session #8 international crime

Question 1

Conclusion

Answer 1

• There are multiple definitions of transnational organized crime, but it can broadly be understood as ”the continuation of business by other means”
• The growth of transnational organized crime is related to the globalized liberalisation of trade
• The smuggling of drugs, people and small arms make much of the business of TOC, but the trafficking is diverse: alcohol, cigarettes, diamonds and antiques
• TOC can weaken domestic sovereignty; take advantage of international sovereignty and sometimes take over state sovereignty.

Question 2

What is TOC?

Answer 2

Transnational Organized Crime - competing definitions

UN
‘‘any criminal activity that is conducted in more than one state, planned in one state but perpretrated in another, or committed in one state where there are spill-over effects into neighbouring jurisdictions’’

• interesting: you need a law to have crime

definition in terms of practices: long list of categories (e.g. money laundering, fraud, computer crime, terrorism, piracy, hijacking)

most of these also have a legal version

'’The continuation of business by other means’’

Question 3

The rise of TOC

Answer 3

• economic and political liberalization since the 1960s (West)
• democratization since the 1980s and the 1990s (East and South) = possible expansion of TOC
• technological development of communication and transportation (e.g. bitcoin, online money, digital goods) = parallel with regular business (TOC grew with legal eco. activities)

markets are necessary for TOC: you need to be able to sell, to make money (authoritarian regimes aren’t the best/easiest markets)

Question 4

the role of liberalization

Answer 4

free trade agreements (e.g. EU, NAFTA)

crossing borders is made easier -> more TOC, illegal trafficking possible

Question 5

typology of organized criminal structures
3 types

Answer 5

We immediately think about centralized structures with hierarchies
- usually we have the image of Italian structure, as that is the one that spread to the US (NY) and thus became the basis for the movies
- usually, this structure = boss -> consligliere (advisor) -> underbosses -> caporegime -> soldiers -> associates (not really officially part of the organization)

literature: hierarchical structure isn’t really how it always works anymore

two new types of structures:

• networked structures (goal to be stronger by combining strengts)
• ad-hoc structures (people come together for one specific operation, it is a temporary association rather than an established network)

Question 6

what do TOC do?

Answer 6

big three: drugs, people, small arms

other activities: alcohol, cigarettes, diamonds and antiques
- products with high taxes are interesting to smuggle (market for cheaper product)
- antiques mostly after war in Iraq and Syria

*exploitation: sexual, begging, forced labor

Question 7

Europe

Answer 7

increasingly important market (for drugs)

Netherlands important role in both production and distribution (it’s a hub)

Question 8

What is the relation between sovereignty and TOC?

Answer 8

• weakening state domestic sovereignty
• manipulating international sovereignty
• taking over the state

Question 9

domestic sovereignty

Answer 9

actual control over a state exercised by an authority organized within is state

Question 10

interdependence sovereignty

Answer 10

actual control of movement across state’s borders, assuming the borders exist

• e.g. important for possibility of smuggling

Question 11

international legal sovereignty

Answer 11

formal recognition by other sovereign state

this also implies Westphalian sovereignty

Question 12

Westphalian sovereignty

Answer 12

lack of other authority over state other than the domestic authority

• every sovereign state can decide how it handels TOC

Question 13

weakening domestic sovereignty

Answer 13

• criminal justice
• social welfare (recruit amongst poorest)
• business regulation (corruption: influence public officials that would hold licences)
• border control
• electoral politics

Question 14

TOC taking advantage of international sovereignty

Answer 14

• host states
• transshipment states (most trade goes through land crossing multiple countries: corrupting local officials of transshipment states makes you protected)
• service states (TOC put money in bonds and stocks of tax havens)

extradition is the biggest fear of international criminals: they lose all the power they have in their own countries
- not having an extradition agreement can be a big advantage for TOC

Question 15

taking over the state

Answer 15

organizations can become so large and entranched in society that they can take over the state

taking control: captured states
difficult to say to say that the state and the TOC are not one and the same

• e.g. cold war Japan, Italy, Mexico now

state-making as successful organized crime (what organized crime does is kindof the same or helping the state: promise of protection + levying of taxes)
- Charles Tilly: development of states is not so different from TOC, only difference is in the name of things + e.g. with democratic states it is not really the same (it is mostly about the principles of the state)