Crime And Deviance : Globalisation, Green Crime, Human Rights And State Crime Flashcards
What is globalisation caused by?
Mass migration
Mass tourism
Increase in transnational companies which manufacture goods globally
Removal of trade barriers allowing companies to sell and manufacture goods in many countries
Spread of new media
Has globalisation actually happened? And if it has, is it a positive or negative thing?
Hyperglobalists - globalisation IS happening and is broadly a good thing: this is a process that is making society better
Pessimistic globalists - globalisation IS happening but it is a negative feature of society. They believe that globalisation is largely westernization / cultural imperialism leading to a homogeneous global society, that destroys local cultures
Traditionalists - unconvinced that globalisation is really happening.
Postmodernists - globalisation is a significant feature of society. It has a huge impact on crime - because crime itself is becoming increasingly global and the effects of globalisation have knock-on effects on criminality.
The Global Criminal Economy
Held et al - there has been a globalisation of crime
= an increasing interconnectedness of crime across borders
The same processes that have brought the globalisation of legal activities have done the same with illegal activities
= this HAS LED TO the spread of transnational organised crime
Castells - there is now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per annum
Types of Transnational Organised Crime (TOC)
The international illegal drug trade:
- World Drug Report 2007 - this trade was worth $322 billion each year(higher than the GDP in 88% of the countries in the world)
Money-laundering:
- Deregulation of global financial markets / banking secrecy has made it possible to launder dirty money
- Hard to track due to technology
Human-trafficking:
- Organ trafficking / prostitution / forced labour
- National Crime Agency (2014) = 13,000 people in Britain were victims of slavery
- Closely related to the smuggling of illegal immigrants into countries where they are forced to work
Cyber-crime:
- Glocal
- Detica - cyber crime costs the UK £27 billion each year
The Global Criminal Economy - drugs
Drug supply is linked to globalisation process – Third World drugs-producing countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan have large populations of impoverished people
Drug harvesting is an attractive option for them – little investment in technology + commands high prices
In Colombia, 20% of the population depends on cocaine production for their livelihood
Transnational Organised Crime - Farr
Farr- there are 2 main forms of global criminal networks
- Established mafias: e.g. Italian-American mafia, the Japanese Yakusa. Long established groups who use globalisation to create new opportunities
- Newer organized crime groups: emerged since globalisation. Collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1980s and 1990s important. New groups include Russian, E.European and Albanian criminal groups, drug cartels around the world
= Connect with the established mafias to form transnational organized crime
McMafia
Glenny - how transnational organised crime mirrors the activities of legal transnational corporations like McDonald’s
= instead of burgers, they’re selling DRUGS
How did the McMafia come about
Under communism, the Soviet state had regulated the prices of everything
After the fall of communism, the Russian gov deregulated most of the economy except for natural resources such as oil
= these remained at their old prices
So, anyone with access to funds – such as former communist officials and KGB (secret service) generals – could buy oil, gas, diamonds etc for basically nothing
= and then they could sell them abroad at an massive profit
= these people became Russia’s new capitalist class (Oligarchs)
Capitalists hired ‘mafias’ to move their money/products of out the country
Criminal organisations were vital to the entry of the new Russian capitalist class in the world economy.
Russian mafias were able to build links with criminal organisations with other parts in the world.
Glocalism meaning
And an AO2 example
Hobbs - the interconnectivity between the local and the global, with transnational crime rooted in local contexts
– local contexts with global links
AO2: Winlow’s study of the bouncers in Sunderland
How has globalisation affected crime? 6 ways
The spread of capitalism and growing inequality
Supply and demand in a globalised world
More opportunities for crime
Cultural globalisation and the ideology of consumerism
Growing individualisation
Global risk society
How has globalisation affected crime - the spread of capitalism and growing inequality
For the poor
Taylor - globalisation has allowed TNCs to manufacture in low wage countries, producing job insecurity, unemployment and poverty
= Causes the poor and marginalised to commit
crime. Lack of opportunity drives the unemployed to look for illegitimate ones such as the drugs trade
Marketisation has encouraged people to see themselves as
individual consumers - undermines social cohesion.
Left realists - materialistic culture promoted by global media portrays success in terms of a lifestyle of consumption.
How has globalisation affected crime - the spread of capitalism and growing inequality
For the rich
Taylor - globalisation creates criminal opportunities for elite groups
= deregulation of financial markets creates opportunity for movement of funds across the globe to avoid taxation.
Globalisation has led to new patterns of employment – created new opportunities for crime:
- People being employed for less than minimum wage
- People working in breach of health and safety or other labour laws
Evaluation of Taylor’s argument (for how the spread of capitalism and growing inequality has affected crime)
Strength:
Useful in linking global trends in the capitalist economy to changes in the patterns of crime.
Pessimistic globalists – this is an example of cultural imperialism
Weaknesses:
Does not adequately explain how these changes make people behave in criminal ways. For example, not all the poor turn to crime (deterministic)
Traditionalists - globalisation isn’t really happening
= crimes have always existed, and new technology has always changed the nature of crime to some extent (like gunpowder); but nothing significant or new is happening today.
How has globalisation affected crime - supply and demand in a globalised world
Immigration has become harder – created a market in illegal human-trafficking
=illegal immigrants can be forced into slavery, or women are forced into prostitution
Large scale of transnational organised crime is due to the demand for its products in the West
= but the global criminal economy can’t function without a supply that provides the drugs etc that is demanded in the West
This supply is linked to the globalisation process – Third World drugs-producing countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan have large populations of impoverished people
Drug cultivation is an attractive option for them
– little investment in technology + commands high prices
How has globalisation affected crime - more opportunities for crime
New means of carrying out crime EG internet
Dark web - little risk of detection for criminals
Crimes committed in one country can be conducted in another - impossible to be caught
How has globalisation affected crime - cultural globalisation and ideology of consumerism
Westernised lifestyle promoted in a media-saturated society
(pessimistic globalists)
Social inclusion but economic exclusion (Left Realism)
Young (LR) - the bulimic society we live in forces people to turn to crime (relative deprivation)
How has globalisation affected crime - growing individualisation
Bauman - people can no longer rely on the welfare state to protect them from unemployment / poverty
Individualisation and global consumer ideology puts personal gain above community benefit
New crimes combined with growing individualisation provide individuals with a means of achieving reward which are
otherwise unobtainable
How has globalisation affected crime - global risk society
Globalization adds to the uncertainty of life in our society
– Beck argues it generates a ‘global risk society’
People become more ‘risk conscious’
– fearful of things like losing their jobs, their identities stolen, fearful of immigrants
The media plays on these fears
– moral panics about gun crime, terrorist threats, growing social disorder caused by ‘scroungers’
These can fuel hate crimes
Evaluation of crime and globalisation
Strengths:
Study of globalization is relevant, contemporary and helps to put new crimes into perspective
Weaknesses:
Secretive and complex nature makes it hard to investigate
Secondary sources like reliable stats are not always available
= validity
Much crime is committed in local communities by local offenders, rather than being influenced by globalisation
What is green crime - traditional criminology POV
Advantages / disadvantages
By definition, breaking environmental law. They are interest with regulations concerning the environment
Advantage - it has a clearly defined subject matter
Disadvantage - they simply accept the definitions of environmental crime, which are shaped by powerful groups
Disadvantage - the same environmental crime may be illegal in some countries and legal in others
What is green crime - green criminology POV
(More radical)
White - green crime is ANY action that harms the environment, regardless of whether a law has been broken
Involves zemiology - study of harms
Legal definitions cannot provide a consistent / universal standard of harm
= moving away from legal definitions allow green criminologists to develop a ‘global perspective’
Similar to Marxists - powerful groups define in their own interests what is considered unacceptable environmental harm
Evaluation of green criminology
Strength:
Recognises the growing environmental concerns and the need to address the harms of the environment
Weaknesses:
Difficulty of categorisation - focusing on “harm” is too broad
The question of whether harm has been caused becomes a political / moral judgement rather than value free research
= EG animal cruelty - some not ALL G.criminologists would say eating meat is wrong
