Globiliation, green crime and state crime Flashcards
Globalisation Introductory paragraph
Globalisation is the increasing interconnectedness of societies. Globalisation has occurred due to:
-Spread of communication technologies (ICT).
-Influence of the global mass media.
-Cheap air travel.
-Deregulation of financial and other markets.
Some said that this is a good thing ease of communication with millions of others. But sociologists are concerned with the impact this has on international crime
The global criminal economy (Paragraph 2)
Held Manuel Castells
-Held suggests there has been a globalisation of crime-an increasing interconnectedness of crime across national borders. Leading to the spread of transnational crime and creating new opportunities for crime such as cyber crime.
-Manuel Castells states there is a global; criminal economy worth over 1 trillion per year.
The global criminal economy (Paragraph 2)
Human Trafficking
Illegal movement and smuggling of people to
remove moving organs illegal transplants, exploitation of women and children, prostitution, other sexual sexual exploitation, forced labor/ domestic tasks, slavery, Illegal immigrations make people pay high cost to enter a country illegally
National Crime Agency in 2014 estimated 13000 people were victims of slavery
The global criminal economy (Paragraph 2)
Money- Laundering
Making money obtained illegally Cascal calls this. Matrix of global crimes because criminals like drug dealing and human trafficking deal with large amounts of cash which need to be laundered to avoid being found out The degradation of global finance market makes it possible to launch your dirty money. Difficult to law enforce.
New types of Crime as a result of
Globalisation (Paragraph 3)
Containerisation- Drugs, people, weapons,
counterfeit good. Difficult to police. Bribery of port officials leads to lots of crime being undetected
The Darknet- Hidden www in which users can gain access to encrypted websites pornography, drugs,
weapons, stolen identities
The Cybercrime- The internet enables criminals to
communicate across national borders. This leads to the development of new types of crime such as cyber crime. Cyber attacks on British companies costs £27b per year. Organised global crime networks focus on:
Identity theft and Fraud, Hacking, Child pornography
What are the problems studying
global crime (paragraph 4)
-Crime committed in one country may have its perpetrators located in another country. Making it hard to track down and police offenders
-What is considered illegal varies from one society to another like treatment of women and children. This makes it difficult to reach international agreements about human rights and law enforcement
How has globalisation affected
crime 4 ways (paragraph 5)
Disorganised capitalism– companies operate in global markets, move money, manufacturing and staff to where profits are higher & crimes are lower
Cultural globalisation – The media, tourism and migration has meant that consumerism has become global as everyone is not able to achieve the ‘good life’, some turn to the international drugs trade/human trafficking
Growing individualization – individuals left to find own solutions to globally produced problems: drug dealing and illegal human trafficking allows individuals to achieve success that they would not ordinarily have
Global risk society – Globalisation leads to a global risk society (Beck) People become risk conscious/fearful identity theft, climate change. The media fuels these risks by creating moral panics
How has globalisation impacted society? (paragraph 6)
Ian Taylor Marxist view
Ian Taylor- Marxist argues that globalisation has allowed capitalism to create more crime by exploiting
workers abroad and creating fraud on a larger scale.
Globalisation has led to increased profit for multi-national companies.
Exploitation of cheap labour/violation of health and safety laws
How has globalisation impacted society? (paragraph 6)
Loss of jobs
-Import goods from abroad because it’s cheaper (Steel, coal mining) Manufacturing industries move abroad.
Decline in traditional industries
-Mass unemployment Job losses has an impact on self esteem & psychological stability. Addiction becomes a coping mechanism
-Drugwise 306 000 heroin users in UK responsible for 50% of property crime
-Profits used to buy drugs produced by global criminal networks Job losses leads to poverty in the UK
-Former workers turn to crime in order to survive. We see an increase in working class crime
Marketisation and deregulation
Along with globalisation has come an increased freedom for bigger businesses. There are fewer government controls. This has led to more opportunities for corporate crimes such as tax evasion. This increases deprivation and the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Hobbs and Dunningham
Global drugs
-The trade of illegal drugs is globalised because smugglers operate across national boarders
Drugs are produced in developing countries
-Demand for these drugs is in developed countries UK
-Crime here is local individuals use local contacts opportunities to sell their drugs
-local criminal networks are connected to global organizations
-For example the local price os drugs depends on availability
-This is dependent on how easy drugs can be moved around the world.
Traditional Green Crime definition
Sociologists define environmental crime as “an unauthorised act or omission that violates law”
Rob White ‘any action that harms the physical environment and any creatures that live within it, even if no law has technically been broken’ There are opposing sociological views:
Eco-centric- Humans & environment not interdependent damage to the environment is damaging to other species and also puts the human race at risk in the future.
Anthropocentric- Humans have the right to exploit the environment and other species for their own benefit.
Types of Green Crime - Nigel South
Primary Crime
Secondary Crime
Direct result of the destruction and degradation of the planets resources. Air Pollution, Deforestation, Species Decline. Examples Bhopal – India (1984)
Crimes that involve breaking the rules which are put in place to prevent or regulate the environmental disasters. Hazardous waste and disposal of toxic chemical is expensive to do safely, so many businesses may do it illegally. Walters (2007) the ocean floor has been a radioactive rubbish dump for decades
Perpetrators of green crime?
Individuals- have a cumulative effect on the environment, acts may not have immediate impact but they soon add up to large impacts. littering/ fly tipping
Private businesses- Environmental crime is a typical form of Corporate crime. Large corporations responsible for majority of the water, air and land pollution due to waste dumping and health and safety breaches.
States and Governments- Santana points out that the military are the biggest institutional polluter through unexploded bombs and lasting effects of toxic chemicals.
Victims of green crime?
Potter- Current social divisions are reinforced by
environmental harm. Those in the developing world, poor and ethnic minorities are much more likely to be victims of environmental crime due to inability to move from the areas where toxic dumping takes place for example.
How is green crime linked to globalization?
Green crime is increasingly seen as a form of global
crime for two reasons:
-The planet is a single ecosystem.
-Green crime is carried out by powerful interests,
particularly transnational corporations
How do we combat green crime?
-Governments slow to react to environmental crime or to fund resources for fighting green crime often dealt with by Health & Safety Executive
-Green crime may not be seen as a priority by the public less visible
-Laws are ineffective in dealing with green crime cheaper to pay a fine not harsh enough
-Perpetrators are multinational corporations who can just move their business elsewhere, where laws are more lenient
Evaluation of green criminology
-It is very difficult to study green crime as there is not an agreed definition.
-It is also difficult to assess the impact of green crime as it can be a long term impact. Much of the research is based on case studies.
-globalisation and green crime are closed linked
-most green crime is commuted by private companies
-state/ government are unwilling to get involved. In some case green from done by sate themselves
State crime Definition- Green and Ward
‘illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by or with the complicity of the state agencies to future sate policies’
Sociology adopt a transgressive approach when defining sate crime a broader definition. No just look at breaking the law also involves violation of human rights
Examples of state crime
Russian targeting civilians 2020 during Ukraine invasion- bomming civillian areas, forcing deportation and filtration camps, attacks on medical facilities, starvation, banned weapons
Techniques of neutralisation-Cohen
Used to explain how states denys having committed serious breach to human rights. do this by neutralising crimes re-laballing them label them as regrettable but justifiable come up with neccarcary excuses and justification to explain actions to those actually carried out those acts/ other contrie who want to condem them
Cohen ‘Spiral of denial’
Dictatorship deny any human rights abuse, democratic state have to legitimize their actions in more complex ways. 3 stages, spiral of denial.
-Stage one, it didn’t happen. State claims no massacre but human rights organisation and media should they did it with here are the graves we have photos
-Stage 2 if it did happen it is something else defense not murder
-Stage 3 even if it was what you say it is it’s justifiable a fight against terrirism
Bauman
View Certain key features of modern society made the Holocaust possible.
Advision of labour- each person responsible for one small task. No one felt personally responsible.
Bureaucratisation- normalised killing by making it repetitive.
Institutional rationality- rational, effective method used to achieve goal regardless of what the goal is.
Science and technologies- things used to carry out actions railway, transport, gas chambers
Holocaust happened due to very existence of modern rationality, Bureaucracy, civilisation not breaking down civilization
Adorno et al WW
Soldiers in WW has authoritarian personality and a willingness to obey orders of superior without question due to disciplinarian, socialisation patterns commination at the time
