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GLOBALISATION - CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY - Coggle Diagram
GLOBALISATION - CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
globalisation
- HELD defines it as "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"
THE GLOBAL CRIMINAL ECONOMY
Transnational organised crime
(TOC) or Dark Figure of Crime - organised crime coordinated across national borders, involving groups or networks of individuals working in more than one country to plan and execute criminal activity
TOC acts like a business - it has a supply and demand aspect
TOC's have been enabled by global criminal networks
global criminal networks - involve complex interconnections between a range of criminal networks which transcend national boundaries - including American Mafia, Columbian drug Cartels, Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads + Sicilian Costa Nostra
they have developed because of the growth of an Information Age in which knowledge as well as goods and people can move quickly and easily across national boundaries
Misha Glenny - these networks form a global criminal economy which counts for 15% of global trade - in order of importance (in economic terms) the main crimes organised criminal gangs engage in are drug trafficking, money laundering, people trafficking
Castells
- argues there is now a global criminal economy worth over one trillion per year
EXAMPLES OF TOC
arms trafficking
trafficking in nuclear materials
smuggling of illegal immigrants
trafficking of men and women - prostitution and slavery
sex tourism - lots in Thailand
body parts trafficking
cyber crimes
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
the illegal movement and smuggling of people for a variety of purposes; organ trafficking, prostitution, forced labour/slavery
national crime agency in 2014 estimated there were as many as 13,000 people in Britain who were victims of slavery, prostitution and domestic staff
CASE: Uk prostitution of Nigerian politician for organ harvesting plot
May 2023, a landmark prosecution took place at the Old Bailey in London when Ike Ekweremadu (former Nigerian senator) his wife and a doctor were convicted of conspiring to traffic a young man from Lagos to the UK to harvest his kidney
MODERN DAY SLAVERY
the illegal exploitation of people for personal or commercial gain
covers a wide range of abuse and exploitation including sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced labour, criminal exploitation and organ harvesting
victims of modern slavery can be nay age, gender, nationality and ethnicity
they are tricked or threatened into work and may feel unable to leave or report the crime through fear or intimidation
they may not recognise themselves as a victim
MONEY LAUNDERING
is concerned with making money obtained illegally look like it came from legal sources
Castell
- calls this the
'matrix of global crime'
because criminals, like drug-dealers and human-traffickers dealing with large amounts of cash, which they need to 'launder' to avoid their criminal activities from coming to the attention of law-enforcement agencies
the deregulation of global financial markets, banking secrecy and technology make it possible to launder 'dirty money' through complex financial transactions involving almost instantaneous repeated electronic movement of vast sums around the world
this makes it very difficult for law-enforcement agencies to track the sources of money and hard to identify which country is responsible for law-enforcement
CYBER CRIME
refers to a wide range of criminal acts committed with the help of communication and information technology, predominantly the internet
one of the fastest growing criminal activities in the world, they are global (have links outside the country)
Detica
- estimates financial cybercrimes cost the Uk £27 billion each year
POSTMODERNIST VIEWS ON TOC
globalisation creates new insecurities and produces a new mentality of 'risk consciousness' in which risk is seen as global than tied to a particular context
e.g. the increased movement of people has given rise in the West about a need to 'protect the borders'
leads to intensification of social control at a national level (tightened border control)
6 MAIN ASPECTS OF LIVING IN A MORE GLOBALISED WORLD ON LEVELS OF CRIME
1)
risk consciousness has been developed
(postmodernist)
Beck
- global crime has given rise to a new set of anxieties or a 'risk consciousness' or 'global risk consciousness'
in the past, risk of becoming a victim of crime was thought to lie in our local environment, now we are at risk of crime originating from 0000s of miles away - global terrorism
beck - more people can easily move from country to country and has led to lots of migrants wanting to find work and an increase in terrorist attacks around the world - created risk consciousness (encouraged by the media, moral panic)
2)
problems with policing
due to crimes becoming transnational it requires coorperation between many different law enforcement agencies to bring the criminals to justice
what may be illegal in one country may not in another - can be difficult to determine jurisdiction
3)
greater inequality led to crime - marxist + left realist
Taylor - globalisation has created inequality and higher rates of poverty
it has allowed capitalism to create more crime by exploiting workers abroad and creating fraud on larger scale
western countries, manufacturing products abroad has led to lack of jobs and opportunities for WC, leads them to crime
also argues globalisation has made it easier for elite groups and transnational corporations to move funds and profit around the world to avoid paying taxes
LR,
lea + young
- global media promotes a lifestyle that is very materialistic + leads to more people to commit crime as they live in relative deprivation
4)
old style mafia criminal networks + now have a global media or McMafia
Glenny - have a global organised crime network like a business that has a producer, distributer and consumer - like mafia but on a global scale
new style of mafie acts like a global criminal business network
5)
glocal crime networks have developed due to deindustrialisation
Winlow - studied bouncers in Sunderland and found that as cities in the Uk now source hard labour production to other counties rather than the UK, due to increased globalisation the UK has become deindustrialised
globalisation has led to a lack of jobs, leading to men to turn to local crime
Hobbs and Cunningham - criticise Glenny, believe although crime does go global, the network for crime is still very local
6)
disorganised capitalism
Lash and Urry - now we live in a globalised world there is increased deregulation and fewer state controls over business and finance which means that there is a greater opportunity fr crime to happen as it is harder to keep track - called disorganised capitalism
corporations now act transnationally moving money, manufacturing, waste disposal and staff around the world to increase profits and lower regulation