Globalisation and crime

Castells (1998)

• Global criminal economy worth £1trn+ /year

  • Now: $2trn+

Castells (1998) — 10 elements of global criminal economy

1. Nuclear materials trafficking

2. Endangered species trafficking

3. Drug trafficking

4. Arms trafficking

5. Art trafficking

6. Goods smuggling

7. Sex tourism

8. Body parts trafficking

9. Money laundering

10. Terrorism

% of 🇨🇴 population that relies on cocaine trade

20%

Value of drugs trafficking/year

$300-400bn

Value of money laundering

$1.5trn/year

Global risk consciousness

• Globalisation → new insecurities

  • Health

  • Hunger

  • Refugees

Change in risk

• Country → global

  • E.g. cooperation on War on Terror

Impact of media on global risk consciousness

• Creates moral panics which increase global risk consciousness

Example of global moral panic

• More movement of people → more fear in the W about risks of crime and disorder

Impact of moral panics

• More national social control

2 examples of increasing national social control in 🇬🇧

1. Tougher on border control, e.g. fining airlines for undocumented passengers

2. No legal limits on being held in immigration detention centre

3 examples of unspecific higher national social control

1. Fences

2. CCTV

3. Thermal imaging

Taylor (1997) — impact of globalisation on pattern of crime

• More free rein to market forces → more inequality

Cost for 🇪🇺/year in fraudulent subsidaries

$7bn

Taylor (1997) — impact of TNCs on crime

• Switch manufacturing to low-wage countries → job insecurity → unemployment → poverty

Taylor (1997) — 3 impacts of gov’ts on crime

1. Deregulation → more opportunities for insider trading

2. Deregulation → less control over own economy → less welfare spending

3. More subcontracting for ‘flexible working’ → more illegal employment that violates health and safety laws

Taylor (1997) — 2 impacts of increasing poverty on crime

1. People see selves as individual consumers → there are personal costs and benefits of each action, not collective → less social cohesion

2. Poverty → more illegitimate opportunities → drug trade (e.g. deindustrialisation in LA → more drugs gangs (10,000+ members)

CRITICISM of Taylor (1997)

• Why don’t all people turn to crime?

Rother and Friedrichs (2015) — role of IGOs in crime

• IMF and WB are dominated by majority capitalist states

• They then impose pro-capitalist neoliberal SAPs on lICs for loans which increase conditions for crime

  • E.g. less health and education spending; privatisation

% of WB members that have % of voting rights

• 3%

• 33%

Rothe et al (2008) — 🇷🇼 1980s SAPs

• Caused mass unemployment and thus foundations for 1994

Cain (2010) — IMF and WB

• ‘Global state’

  • Actions can cause social harm directly and indirectly, all without breaking the law

Hobbs and Dunningham — patterns of criminal org

• Crime is more linked to economic changes due to globalisation

Hobbs and Dunningham — crime pre-globalisation

• Mafia-style

  • Hierarchical

  • Rigid

Hobbs and Dunningham — crime now

• Individual contacts surrounded by a loose-knit network of other individuals seeking opportunities (legit and illegitimate)

  • Flexible

  • Opportunistic

  • Entrepreneurial

Hobbs and Dunningham — new organisations

• ‘Global’ orgs are new orgs rooted in local context with international links

  • E.g. local to sell drugs, international to get drugs

Glenny (2008) — 🇷🇺 and E.European orgnaisations post-communism

• Pre-communism: heavy regulation

• Post-communism: everything deregulated apart from oil and natural resources which remained at USSR price (1/4 global price)

Glenny (2008) — creation of oligarchs

• Anyone with access to funds could buy natural resources cheaply and sell them abroad at a crazy profit which created new capitalist class of oligarchs

  • E.g. KGB generals, ex-USSR officials

Glenny (2008) — Chechen mafia

• Began in Chechnya and brand spread to other towns

• Protected weather via former KGB and former convict alliances

Glenny (2008) — 🇷🇺 v 🇮🇹 and 🇺🇸 mafia

• 🇮🇹 and 🇺🇸 = family and ethnic ties and clear-cut hierarchy

• 🇷🇺 = economic organisations that pursue self interest

Billionaires

• Protected wealth and moved it out of country via mafia and linked it to other criminal orgs

Glenny — number of deaths in DRC due to drug trade 1998-2008

5m

Glenny — Adriatic Sea

• 20 speed boats cross each night

  • Took 6 🇮🇹 police boats to catch 1

• Hurl trafficked girls into sea to escape

Glenny — paramilitary

• Often operate with mafia to exchange goods

  • E.g. Hitler’s brown shirts; ICE