Globalisation and Crime Flashcards
What is globalisation of crime?
Refers to increasng interconnectedness of crime across international borders.
How has globalisation effected crime according to Castells?
There is now a global criminal economy worth >£1 trillion per year. This is a result of the demand for illegal goods and services such as drugs, etc. in MEDCs. The supply side of transnational crime in LEDCs where those goods are produced.
What is transnational crime?
Refers to crime that crosses international boundaries such as drug trafficking, people trafficking, smuggling of weapons, stolen art and cars, espionage and terrorrism.
What is transnational organised crime?
Refers to people coming together in a criminal enterprise to exploit illegal opportunities for economic gain. This group of people can come together as a hierarchal structure (e.g. the Mafia), but increasingly it is a flexible networ of many different people.
What is money laundering?
+example
Money made through illegal activity has to be ‘cleaned’ - made part of the legal money system. For example, one drug trafficking organisation set by a bureau de change to get £ transferred into $ with which to buy drugs in Colombia. They claimed the money was being exchanged by tourists going back to the US. Money laundering costs the global economy as much as $1.5 trillion annually.
What is arms trafficking?
+example
Arms trafficking includes the illegal sale of weapons to guerrilla gorup, terroists and dictatorial regimes not recognised by the UN. For example, during the civil war in Sierra Leone, rebel forces illegal brought guns from other countries in exchange for diamonds.
What is drug trafficking?
The drug trade was the 1st illegal sector to maximise its profits in a globalised world. Drugs grown in South American countries such as Colombia or in Asian countries such as Afganistan, make their way to the uk via well established routes. Many people in those countries rely on growing of the crops which produce drugs for their livelihoods. Globalisation has made drug trafficking much quickers and easier and detection is less likely. The potential for huge profts is huge ($400 billion per year) and human loss devastating (52,000 death in the USA annually).
What are adults trafficked for?
Prostitution and forced labour - e.g. working as servants in people’s homes. >1.2 million people are trafficked into Western Europe each year for prostitution and slavery. The removal of organs - for transplant into patients in western countries who pay for organs. Illegal immigrants - traffickers make money by charging people to help them get into a country, e.g. providing false documents, etc.
What are children trafficked for?
For prostitution, illegal adoption forced marriage. Traffickers use deception, coercion, fraud and abduction to force the victims into being trafficked.
What is cyber crime?
The fastest growing criminal activity in MEDCs. It covers a wide range of illegal activites such as financial scams, computer hacking, virus attacks, creating websites that promote racial and religious hatred, identity theft, etc. It has been made possible by the increasing reliance on computers in homes and businesses and by the spread of the internet. A new cyber crime is committed every 10 seconds in the UK - goes undected and unreported.
How has globalisation effected crime according to Taylor?
Globalisation has led to changes in the pattern and extent of crime. By giving free reing to market forces, globalisation has creater greater ineqaulity and rising crime.
How has globalisation effected w/c crime? (Taylor)
Globalisation has enabled large transnational corportations to relocate their factories to LEDCs where wages are lower. This has caused widespread unemployment and poverty among the w/c in MEDCs. At the same time people are being targeted by mass media with consumerist messages. This creates relative deprivation wich combined with material deprivation, causes crime.
How has globalisation effected m/c crime? (Taylor)
The unregulated global free market enables the elit to commit WCC+corporate crime. M/c commit crimes such as insider trading, tax evasion, fraudulent claims for subsides, etc.
What is the evalutation for Taylor’s theory on globalisation and crime?
+ Useful in linking global trens in the capitalist economy to changes in the pattern of crime.
- Does not explain why only some people turn to crime, while the majority are law abising and turn to religion or alcoholism.
What did Rothe and Friedrichs look at?
Examine the role of international fiancial organsations such as IMF and the World Bank in what they call ‘crime of globalisation’. These organsations are dominated by the major capitalist states.
