Crime and Globalisation

Crime and Globalisation

Globalisation:

• Interconnectedness
• Hall et al defines it as:
• The widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of life, from the cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritual
• Cause?
• Spread of new information and communication technologies (ICT)
• Global mass media
• Cheap air travel
• Deregulation of financial and other markets’ competitiveness and free movement.

The Global Criminal Economy

• An increasing interconnectedness of crimes means it goes beyond borders.
• This paves the way for transnational organised crime.
• Globalisation creates new opportunities for crime, new means and new offences such as cyber crime.

Costells (1998):

Argues the global criminal economy is now worth £1 trillion per annum. Takes the form of:

• Arms trafficking to illegal regimes, guerilla groups and terrorists.
• Nuclear trafficking especially from the former communist countries.
• Smuggling illegal immigrants eg. Chinese triads make an estimated $2.5 billion annually.
• Trafficking women and children into slavery or prostitution (half a million annually into Western Europe).
• Sex tourism - westerners travelling to third world countries for sex, sometimes with minors.
• Trafficking body parts for organ transplants, an estimated 2,000 organs annually are taken from executed criminals in China.
• Cyber crimes such as identity theft.
• Green crimes such as dumping toxic waste.
• International terrorism on the ideological internet.
• Smuggling legal goods eg. alcohol and tobacco.
• Trafficking cultural artefacts
• Trafficking endangered species
• Drugs trade (est. $300-400 billion annually)
• Money laundering (est. $1.5 trillion per year)

Has both a demand side and a supply side

• The largest demand comes from the rich West.
• The supply is a result of globalisation.
• Third world drug-producing countries like Colombia have a large population of impoverished peasants.
• Drug cultivation is an attractive option as there is little technology and commands high prices compared to traditional crops.
• In Colombia, est. 20% of the population depends on cocaine production for the livelihood and outsells all outer exports combined.
• To study drug crime, you must look at both who is consuming (the rich) and who is selling (the poor)

Globalisation, Capitalism and Crime

Taylor (1997)

• Argues that globalisation has led to changes in the pattern and extent of crime.

• By giving free rein to market forces, globalisation has created greater inequality and rising crime.

• Globalisation has created crime at both ends of the spectrum - the rich exploit by using low-wage countries as manufacturers and deregulation means that governments have little control over these companies.

• Left realists note that increasingly materialistic cultures promoted by global media portray success in consumption - we don’t think where our products come from.

• The insecurity that exists encourages people, especially the poor, to crime.

• The lack of legitimate job opportunities destroys self respect and drives people to illegitimate means such as drug trading or child workers.

• In Los Angeles, de-industrialisation has led to a growth of nearly 10,000 drug gangs.

• Taylor’s theory is useful in linking global trends to the capitalist economy, however does not explain how these changes in the world make people behave in criminal ways e.g. not all poor people turn to crime.

Rothe and Friedrichs (2015): Crimes of Globalisation

• Examine the role of international financial organisations such as the World Bank.

• These organisations are dominated by the major capitalist states e.g. The World Bank has 188 member countries, yet just 5 (USA, Japan, Germany, Britain and France) hold over a third of the voting rights.

• They argue that these bodies impose pro-capitalist, neoliberal economic programmes on poor countries for loans they provide.

• This creates conditions for crime.

Rothe et al (2008) show how the programme imposed on Rwanda in the 80s caused mass unemployment and crated the economic bases for the 1994 genocide.

Cain (2010) suggests that in some ways, the World Bank acts as a ‘global state’ and their actions cause social harms both directly (cutting welfare spending) and indirectly like in Rwanda.

Patterns of Criminal Organisation

Hobbs and Dunningham: Glocalisation

• Found that the way crime is organised is linked to the economic changes brought by globalisation 

• Involves individuals with contacts acting as a ‘hub’ around a loose-knit network forms composed of other individuals seeking opportunities 

• This is in contrast to ‘mafia’ style criminal organisations such as the Kray brothers

• These organisations can have international links but the crime is rooted in a local context e.g. getting drugs from abroad and selling it at home

• This glocal system is influenced by global facts i.e. drug availability 

• This shifts the pattern of crime from old hierarchical gang structure to loose entrepreneurial criminals

• These two systems can also co-exist but are not generalisable and may not be new but now more evident 

Glenny (2008) - McMafia

• Refers to the organisations that emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism  - a major factor in globalisation.

• Traces the origins of transnational organised crime to the breakup of the Soviet Union after 1989 coinciding with deregulation of global markets.

• Commodities such as oil remained at old Soviet prices, so only those with access to funds (KGB generals) could buy up oil, diamonds and metals for next to nothing - then selling them abroad at a higher profit.

• This led to Russia’s new capitalist class - the oligarchs

• Meanwhile, the collapse of communism led to disorder and unrest, so to protect their wealth they asked help from the mafia, notoriously the Chehcen mafia.

• These were led by self-interest and power unlike other mafias, and protected the new billionaires.