Global crime

Global Risk


What is Global Risk?

  • The idea is that risk has now become “global”. 

  • We can think about new types of risks like terrorism, pandemics and many more.

  • These are risks that reshape not only how we understand risk but also our responses to risk. 

  • The nature and characteristics of risk have changed. 

  • Highlights shift from traditional criminal strategies to new and complex transnational ones. 

  • Crime control is no longer just about policing and punishment. It becomes about risk management through pre-emptive control and global security governance

  • Adds a high degree of complexity to our understanding of risk.


Defining Global Risk:

  • Beck goes back to his original work on risk. 

  • He redevelops, refines his ideas to account for new global risks and what he calls “world risks society”.

  • World risk has been exemplified by global events such as 9/11, Nuclear accidents, Financial crises, Climate Change and many more.

  • Global risk is “de-bounded”: He means prior to now, early risk tended to be local, like a natural disaster, and they tended to be predictive in the sense that they are confined to a specific area or they had a temporal limit to it. Challenges our old categories and adds to the unpredictability of risk.

  • Global risks are manufactured: Drawing a comparison to the past, saying that earlier risks were just naturally occurring phenomena that happened in society from time to time. However now they are manufactured in the sense that they are the result of human activity. Human activities that produce global risk that impact the world. It adds to the unpredictability of global risk because they have unintended, uncontrollable and unpredictable consequences. Examples such as biotechnology, in which we come biology and technology, have benefits but also unforeseen risks and uncertainty. 

  • Global risks are globalised: Not confined to one country, are transnational like terrorism. Has an impact also in the sense of responses to global risk. We now need intense global cooperation  to manage risks. Crises in one part of the wor;d affects the entire global system. No one country can ensure its own security completely. 

  • Global risks require heightened preventative strategies: Heightened strategies of prevention and preemption in response to these global risks. These strategies range across time. Includes strategies from managing future impacts of climate change to pre-emptive security measures. A very forward way of thinking. 




Terrorism:

  • The central global risk that the world risk society is concerned with and crime control strategies are concerned with. 

  • The characteristics of terrorism distinguish it as a particular kind of risk. These are: 

  • Intentionality: Terrorism is done with intention, that separates it from other global risks. It is perceived as an act that is deliberate and aims to cause harm. 

  • Erosion of Trust: when it occurs it erodes trust between nations, between people in nations. We start to rely more on things like surveillance or highly preventative strategies like detention without a warrant. Those kinds of responses get justified because of erosion of trust. 

  • Unpredictability: Unpredictable nature of the action and the consequences. This layer makes it difficult to manage via our strategies. 

  • Interaction with other risks: The idea that terrorists can use something like  a financial crisis to their advantage. This makes it very complex how we are going to manage this risk.

  • Existential Threat: Has this element of existential threat meaning it is treated very differently from regular crime. It is something different, something more, something extra. Offenders accused of such crimes are also treated very differently from other offenders. A fundamental threat to the nation itself. 

  • The risk of terrorism also leads to  expanding state power and securitization. 

  • Securitization: Process that occurs where an issue like terrorism is justified as a security threat but also an existential threat. Allows for nations to work outside boundaries of normal law or politics. 


Risk Society or Governmentality: 

  • Mythen and Walklate, “Criminology and Terrorism: Which Thesis? Risk Society or Governmentality?” (2006):

  • Apply two theoretical perspectives to fill the gap in criminological knowledge. 

  • Global risk society and governmentality are deeply intertwined but each gives us a different area of focus.

  • Global Risk Society: Highlights what is new and different about the global risk of terrorism, and the need for new risk management strategies.

  • Governmentality: Highlights how and why certain strategies of governance are used to manage the risk of terrorism.


  • Mythen and Walklate, “Criminology and Terrorism” (2006) 

  • The role of knowledge in governmentality ~ knowledge is power.

  • Knowledge is a tool of governing- Produces/constructs “terrorism” and “terrorists”.


  • Knowledge around terrorism/ists is created and circulates through state policies, media representations, and public discourse, together. 

  • Produces Dominant Narratives: The terrorist “other” as ultra-deviant, inhumane, monstrous. 

  • Works to attach “risks” associated with terrorism widely and broadly. 

  • Intensifies distinctions b/t “us” and “them”.


  • Governmentality highlights risk assessment and management strategies used to manage global risk of terrorism. 


  • Risk classifications intersect with securitization, as seen in “Terror Watchlists” and “No-fly Lists”:

  • Individuals are categorized based on risk scores and assessments that preemptively determine who poses a potential threat.

  • Criteria for being placed on watchlist based on “suspicion of suspicion” ~ defines a suspected terrorist as a suspected terrorist.

  • Permits tenuous connections, produces unreliable intelligence.

  • “Risk” is assessed and measured via masses of data that assigns risk to every and all items of information. 


  • Governmentality highlights counter-terror/prevention strategies that shape conduct directly and indirectly. 


  • Surveillance as an indirect, subtle form of risk management: 

  • Surveillance strategies produce culture of surveillance

  • Culture of surveillance encourages self-policing/self-regulation and self-responsibilization

  • Ex. “See Something, Say Something” campaigns; self-reporting of suspicious behaviour encouraged in certain communities.


  • The relationship between surveillance and knowledge:

  • Surveillance produces knowledge (including risk profiles) that assist states in management and control. 

  • And, knowledge produced through surveillance further constructs “terrorism”, shapes perceptions, and justifies strategies of control.




Case Study- The Five Eyes: 

  • ​​Intelligence-sharing alliance between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand.

  • Intelligence collection and sharing occurs through a global electronic surveillance system:

  • Mass Interception of Communications: Monitoring internet traffic, emails, phone calls, and messages (PRISM).

  • Intercepting Satellite and Fiber-Optic Communications: Using ground stations and undersea cable tapping.

  • Cyber Surveillance: Tracking cyber threats, hacking activities, and digital espionage.

  • Human Intelligence and Counterterrorism: Coordination between intelligence agencies to prevent attacks.


FVEY “Controversies”: 

  • (2002) Canadian citizen Maher Arar detained by US officials on suspicion of terrorism, renditioned to Syria as a “risk prevention”.

  • Suspicious based on faulty intelligence gathered by Canada and shared with the US, under FVEY. 

  • Tortured and detained in Syria, returned to Canada in 2003. 

  • After public inquiry, Arar received a formal apology and compensation, as well as acknowledgement that there was no evidence of wrongdoing .

  • Case demonstrates the applicability of global risk society and governmentality.

  • Global risk of terror is transnational and requires global cooperation and pre-emptive measures.

  • FVEY targets groups for management and control as “potential threats”, and draws on knowledge, risk classifications, and surveillance.

 


Which Thesis?

  • Global Risk Society and Governmentality compliment one another and each fills gaps in the other. 

  • Global risk tells us about what is new and different about global risk. Highlight the need for new risk management strategies outside of our normal procedures. 

  • Governmentality highlights modes of governance that we use to respond to global risk. Modes of governance align with shaping conduct, shaping populations. Reliance on risk assessments, central role of knowledge, going to come together in a different way. 

  • Both are necessary to gain a more nuanced understanding of how global risks emerge and how they are governed.













Global Criminology


What is Global Criminology?

  • The study of crime and criminal justice beyond national borders. 


  • Branches of Global Criminology examine:

  • The influence of globalization on crime and control (transnational crime, for example).

  • The links between globalization, global inequality, and crime patterns.

  • The role of non-Western criminological perspectives (Southern Criminology).


Globalization: 

  • Globalization refers to the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of economies, societies, and political and legal systems:

  • Occurs across national borders. 

  • Characterized by rapid movement of people, goods, information, and technology, on a global scale. 

  • Impacts economic, social, political, and legal dynamics – including crime.


Globalization and Crime: 

  • Globalization has changed the nature of crime:

  • Transnational Crimes: crimes that cross borders, as well as criminal activity that involves cross-border movement as an essential component of the crime 

  • Examples: human trafficking, drug trafficking/smuggling,   cybercrime, etc.


  • Global Impact of Local Crimes: interconnectedness means that impacts of crimes do not stay within national borders

  • Example: cocaine production in Colombia fuels drug-related   violence in Mexico and contributes to opioid epidemics in North  America.


  • Globalization has changed the nature of crime:

  • Worsening vulnerabilities: globalization has widened gap between rich and poor nations, creating socio-economic disparities that make more people vulnerable to engaging in crime or being victims to crime 

  • Example: Human trafficking driven by economic disparities and global demand for cheap labour. 


The Limits of Traditional Criminology: 

  • Culture-Bound:

  • Trad. Crim. develops in Western contexts.

  • Theories reflect their specific social, economic, and cultural contexts.

  • Results focus on “local issues” and limit to applicability in other contexts.


  • Culture-Blind: 

  • Trad. Crim makes universal or general claims re: crime causation. 

  • Overlooks differences and assumes causes of crime are consistent across all locales. 

  • Leads to incomplete/incorrect understanding. 


  • Culture-Bound and Culture-Blind theories are ill-suited to address the complexities of global crime.


  • “Methodological Nationalism” (Katja Franko Aas, Global Criminology, 2010):

  • Trad. Crim. analyzes crime within boundaries of the nation-state.

  • Gives crim. a state-centered focus that assumes crime is a domestic issue.

  • Limits applicability of theories to understanding the cross-border dynamics to global crime.