Globalisation and Crime
Globalisation has many causes, including the spread of ICT and the influence of global mass media, cheap air travel, the deregulation of financial and other markets and their opening up to competition, and easier movement so that businesses can easily relocate to countries where profits will be greater.
The global criminal economy
Held et al and McGrew- 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 (e.g. working abroad) have also brought about the spread of transnational organised crime.
Castells- there is now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per annum, taking a number of forms:
Arms trafficking- to illegal regimes, guerrilla groups and terrorists.
Trafficking in nuclear materials- especially from the former communist countries.
Smuggling of illegal immigrants- e.g. the Chinese Triads make an estimated $2.5 billion annually.
Trafficking in women and children- often linked to prostitution or slavery. Up to half a million people are trafficked to Western Europe annually.
Smex tourism- where Westerners travel to poor countries for smex, sometimes involving minors. Large problem in Cambodia.
Trafficking in body parts- for organ transplants in rich countries. An estimated 2,000 organs annually are taken from condemned or executed criminals in China.
Cyber-crime- such as identity theft and child pawnography and deepfake
Green crimes- that damage the environment, such as illegal dumping of toxic waste in poorer countries.
International terrorism- Much terrorism is now based on ideological links made via the internet and other ICT, rather than on local territorial links as in the past.
Smuggling of legal goods- such as alcohol and tobacco, to evade taxes, and of stolen goods, such as cars, to sell in foreign markets.
Trafficking in endangered species or their body parts- for example to produce traditional remedies, and poaching rhinos for their horns.
Trafficking in cultural artefacts/ works of art- sometimes having first been stolen to order.
The drug trade- worth an estimated $300-400 billion annually at street prices.
Money laundering- of the profits from organised crime, estimated at up to $1,. trillion per year.
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, global criminal economy could not function without a supply side that provides the source of the drugs, smex workers and other goods and services demanded in the West.
Poor, drug-producing countries such as Colombia, Peru and Afghanistan have large populations of impoverished peasants- for these groups, drug cultivation is an attractive option that requires little investment in technology and commands high prices compared with traditional crops.
In Colombia, an estimated 20% of the population depends on cocaine production for their livelihood, and cocaine outsells all Colombia’s other exports combined.
Global risk consciousness
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.
For example, the increased movement of people, as economic migrants seeking work or as asylum seekers feeling persecution, has given rise to anxieties among populations in Western countries about the risks of crime and disorder and the need to protect their border.
Much of our knowledge about risks comes form the media, which often give an exaggerated view of the dangers we face. (see media notes).
IN the case of immigration, the media creates moral panics about the supposed “threat”, often fuelled by politicians (Currently Reform UK).
Negative coverage of immigrants- portrayed as terrorists or as scroungers “flooding” the country- leads to hate crimes against minorities in many European countries, including the UK.
One result is the intensification of social control at the national level.
The UK has toughened its border control regulations, for example fining airlines if they bring in undocumented passengers.
Other European states with land borders have introduced fences, CCTV and thermal imaging devices to prevent illegal crossing.
Another result of globalised risk is the increased attempts at international cooperation and control in the various “wars” on terror, drugs and crime, particularly since the terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001.
Globalisation, capitalism and crime- Taylor
Taylor- argues that globalisation has led to changes in the pattern and extent of crime, by giving free rein to market forces, globalisation has created greater inequality and rising crime.
Globalisation has created crime at both ends of the social spectrum- allowing transnational corporations (TNCs) to switch manufacturing to low-wage countries, producing job insecurity, unemployment and poverty.
Deregulation means that governments have little control over their won economies, for example to create jobs or raise taxes, while states spending on welfare has declined, causing governments to become highly reliant of illegal income.
Marketisation has encouraged people to see themselves as individual consumers, calculating the personal costs and benefits of each action, undermining social cohesion, but increasing materialism.
As Left realists note, the increasingly materialistic culture promoted by the global media portrays success in terms of a lifestyle of consumption.
All these factors create greater job insecurity and widening inequalities that encourage people, especially the poor, to turn to crime.
The lack of legitimate jobs opportunities destroys self-respect and drives the unemployed to look for illegitimate ones, for instance in the lucrative drug trade.
For example, Los Angeles, de-industrialisation has led to the growth of drugs gangs numbering 10,000 members.
For the elite, globalisation creates large scale criminal opportunities e.g. Deregulation of financial markets creates opportunities for insider trading and tax evasion.
Similarly, the creation of transnational bodies such as the EU has offered opportunities for fraudulent claims for subsidies, estimated at over $7 billion per annum in the EU.
Globalisation has also led to new patterns of employment, which have created new opportunities for crime.
It has led to the increase use of subcontracting to recruit “flexible” workers, often working illegally or employed for less than the minimum wage or working in breach of health and safety or other labour laws.
Evaluation
Taylors theory is useful in linking global trends in the capitalist economy to changes in the pattern of crime.
However, it does not adequately explain how the changes make people behave in criminal ways.
For example, not as poor people turn to crime.
Crimes of globalisation
Rothe and Friedrichs- examine the role of international financial organisations such as the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in what they call “crimes of globalisation”.
These organisation are dominated by the major capitalist state, e.g. the World banks has 188 members, yet just five- USA, UK, Japan, Germany and France- hold over a third of the voting rights.
Rothe and Friedrichs argue that these bodies impose pro-capitalist, neoliberal economic “structural adjustment programmes” on poor countries as a condition for the loans they provide.
These programmes often require governments to cuts spending on health and education, and to prioritise publicly- owned services, industries and natural resources.
While this allows Western corporations to expand into these countries, it creates the conditions for crime.
Rothe et al- shows how the programme imposed on Rwanda in the 1980s caused mass unemployment and created the economic basis for the 1994 genocide.
Cain- suggests that in some ways, the IMF and World Bank act as a “global state” and, while they may not break any laws, their actions can cause widespread social harms both directly, through cutting welfare spending, and indirectly, as in the Rwandan case.
Patterns of criminal organisation
Like in Winlow’s study of bouncers in Sunderland (see gender and crime notes) , globalisation and de-industrialisation have created new criminal opportunities and patterns at a local level.
Another local study of post-industrial town by Hobbs and Dunningham, show similar results.
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 a loose-knit network forms, composed of other individuals seeking opportunities, and often linking legitimate and illegitimate activities.
Hobbs and Dunningham argue that his contrasts with the large- scale, hierarchal “Mafia”-style criminal organisations of the past, such as that headed by the Kray brothers in the East End of London.
“Glocal” Organisation
These new forms of organisation sometimes have international links, especially with the drugs trade, but crime is till rooted in its local context.
For example, individuals still need local contacts and networks to find opportunities and to sell their drugs.
Hobbs and Dunningham- concluded that crime works as a “glocal” system- that is, it is still locally based, but with global connections.
This means that the form it takes will vary from place to place, according to local conditions, even if it is 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- for example, the shift from the old rigidly hierarchal gang structure to loose networks of flexible, opportunistic, entrepreneurial criminals.
Evaluation
However, it is not clear that such patterns are new, nor that the older structures have disappeared.
it may be that the two have always co-existed- equally, their conclusions may not be generalisable to other criminal activities elsewhere.
McMafia
Glenny- relationship between criminal organisation and globalisation is called the “McMafia”.
This refers to the organisations that emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism- itself a major factor in the process of globalisation.
Glenny traces the origins of transnational organised crime to the break-up of the Soviet Union after 1989, which coincided with the deregulation of global markets.
The structure of Mafias after the fall of communism franchised into economic businesses to different parts of the globe, profiting off of cheap materials in their country, exporting them for extortionate prices, and making wealthy capitalists rely on them. e.g. The Chechen Mafia.