Globalisation, Green Crime, Human Rights and State Crime Flashcards
Define globalisation.
“The widening, deepening and speeding up of world wide interconnectedness in all aspects of life, from the cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritual.”
List some of the causes of globalisation.
- Spread of new ICT
- Influence of global mass media
- Cheap air travel
- Deregulation of financial and other markets and their opening up to competition and easier movement (relocating businesses to other countries - increase profit)
According to Held, what causes the spread of transnational organised crime?
Globalisation creates new opportunities for crime, new means of committing crime and new offences e.g various cyber crime.
According to Castells, what is the value of the global criminal economy?
Over £1 trillion per annum
Briefly outline six examples of global crime.
- Arms trafficking: to illegal regimes, guerrilla groups and terrorists.
- Smuggling of illegal immigrants: for example, the Chinese triads make an estimated $2.5 billion annually.
- Sex tourism: where Westerners travel to Third World countries for sex, sometimes involving minors.
- Green crimes: that damage the environment, such as illegal dumping of toxic waste in Third World countries.
- The drugs trade: worth an estimated $300-$400 billion annually at street prices.
- Money laundering: of the profits from organised crime, estimated at up to $1.5 trillion per year.
Which countries make up the demand side of the global criminal economy?
The rich West.
Use an example to highlight how the supply side of global crime is linked to the globalisation process.
Third world drugs-producing countries (e.g Colombia, Peru + Afghanistan) - large populations of impoverished peasants. For these groups, drug cultivation is an attractive option that requires little investment in technology and commands high prices compared with traditional crops.
Use an example to explain what is meant by ‘risk consciousness’.
Risk is seen as global rather than tied to particular places.
Example: increased movement of people, as economic migrants seeking work, has given rise to anxieties among populations in Western countries about risks of crime and disorder and needs to protect their borders.
What is the role of the media in creating fears?
Media often give an exaggerated view of the dangers.
E.g moral panics about immigration: Negative coverage of immigrants (fueled by politicians) - portrayed as terrorists or scroungers ‘flooding’ the country - led to hate crimes against minorities worldwide.
What has been the result of risk consciousness of immigration in the UK and Europe?
UK:
- Toughened border control regulations e.g fining airlines if they bring in undocumented passengers.
- No legal limits on how long a person may be held in immigration detection.
Europe (w/ land borders):
- Intro fences, CCTV and thermal imaging devices to prevent illegal crossing.
According to Taylor, how has globalisation led to changes in the patterns and extent of crime?
By giving free reign to market forces, globalisation has created greater inequality and rising crime.
Briefly explain how globalisation changes patterns of work.
Allowed transnational corporations to switch manufacturing to low-wage countries, producing job insecurity, unemployment and poverty.
What is the impact of marketisation on lifestyles?
Encouraged people to see themselves as individual consumers, calculating the personal costs and benefits of each action, undermining social cohesion.
Briefly explain how the impacts of globalisation encourage the poor to turn to crime.
Lack of legitimate job opportunities destroys self-respect and drives the unemployed to look for illegitimate ones.
For example, in LA, deindustrialisation has led to the growth of drugs gangs numbering 10,000 members.
Briefly explain how globalisation creates opportunities for crime for elite groups.
Deregulation of financial markets has created opportunities for insider trading and the movement of funds around the globe to avoid taxation.
Briefly outline one criticism of Taylor’s perspective on globalisation and crime.
It doesn’t adequately explain how the changes make people behave in criminal ways. For example, not all poor people turn to crime.
Briefly explain how the IMF and the World Bank contribute to what Rothe and Friedrich call ‘crimes of globalisation’.
- They impose pro-capitalist, neoliberal economic ‘structural adjustment programmes’ on poor countries as a condition for the loans they provide.
- These programmes often require governments to cut spending on health and education, privatise publicly-owned services etc
According to Cain, how do the IMF and World Bank cause widespread social harms?
They act as a ‘global state’ and, while they may not break any laws, their actions can cause widespread social harms both directly and indirectly.
According to Hobbs and Dunningham, how is crime organised and how does this link to changes brought about by globalisation?
It involves individuals with contacts acting as a ‘hub’ around which a loose knit network forms, composed of other individuals seeking opportunities, and often linking legitimate and illegitimate activities.
Hobbs and Dunnimgham argues this contrasts with the large-scale, hierarchal ‘Mafia’-style criminal organisations of the past.
Briefly explain what Hobbs and Dunningham mean by crime being a ‘glocal’ system.
Locally based, but with global collections.
Which organisations does Glenny refer to as McMafia?
This refers to the organisations that emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism - itself a major factor in the process of globalisation.
According to Glenny, what are the origins of transnational organised crime?
The break-up of the Soviet Union after 1989, which coincided with the deregulation of global markets.
Briefly explain how the collapse of communism enabled Russian ‘oligarchs’ to emerge.
Following the fall of communism, the Russian government deregulated most sectors of the economy except for natural resources (e.g oil). These commodities remained at their old Soviet prices. Thus anyone with access to funds could buy up oil, gas, diamonds etc for next to nothing. Seeling them abroad at an astronomical profit, these individuals became Russia’s new capitalist class: the -oligarchs’.
Why did Russia’s capitalists need help from mafias?
The collapse of the communist state heralded a period of increasing disorder.
To protect their wealth capitalists therefore turned to the ‘mafias’ that had begun to spring up.
Define green crime.
Crime against the environment.
How can green crime be linked to globalisation? Give an example.
Regardless of the division of the world into separate nation-states, the planet is a single eco-system, and threats to the eco-system are increasingly global rather than merely local in nature.
Ex: atmospheric pollution from industry in one country can turn into acid rain that falls in another.
Briefly explain what Beck means by manufractured risks.
Dangers that we have never faced before.
Use the example of Mozambique to explain the global nature of human-made risk.
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Briefly explain how traditional criminology would view green crimes.
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Give a criticism of traditional criminology in relation to green crimes.
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According to White, what is the proper subject of criminology?
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