation and controls over business and finance, referring to this as ‘disorganised capitalism’
• corporations operate transnationally and can move money, manufacturing, staff and waste around the globes to countries with less regulations and lower costs
• Taylor (1997) - this leads to fewer job opportunities and more job insecurity (unemployment, temporary/part-time work etc) in developed countries and increased exploitation of the workforce in developing countries
• these factors undermine social cohesion and combine with lack of opportunity to fuel crime as people seek alternative ways to achieve the lifestyle promoted by global media

Question 16

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime: Growing inequality

Answer 16

• Taylor (1997) - the winners from globalisation are the rich financial investors and TNCs based in developed western countries, and the losers are the workers in both developed and developing countries
• the most disadvantaged are exposed to increasing risks and insecurity, and experience growing relative deprivation, feeding crime

Question 17

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime: Supply and demand in a globalised world

Answer 17

• growing inequality and poverty has led to factors which push people to emigrate to developed western countries, however these countries have made immigration more difficult, creating a market for illegal immigration
• many illegal immigrants are in debt to smuggling gangs, forced into slavery to repay their debts
• demand for illegal drugs in developed areas provides a means for making money for those deprived of other opportunity and farmers in countries like Columbia or Afghanistan who gain more income by growing opium poppies and coca for heroin and cocaine
• demands for body parts, organs, sex workers etc has been met by criminal trade from poorer areas, managed by transnational organised crime networks

Question 18

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime: More opportunities for crime

Answer 18

• opportunities for new types of crime (cybercrime, human-trafficking etc)
• new means of carrying out crime (eg ‘dark web’ on internet, credit cards etc) - crime committed in one country may have its perpetrators located elsewhere, making investigation and prosecution near impossible, substantially reducing the risks involved in committing crime

Question 19

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime: Cultural globalisation and the ideology of consumerism

Answer 19

• mass tourism, migration and the media has spread a similar culture and ideology of consumerism across the globe
• in media-saturated society, almost everyone in developed and developing countries is exposed to consumerism
• Young (left realist) - many people have little chance of achieving an affluent western lifestyle, and this leads to a bulimic society, which encourages crime

Question 20

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime: Growing individualisation

Answer 20

• Bauman (2000) - in late modernity, there is growing individualisation
• happiness and living conditions now depend on individual effort and people no longer have the safety net of the welfare state
• Taylor - individuals must weigh up the costs and benefits of their choices and many choose the options they see as having the best chances at being most rewarded
• this puts personal gain above community benefit
• crimes like drug trade, illegal immigration etc provide a means of achieving rewards otherwise unattainable and offers individuals from poorer nations the (nearly always unfulfilled) idea of a better life in the West (eg through illegal immigration)

Question 21

Ways in which globalisation has affected crime: Global risk society

Answer 21

• globalisation adds to the insecurity and uncertainty of life in late modernity
• Beck (1992) - this generates a ‘global risk society’
• people become more ‘risk conscious’ and fearful of things like losing jobs, being hacked, having identities stolen, threats of immigration, terrorism, drug-dealing etc
• the causes of these risks are global
• the media may play on these fears, with sensationalised reporting creating moral panics eg the Sun ‘Swan Bake’ story about asylum seekers killing and eating swans in London

Question 22

Evaluation of crime and globalisation

Answer 22

• study of this area is valuable as it focuses on newest, dramatic and serious crimes however it is very difficult to investigate based on its hidden and secretive nature
• much information on global crimes depends on secondary sources and reliable statistics are unavailable, causing validity issues
• research may be dangerous
• some see research into globalised crimes as distracting from local routine crimes which have a more significant impact on the daily lives of most people
• easy to exaggerate the significance of globalisation - in the UK crime has decreased with the growth of globalisation
• globalisation has affected crime more in other areas with more corruption and less law enforcement
• globalisation has led to more interconnectedness in global law enforcement eg through border force agencies working together or Interpol