Globalisation, green crime and state crime

What is globalisation and name 3 causes

• Globalisation = the increasing interconnectedness of societies, so that what happens is one locality is shaped by distant events. 

• Causes of globalisation include:

• the spread of new communication technologies, the influence of global mass media, cheap air travel + easier movement of businesses.

Helt et al: globalisation of crime

•  there has been a globalisation of crime - an increasing 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. 

Castells: Global criminal economy

• there is now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per annum. Takes many forms:

• Sex tourism

• The drugs trade

• Green crimes

• Illegal smuggling of immigrants

The global criminal economy- supply and demand

• The global criminal economy has a demand + supply side

• Part of the reason for the scale of transnational organised crime is the demands for its products in the rich West - but it could not function without the supply side.

• The supply side of global crime is linked to globalisation because poor countries like Colombia and Peru rely on drug production to survive. Global demand for drugs, spread through global trade and transport, encourages farmers to grow coca plants. In Colombia, about 20% of the population depends on cocaine production, showing how globalisation drives the supply of illegal drugs.

Global, risk consciousness

• Globalisation creates 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 given rise to anxieties among Western populations about the risks of crime + the need to protect their borders

• Much of our knowledge about risks comes from the media, which often gives an exaggerated view of the dangers we face.

• Negative media coverage of immigrants  - portrayed as terrorists - has led to an increase in hate crimes against minorities

• One result is the intensification of social control at the national level. E.g. the UK has toughened its border control regulations - fining airlines if they bring in undocumented passengers

Taylor: Globalisation, capitalism and crime

• Globalisation has led to changes in the pattern + extent of crime. 

• Giving businesses free reign has created greater inequality and more crime.

• It has created crime on both ends of the social spectrum

According to Taylor, how has globalisation created crime for poor groups?

•  TNCs switch manufacturing to low-wage countries creating unemployment and poverty 

• Marketisation has led to individuals seeing themselves as individual consumers, calculating the personal costs and benefits of each action, undermining social cohesion 

• Materialistic culture promoted by global media portrays success in terms of lifestyle and consumption (Left realists) 

• These factors create inequalities that encourage people to turn to crime due to lack of legitimate opportunities. Individuals are driven to pursue illegitimate e.g. drug trade  

According to Taylor, how has globalisation created crime for elite groups? 

• Deregulation of financial markets has created opportunities around the globe for insider trading and avoiding taxation

• It has also changed the way people get jobs, creating more chances for crime. Companies hire ‘flexible’ workers through subcontracting (outside of one’s firm) often meaning they work illegally or for less than minimum wage 

Evaluation of Taylor

• Does not adequately explain how the changes make people behave in criminal ways e.g. not all poor people turn to crime

Rothe and Friedrichs – Role of IMF & World Bank in crimes of globalisation

• IMF and World Bank are dominated by rich capitalist countries

• They give loans to poor countries, but only if they follow strict conditions

• These conditions (structural adjustment programmes) force cuts to health, education, and the privatisation of public services e.g. water supply

• Western companies buy these services and industries cheaply, to make profit by charging high prices

• This helps Western countries get richer, while poor countries face more poverty and inequality

• This creates the conditions for crime

Cain: Crimes of globalisation

•  in some ways the IMF + World Bank act as a ‘global state’ and while the may not break any laws, their actions can cause widespread social harms both directly + indirectly.

Rwandan genocide example

• programme imposed in rwanda in 1980s created mass unemployment and poverty that led to widespread anger and tension that helped fuel the 1994 genocide

Hobbs and Dunningham: ‘Glocal’ organisation

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

• In the past there were hierarchical ‘ Mafia-style’ criminal organisations  

• Now: individuals with contacts at as a ‘hub’ around which loose-knit networks of the others seeking opportunities form 

• Crime works as a ‘glocal’ system. It is still locally based but with global connections

• The form it takes will vary from place to place, according to local conditions, even it it’s influenced by global factors

Evaluation of Hobbs and Dunningham

Glenny: McMafia

• relationship between criminal organisation and gloablisation

• After communism fell, goverment deregulated most sectors of Russia’s economy

• However, prices for natural resources (like oil) stayed low and so wealthy ex-officials bought them cheap and sold them abroad for big profits

• These people became the new capitalist elite (oligarchs)

• The collapse of the state caused chaos and disorder, so they turned to mafias for protection

• These criminal groups weren’t based on family ties like traditional mafias, but were profit-driven organisations

• Mafias (e.g. Chechen mafia) began to franchise their operations, becoming a brand that offered protection and services to those who paid

• Mafias helped the rich hide and move money abroad, so they could invest and profit in the global economy

State crime

• Green+ Ward: illegal/devint activities perpetrated by or with the complicity of authorities

• State crime is most serious for 2 reasons:

  1. The scale of state crime- states enormous power gives it potential to inflict harm on a huge scale

  2. The state has power to define what is criminal, uphold law prosecute offenders. this means they can evade punishment, conceal it’s crime and avoid defining their own acts as illegal

McLaughlin’s four catergories of state crime

1. Political crimes, e.g. corruption + censorship

2. Crimes by security + police forces, such as genocide + torture

3. Economic crimes, e.g. official violations of health + safety laws

4. Social + cultural crimes, like institutional racism

Rwanda genocide

• Rwanda became a Belgian colony in 1922

• Belgians used the Tutsi minority to rule over the Hutu majority

• Tutsi and Hutu were not ethnic groups, but more like social classes

• Belgians ethnicised the two groups, issuing them racial identity cards

• After independence in 1962, Hutus took power

• By the 1990s, Rwanda faced economic + policitcal crisis, leading to a civil war

• In 1994, the Hutu president's plane was shot down

• This triggered the genocide

• In just 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis were killed

• Many Hutu civilians were forced to kill or be killed

• Around ⅓ of Hutus took part in the violence