Globalisation On Crime Flashcards
Globalisation and crime / Green Crime / State Crime / Media and Crime
What is the process that globalisation follows?
Globalisation follows a process of deterritorialisation.
- An increasing number of social, political and economic activities no longer occur in one country, but are transnational.
What are the four ways globalisation has affected crime?
1) Amount: increased the amount of crime globally
2) Types: led to new types of crimes
3) Criminals: changed the way criminal groups operate
4) Detection/Prevention: made detection of crime more difficult
What does Castells argue about the nature and extent of global crime?
CASTELLS:
- Globalisation has led to a global criminal economy, meaning new opportunities and types of crime emerge.
- This economy is worth over £1 trillion per year.
It includes:
1.) The international illegal drug trade
2.) Human Trafficking
3.) Money-laundering
4.) Cybercrime
What is the international illegal drug trade according to Castells?
- In 2007, it was estimated the trade was worth $322 billion/year.
- The Home Office estimates that up to half of crime linked to theft is drug-related.
What is Human-Trafficking according to Castells?
- This is the illegal movement/smuggling of people, for a variety of purposes, e.g. removal of organs, prostitution, forced labour, illegal immigration.
- National Crime Agency (2014) estimated there were as many as 13,000 people in Britain who
were victims of this.
What is Money Laundering according to Castells?
- Making money obtained illegally look like it came from legal sources.
- Castells calls this the matrix of global crime because criminals such as drug-dealers deal
with large amounts of cash which they need to launder to avoid their crimes being noticed. - This has been made easier via deregulation of global financial markets (reducing government
regulation of banks etc); banking secrecy; and modern communication (internet banking).
What is Cybercrime according to Castells?
- Refers to a wide range of criminal acts committed with the help of computers, predominantly the internet.
- Jewkes argues the internet creates opportunities to commit crimes in new ways, e.g. fraud, but also opportunities for new crimes, e.g. software piracy.
Wall identifies four categories of cybercrime:
1) Cyber-trespass: crossing boundaries into others’ cyber-property, e.g. hacking.
2) Cyber-deception and theft: e.g. identity theft, piracy.
3) Cyber-pornography: including pornography involving minors and opportunities for
minors to access pornography on the internet.
4) Cyber-violence: doing psychological or inciting physical harm, e.g. encouraging hate crimes.
What is transnational organised crime?
CASTELLS:
- Globalisation has created transnational networks of organised crime, operated in many countries —> employing millions of people, working in collusion with corrupt state officials and legitimate businesses.
What are the two main forms of global criminal networks according to Farr?
1.) Established Mafias: long established groups organised around the family and ethnic characteristics. E.g. the Italian-American mafia, Chinese Triads.
2.) Newer organised crime groups: emerged due to globalisation and the collapse of communist regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe. E.g. The Russian Mafia and the Colombian drug cartels.
What is the McMafia?
GLENNY:
- The McMafia is used to describe the way transnational organised crime mirrors the activities of transnational corporations like McDonalds. —> Most refers to the newer organised crime groups.
How did the McMafias establish?
- After the collapse of communism and the state in Russia and Eastern Europe, a new capitalist class emerged which needed security. - This was provided by ex-convicts and ex-government security service personnel, who had formed new mafias.
- However, these mafias were purely economic and formed on the basis of self-interest, unlike
the established mafias. - They soon began to ‘franchise’ their operations to other groups who were able to use the name of the mafia as long as they maintained the ‘brand’, just like the
franchising of a McDonalds. - These new mafias also began to link with other established mafias in other parts of the world.
What is the evaluation of the McMafia?
HOBBS:
- Argues that criminal networks and gangs are not very organised at all.
- He argues most criminals take part in crime as part of their everyday activities and therefore
aren’t quite as organised as the term ‘organised crime’ would imply.
What is glocalism?
HOBBS:
- Glocal is used to describe the interconnectivity between local and global criminals.
- Meaning the form that glocal crime takes will differ between different local areas, as it is affected by local conditions.
What are the 7 ways how globalisation has affected crime?
1.) Reduced regulation of the financial sector
2.) Led to increased inequality
3.) Created supply and demand for illegal products
4.) Led to more opportunities for crime
5.) Spread of consumerism
6.) Led to growing individualisation
7.) Caused a global risk society
How does globalisation leading to a reduced regulation of the financial sector affect crime?
LASH AND URRY:
- Argue globalisation has been accompanied by less regulation and fewer state controls over businesses & finance.
- Governments now have less control and oversight over the financial sector —> disorganised capitalism.
How has globalisation reducing the regulation of the financial sector affected crime?
- Enabled people to commit crimes with less chance of being caught e.g. tax avoidance, money laundering.
- Easier for transnational corporations to move production to countries where health and safety and environmental regulations are less strict or not enforced.
- These corporations can then more easily commit corporate crimes.
How has globalisation increasing inequality led to crime?
TAYLOR:
- Suggests the winners from globalisation are the transnational corporations and investors in western nations, whilst the losers are workers in developed and developing nations. As a result, workers may be encouraged to turn to crime, especially in LEDCs.
ROTHE AND FRIEDRICHS:
- Look at how international financial organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank can be involved in crimes of globalisation.
- Organisations like the IMF and World Bank provide loans to developing nations. As part of the conditions for these loans they often require these nations’ governments to cut spending on health and education and to privatise services, such as water supplies.
- This enables Western corporations to expand into these countries but also creates conditions for crime. Rothe et al showed how this created mass unemployment in Rwanda which contributed towards the Rwandan genocide.
How has globalisation creating supply and demand for illegal products affected crime?
- In affluent countries demand for illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine provides means of making a profit for those in poorer nations.
Supply is met by poverty-
stricken farmers in countries like Columbia and Afghanistan who grow the raw ingredients for these drugs. This is an example of innovation as a result of strain.
–> There is also demand amongst people in poorer nations to emigrate to the
developed nations. However, richer countries have made immigration more difficult
which has created a market for human-trafficking. Many illegal immigrants are in debt to smuggling gangs, leading to slavery/prostitution to repay their debts.
How has globalisation leading to more opportunities for crime affected crime?
- Development of technology as a result of globalisation has led to:
–> New types of crime, e.g. cybercrime.
–> New ways of carrying out crime, e.g. fraud can be committed via the internet
and the dark web as it is quicker and more anonymous. Money laundering and tax avoidance may be easier due to internet banking.
How has globalisation spreading consumerism affected crime?
- Mass tourism, migration and the influence of media has spread a similar culture and ideology of consumerism across the globe via a shared global culture.
- Both developed and developing countries are exposed to this ideology which transmit the idea that the key to happiness is consumer goods etc. This fuels crime for people who cannot achieve these through legal means, usually those in developing nations.
How has globalisation leading to growing individualism affected crime?
BAUMAN:
- Argues that there is growing individualisation due to globalisation.
- People increasingly rely on themselves to improve their lives, instead of the government. This means they are less concerned with the impact of their behaviour on others or wider society and will choose actions that bring the highest rewards for themselves.
How has globalisation causing a global risk society affected crime?
- Globalisation adds to the insecurity and uncertainty of life and generates what BECK calls a global risk society.
- People live their lives in a constant state of risk and uncertainty.
- This is because globalisation has increased risks of unemployment, crime, terrorism etc.
- The causes of these risks are often global and located in other nations. –> This means it is hard to identify who is responsible for these risks. The media play on these fears with sensationalised and inaccurate reporting which creates moral panics. This can lead to hate crimes.
What is the criticisms of the study of crime and globalisation?
- Studying global crime is difficult because it is secretive, dangerous and difficult to
access. –> This means sociologists have to rely on a small number of secondary
sources and case studies. –> These therefore can lack representativeness and
reliability. - It is difficult to study across different nations as different societies will record different crimes in different ways.
- It could be argued that the development of surveillance technology as part of globalisation, has actually led to ways to reduce crime.
What is green crime?
- Crime against the environment
- Links to globalisation because the environment threats are environmental threats are global and affect everyone.
How does green or environmental crime link with Beck’s global risk society?
- Many of the risks we face globally involve harm to the environment and its consequences for humanity, e.g. global warming. In addition, many of these risks have come about as a result of technology, e.g. cars.
What is the traditional definition of green crime?
- Wolf points out that the term green crime (also known as environmental crime and ecocrime) was traditionally used to describe actions that break laws protecting the environment.
What are the problems with the traditional definition of green crime?
- The same actions may be defined as illegal in some countries but not in others
because different countries have different laws.
What is the transgressive definition to green crime?
- White adopts a transgressive approach and considers green crime to be any human action that causes environmental harm, whether or not it is illegal.
- This is sometimes referred to as an environmental justice approach.
What do green criminologists argue about environmental harms?
- White adopts a transgressive approach and considers green crime to be any human action that causes environmental harm, whether or not it is illegal.
- This is sometimes referred to as an environmental justice approach.
What are the two types of environmental harms?
WHITE:
1) Anthropocentric view: this assumes humans have a right to dominate nature and puts economic growth before the environment.
2) Ecocentric view: this sees humans and the environment as interdependent and harms to the environment, hurts humans also. This is the view of green criminologists.
What is agenda setting?
- Many of the issues that people think about and discuss are based on the list of subjects (agenda) that media reports tell them about.
- People can only discuss and form opinions based on what they have been informed about: done through mainstream mass media.
- The media can’t report every criminal or deviant act that occurs –> very selective in what they report.
- People’s perceptions of crime and deviance in society are therefore influenced by what the media choose to report.
What are news values?
GREER AND REINER:
- In news, documentaries and fiction, stories of sexual and violent crimes are the ones that capture the popular imagination.
- The media are always seeking a newsworthy story of crime and deviance and they exploit the possibilities for a ‘good story’ by exaggerating, over-reporting and sensationalising some crimes. This is done to attract audiences.
What does Reiner suggest about news values?
- Reiner suggests that media coverage of crime and deviance is filtered through the values and assumptions of film script writers and journalists about what makes a story ‘newsworthy’.
- These are stories that are exciting, interesting and that media audiences want to know about.
- These values and assumptions are known as news values.
What is the backwards law?
- Surette suggests there is a backwards law with the media constructing images of crime and justice which are an opposite or backwards version of reality.
What does Greer suggest about the backwards law?
- Suggests it is shown by news and crime fiction in the following ways:
—> Over-representing and exaggerating sex, drug and violent crimes.
—> Under-representing the risks of the most common offence of property crime.
—> Over-exaggerating police effectiveness in clearing-up crimes.
—> Exaggerating risks of becoming victims faced by higher status white people, elderly, women and children.
—> Emphasising individual incidents of crime, rather than providing any understanding of crime patterns or causes of crime.
What is the hyperreality of crime?
- The backwards law, combined with agenda setting and news values, means the media socially construct a distorted view of crime and the CJS and increase the publics’ fear of crime.
- This illustrates Baudrillard’s idea of hyperreality which suggests the media do not reflect reality but actively create it.
- An example of this is that between 1995 and 2010, crime had been falling or steady, however three quarters of the population thought it was increasing.
What is the media as moral entrepreneurs?
- The media act as moral entrepreneurs by labelling or stereotyping certain groups and activities as deviant and as social problems, suggesting they are a threat to society which should be condemned.
- Media stories can demonise some groups as folk devils and sensitise the public to an extent
that it is encouraged to support action against them. One way this is done is through the
creation of moral panics.
What do McRobbie and Thornton suggest about the concept of moral panics today?
- Outdated in the age of New Media
- New media technology, the sophistication of media audiences in a media-saturated society, 24/7 news and competition between media organisations have changed the reporting and reaction to events that might have once caused a moral panic.
What do pluralists and postmodernists argue about moral panics?
- There is such a huge diversity of media reports and interpretations of events through citizen journalism and social media that people are a lot more sceptical of mainstream media reports and are less likely to believe them.
- This makes it difficult for the media to define issues or events in a way that can develop into a moral panic.
What does Hunt suggest about moral panics?
- Suggests boundaries separating moral and immoral behaviour have become blurred while Beck argues in contemporary ‘risk society’ there are many risks and uncertainties so many things that used to generate moral panics are now part of normal daily life.
What does Hall suggest about moral panics?
- Dismisses the whole concept of moral panics.
- He argues that the media do sensationalise specific crimes which can cause public concern but the media then overexaggerate the ability of the CJS to solve these crimes. Therefore, public concern is generated only to be soothed by the media, which creates complacency not panic.
- Hall argues there are rational concerns about real crimes, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Therefore people’s concerns about crime are not media generated but are genuine and sociologists shouldn’t deny this.
- Hall argues the concept of moral panics is simply an ideological construction by liberal sociologists who dismiss peoples’ anxieties as a product of the media to avoid people demanding more action and repression by the state.
What are the ways the media can cause crime?
1.) Moral Panics and Deviancy Amplification
2.) Bulimic Society
3.) The Mediascape
4.) The commodification of crime
5.) Cybercrime
6.) Knowledge and learning of criminal techniques
7.) Reduction of social controls over crime
8.) Providing targets for crime
9.) Fear of crime
What is the Bhopal 1984 disaster?
- 1984 disaster, Bhopal, India
- Example of traditional criminological and environmental justice approaches
- Union Carbide leaked poisonous gas —> affected half a million of people
- 2012: approx 25,000 deaths, 120,000 still suffering severe symptoms
- Traditional criminological approach suggests the disaster arose as the Union Carbide broke local health and safety laws.
- The Environmental justice approach suggests Union Carbide deliberately located plants in countries where health and safety laws were weak.
What is the Deepwater Horizon disaster?
- Explosions at BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico
- Gulf of Mexico, 2010
- Led to the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the oil industry.
- Caused deaths of 11 people
- Caused extensive damage to the marine and wildlife habitats, and the Gulf’s fishing and tourism industries.
What is the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal?
- 2015
- 11 million vehicles illegally fitted with a defeat device: aimed for cheating emissions tests, breaching environmental regulations —> responsible for 1m tonnes of extra air pollution each year.
What are the four types of primary green crimes?
1.) Air Pollution: burning fossil fuels adds 6 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year.
2.) Deforestation: between 1960-1990, one fifth of the world’s tropical rainforest was destroyed.
3 .) Species decline and Animal abuse: 50 species a day are becoming extinct.
4.) Water Pollution: 25 million people a year die from drinking contaminated water.
What are the two types of secondary green crimes?
1.) State violence against oppositional groups: e.g. 1985, French secret service blew up the Greenpeace ship ‘Rainbow Warrior’, this killing one crew member —> there to prevent French nuclear weapons testing.
2.) Hazardous waste and organised crime: disposal of toxic waste is highly profitable —> high costs of safe and legal disposal leads to businesses disposing of waste illegally.
Who commits green crime?
Wolf:
1.) Individuals - fly tipping
2.) Private business organisations - land, air, water pollution
3.) States and governments - military largest institutional polluter
4.) Organised crime - linked with government and business organisations
What are the victims of green crime?
POTTER:
- Social inequalities are reinforced by environmental harms, the least powerful e.g. working class, ethnic minorities, are the most likely victims in both the developed and developing worlds. —> Known as environmental racism: those suffering the worst effects are of a different ethnicity than those causing the damage.
- People in developing world —> greater risks of being victims of green crime
- Working class in developed worlds —> greater risks of being victims of green crime
What is enforcement action?
- Governments responsible for creating and enforcing laws.
- However, they often form policies in collaboration with businesses who are likely to be the main offenders.
What does Snider suggest about enforcement action?
SNIDER:
- States reluctant to pass laws and regulations against environmental harm by private businesses —> only do so if there is public outcry or an environmental crisis —> ensures profits aren’t threatened and investors aren’t frightened off.
What does Sutherland suggest about enforcement action?
SUTHERLAND:
- Environmental crimes do not carry the same stigma as conventional crimes.
- Multinational corporations have the means and resources to avoid being labelled as a criminal.
- As a consequence, laws may only be enforced through fines.
—> Delabelling
How is green crime explained according to White?
WHITE:
- Green crime occurs because transnational corporations and nation states tend to ho,d a broadly anthropocentric view of the world.
- Suggests the most important consideration for nations is economic development and growth —> causes environmental crimes.
How is green crimes explained according to Wolf?
- Green crime is motivated by many of the same factors as ordinary crimes, such as choice, strain and control.
What are state crimes according to Green and Ward?
- Green and Ward describe state crimes as illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies to further state policies.
What are the two reasons state crime can be seen as the most serious forms of crime?
1) The scale of state crime: because the state has enormous power it can inflict harm on a huge scale, e.g. Green and Ward say 262 million people were murdered by governments during the 20 the century.
2) The state is the source of law: this means it can conceal its crimes, avoid punishment for them and avoid defining its own actions as criminal.
What are the 5 problems with defining state crimes?
1.) Domestic law
2.) Social harms
3.) Labelling
4.) International law
5.) Human rights
Why is domestic law a problem with defining state crimes?
- Chambliss defines state crimes as acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials as part of their jobs as representatives of the state.
- Ignores the fact the state is the source of law within nations, and it defines what a crime is.
- Therefore it has the power to avoid defining its own acts as criminal. - E.g. the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany was permitted under law at the time.
- It also means what is a crime in one country, might not be in another, depending on the laws in each country.
Why is social harms a problem with defining state crimes?
- Michalowski –> state crimes include illegal acts and legal acts that have consequences which are as serious as illegal acts.
- Hillyard et al argues we should replace the study of crimes with zemiology (the study of harms, whether or not they’re against the law). This means harms could include poverty caused by state policies, e.g. cuts to welfare benefits.
–> Ensures states cannot deliberately write laws to avoid defining their own actions as criminal. It also can be applied in different countries with different laws.
Why is labelling a problem with defining state crimes?
- Argues that whether an act is considered a crime or not depends on whether the social audience for that act define it as a crime.
- Sees state crime as socially constructed and therefore what people recognise as state crime can change over time.
- It also avoids sociologists defining state crime according to their own values and not those of the participants (perpetrators, victims and audience).
Why is the international law a problem with defining state crimes?
- Rothe and Mullins define a state crime as any action by or on behalf of a state that violates
international law. - This is law which is created in treaties and agreements between states such as the Geneva and Hague Conventions on war crimes.
This doesn’t depend on a sociologists’ personal definitions or the social audience. - International law is also intended to deal with state crime.
However, international law is a social construction. Powerful nations won’t create international laws against actions that benefit them. - Also international law doesn’t really deal with state crimes such as corruption and instead focuses more on war crimes.
Why is human rights a problem with defining state crimes?
- These are natural rights that people have simply because they are human, e.g. the right to
life. They also include civil rights, e.g. the right to vote. - The Schwendingers argue we should define state crime as the violation of people’s basic human rights by the state or its agents.
- One advantage of this is that virtually all states care about their human rights image because these rights are global social norms.
- This is an example of transgressive criminology.
- However, there are disagreements about what counts as a human right. Some might not argue freedom from hunger is a human right.
- However, Green and Ward argue that rights such as liberty are not much use if people are too malnourished to exercise this right.
- Therefore states that deliberately starve sections of the population, e.g. Britain during the Irish famine in the 1800s, this is a denial of human rights.
What happened with the Rwandan Genocide?
- 1994
- Rwanda was a Belgian colony in 1922 and Belgians used the minority Tutsi to help them rule
over the Hutu majority. Hutus and Tutsi’s were the same ethnic groups, spoke the same
language and were more like social classes. However, the Belgian’s made them into ethnic
groups, issuing them with racial identity cards and educated the two groups separately. - Rwanda gained independence in 1962 and elections brought the majority Hutus to power.
- By the 1990s an economic and political crisis resulted in the government producing race hate
propaganda against the Tutsi’s in an attempt to cling onto power. - In 1994 the Hutu president’s plane was shot down and this triggered the genocide.
- In 100 days 800,000 Tutsi’s were slaughtered, as well as many moderate Hutus. This was legitimised with dehumanising labels describing Tutsis as cockroaches.
What is the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster?
- 1986
- This is an example of a state initiated corporate crime.
- This occurs when states initiate
corporate crimes. - In this case, negligent cost cutting decisions by NASA (a state agency) and the corporation Morton Thiokol led to the explosion that killed 7 astronauts shortly after take-off.
What type of state crime was the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Disaster classed as?
- This is an example of a state facilitated corporate crime.
- This occurs when states fail to
regulate corporate behaviour, making crime easier.
What are the two main types of war crimes?
1.) Illegal wars - Wars can only be declared by the UN Security Council, so many see the US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as illegal.
2.) Crimes committed during or after the war - Kramer and Michalowski: other crimes committed during the Iraq war, such as in Abu Ghraib prison, there were multiple instances of criminal abuses on prisoners but only 9 soldiers were convicted.
Also, terror bombing on civilians has become normalised —> After WWII, nuclear bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
