Globalisation and Crime

What is Globalisation?

process of increased interconnectedness and interdependence among countries and cultures, facilitated by technology and trade

What are the 5 Effects of Globalisation on Crime?

• Global Criminal Economy

• The Media, Extremist Ideologies and Terrorism

• Crimes of the Powerful

• Cyber Crime

• Global Risk Society

What is the Global Criminal Economy?

Economy flourishes because there is both demand and supply

• demand - from the West for products and services

• supply - of drugs, sex workers, etc from poorer countries

What are the Examples of Global Criminal Economies?

Afghanistan, Colombia & Peru

• drug cultivation

• requires little investment in technology

• high prices compared to traditional crops

Colombia - 20% of the population depends on cocaine production for their livelihood - outsells all of Colombia’s other exports combined

What different number of crimes were identified by Castells?

£1 trillion per annum criminal economy compromised of a number of different crimes

• arms and people trafficking

• sex tourism

• cyber crimes

• green crimes

• internal terrorism

• the drug trade

• money laundering

What is Hobbs and Dunningham’s concept of a “global system”?

Combination of global and local dynamics

• research conducted in a real industrial own called ‘downtown’ - held informal, flexible criminal groups started locally in loose networks

Local criminals need global links in order to be in business

Castells - these groups used to be regionally or locally based, but globalisation has allowed them to form international links: deterritorialisation

What is the Media, Extremist Ideologies and Terrorism?

Media used to share their messages around the world, recruit members and spread hatred

• demonstrated the freedom of expression

• based on rigid dogmatic beliefs that provide certainty to an uncertain world

• monopoly of truth - some use violence to try and impose their belief system on others

What does Giddens suggest about Religious Extremisms & Fundamentalism?

Both a product of and reaction to globalisation

• individuals are constantly faced with choice, uncertainty and risk

Who is an example of Hateful Ideology and Religious Fundamentalism?

Shamsuad-Din Jabbar

• US Army Veteran behind the assault in which a truck was driven into a dense crowd: killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more

• Islamic State Group’s territorial caliphate has been dismantled: online propaganda and ideological influence remains

What does Ian Taylor suggest?

Economic globalisation (the spread of capitalist markets) has led to more crimes being committed by the powerful - crimes which go unnoticed in the West

• Global Finance, Tax Havens and Tax Evasion

• Transnational Corporations and Law Evasion

• Increasing Global Inequality and Crime

What is Tax Havens and Tax Evasion?

Taylor - globalisation enables corporations and wealthy individuals to transfer profits across borders into tax havens avoiding regulation and reducing their tax burden

• drains money from nation states, weakens their ability to fund public services like education and health, and creates a system where global elites operate beyond democratic control

Globalisation therefore intensifies financial inequalities by allowed capital to escape national taxation

What is Law Evasion?

Taylor - globalisation lets corporations evade national laws by relocating production of goods or using complex production chains in countries with weaker labour, environmental, or safety laws

• allows firms to cut wages while avoiding accountability for exploitation or harm

e.g. Rana Plaza - insisted on making workers continue although centre was closed: 1,134 killed

What is Global Inequality, Supply and Demand?

Globalisation creates a world economy structured around unequal power relations

• wealthy nations and corporations control demand while poorer countries supply cheap labour and resources

This fuels inequality - keeps wages low in the Global South, and sustains a global market where inequality is built into the system

• in poor countries, crime may be seen as one of the only options to make money as legal jobs tend t be poorly paid

e.g. Columbia - 20% of income = cocaine industry

What is Winlow’s Globalisation and The Night Time Economy?

• Reduction in manual jobs - cheaper elsewhere where there’s less regulations: environment & paying workers

• Unemployment/loss of legal manual jobs = people turn to crime to make a living (W/C jobs)

• Bouncers: masculine identity - sell drugs for income: ‘night-time economy’

• International trafficking routes/global criminal economy makes it possible to access illegal goods e.g. drugs, duty free cigarettes & counterfeit goods

What is Cyber Crime?

Closely related to the use of computers, which have only been in widespread use for just over 25 years

What types of Cyber Crime did Wall identify?

• Cyber deception and Theft

• Pornography

• Cyber Violence

What is Cyber deception and Theft?

Hacking into an individual’s personal data

• Phishing, Illegal downloads, identity theft, and personal hacking

e.g. Catfishing - creating a fake persona on a social media or online data platforms to defraud people of money or cause harm

What is Pornography?

Distribution and consumption of illegal creation material (child pornography) has become a significant problem in the digital age

• anonymity afforded by the internet has made it difficult for the law to detect and prevent these crimes

• paedophiles: existence of the untraceable ‘dark web’ has complicated this issue

What is Cyber Violence?

Cyber bullying, hate-based websites, and terrorist websites

• laws tend to take a long time to adopt to technological advances

e.g. American girl goaded her partner to commit suicide using instant messaging and text messages - negligent homicide & cyber violence

What is the Global Risk Society?

Ulrich Beck - globalisation produces what he calls ‘risk consciousness’

• produces new kind of risk: climate change, terrorism, pandemics and financial crisis - risks are no longer local: constantly discussed on the news and online

Individuals develop a heightened sense of uncertainty and anxiety about the future

• Governments and cooperation’s sometimes create or fail to manage risk, trust in these institutions declines - people may be more conscious of risk, this doesn’t mean they always understand the causes

What does the Global Risk Society explain?

Explains why groups are stereotyped and become victims of hate crimes as individuals blame certain groups in society for risks (terrorism)