Crime and Globalisation

Question 1

What is the globalisation of crime?

Answer 1

• Held et al suggests there’s a globalisation of crime (the interconnectedness of crime across national borders). The same processes that have brought about the globalisation of legitimate activities have also brought about the spread of transnational organised crime
• Globalisation creates new opportunities for crime, new means of committing crime and new offences (cyber crimes)De

Question 2

Describe the global criminal economy

Answer 2

• Castells argues there’s now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per annum and Glenny suggests it makes up 15% of the world’s GDP. This takes a number of forms:
• Arms trafficking to illegal regimes, trafficking in nuclear materials, smuggling of illegal immigrants etc.
• The global criminal economy has both a demand side and a supply side. Part of the reason for the scale of transnational organised crime is the demand for its products and services in the rich West. However, the global criminal economy couldn’t function without a supply side that provides a source of drugs, sex workers and other goods

Question 3

Describe an example of the supply and demand in the global criminal economy

Answer 3

• In poor, drug-producing countries (e.g. Colombia), drug cultivation is an attractive option that requires little investment in technology and commands high prices compared with traditional crops
• In Colombia, 20% of the population depends on cocaine production for their livelihood, and cocaine outsells all Colombia’s other exports combined

Question 4

What is global risk consciousness?

Answer 4

• Globalisation creates new insecurities and produces a new mentality of ‘risk consciousness’ in which risk is seen as global rather than tied to particular places. e.g. the increased movement of people has give rise to anxieties among populations in Western countries about the risks of crime and disorder and the need to protect their borders
• Much of our knowledge about risks comes from the media, which often give an exaggerated view of the dangers we face. e.g. with immigrants, the media create moral panics about the supposed ‘threat’, often fuelled by politicians. Negative coverage of immigrants (portrayed as terrorists) has led to hate crimes against minorities in many European countries like the UK

Question 5

What is a result of global risk consciousness?

Answer 5

A result is the intensification of social control at the nation level. The UK has toughened its border control regulations, now has no legal limits on how long a person may be held in immigration detention and increased CCTV

Question 6

How might global crime link to capitalism?

Answer 6

• Taylor argues that capitalism has gone hand in hang in with globalisation in changing patterns and extend of crime
• e.g. as capitalism now takes a global stance, it encourages a global free market with less control and more inequality. Capitalism and globalisation create crime at both ends of the social spectrum. With capitalism promoting universal material goals, individuals may turn to crime to consume such goals.
• Deregulation of market economies leads to elite groups committing fraud and money laundering to avoid taxes. We’ve seen companies produce in countries with poor health and safety regulations to cut costs, leading to death and injury. Modern slavery can go unnoticed and unpunished. Marketisation, deregulation and globalisation are creating crimes based on greed, materialism and profit.

Question 7

Describe Hobbs and Dunningham’s study on patterns of criminal organisation

Answer 7

• Hobbs and Dunningham found that the way crime is organised is linked to the economic changes brought by globalisation. Increasingly, it involves individuals with contacts acting as a ‘hub’ around which a loose-knit network forms, composed of other individuals seeking opportunities, and often linking legitimate and illegitimate activities
• Hobbs and Dunningham argue that this contrasts with large-scale, hierarchal ‘Mafia’-style criminal organisation of the past.

Question 8

What are ‘glocal’ organisation?

Answer 8

• New forms of organisation sometimes have international links (e.g. drug trade), but crime is still rooted in its local context.
• e.g. individuals still need local contacts and networks to find opportunities and to sell their drugs. Hobbs and Dunningham conclude that crime works as a ‘glocal’ system (locally based, with global connections)

Question 9

Why do ‘glocal’ organisations change in form?

Answer 9

• ‘Glocal’ organisations will vary from place to place, according to local conditions, even if it’s influenced by global factors such as the availability of drugs from abroad
• Hobbs and Dunningham argue that changes associated with globalisation have led to changes in patterns of crime e.g. the shift from the old rigidly hierarchal gang to loose networks of flexible and opportunistic criminals.

Question 10

Describe the origins of the McMafia

Answer 10

• Glenny traces the origins of the transnational organised crime to the break-up of the Soviet Union after 1989, which coincided with the deregulation of global markets
• After communism, Russian government deregulated most sectors of the economy. These resources remained at their Old Soviet prices, so anyone with access to funds (former communist officials) could buy up them and sell it broad at an astronomical profit.

Question 11

How did the fall of the communist state create ‘mafias’?

Answer 11

• During the period of increasing disorder, to protect their wealth, capitalists turned to ‘mafias’ that had begun to spring up
• The new Russian mafias were purely economic organisation formed to pursue self-interest
• With the assistance of violent organisation, the billionaires were able to protect their wealth and a means of moving it out of the country.