Global Crime

• AO2: Held et al

  Crime is globalised due to the increasing interconnectedness of crime across borders
• 2 international crime control bodies:

  Interpol + Europol (policing + prosecuting crime needs international cooperation)
• AO2: Castells - 5 variations of trafficking

  1. Arms
  2. Nuclear material
  3. Illegal drug
  4. Human
  5. Counterfeit good
• AO2: Castells - Global crimes

  Cyber crimes - e.g. child porn

  Violent crimes - e.g. terrorism

  Financial crimes - e.g. money laundering

  Wildlife crimes - e.g. poaching

  Green crime - e.g. dumping waste in 3rd world countries

  State crimes - e.g. China's Uyghur genocide
• AO2: Gastrow

  • From the International Peace Institute
  • Organised crime today more like an international business than a mafia
• AO2: Misha Glenny

  • Wrote 'McMafia'
  • Says organised crime groups are strong in areas w/ 1. weak rule of law, 2. strong distrust of state, 3. inaccessible + 4. high corruption
  • Transnational organised crime derived from breakdown of Soviet Union, when global markets were deregulated.
  • Capitalists used mafias to protect wealth - not like Italian mafias w/ family hierarchy, purely economic orgs. These new mafias allowed new Russian capitalist class to enter world economy + and they made international links w/ other criminal orgs.
• What is Glocalisation?

  Adapting global products or services to fit local preferences.
• AO2: Hobbs + Dunningham

  • How crime is organised depends on economic changes brought by globalisation
  • Crime works on 'glocal system'; based locally w/ global connections
  • Changes due to globalisation caused patterns of crime to change
• According to Castells, how much is the global criminal network worth?


  $2.5T - $3T
• Why is it difficult to estimate how much the global criminal economy is worth?

  Organised crime operates in the 'shadow economy'.
• AO2: Taylor (Marxist)

  Globalisation has led to greater inequality + exploitation
• How does crime affect lower social groups?

  • Ppl in poor places participate in illegal activities
  • Ppl pay to be trafficked to the West
• How does crime affect higher social groups?

  Increase in tax evasion + wide-scale fraud
• AO2: Blackburn et al.

  • Global organised crime hard to police bc it’s linked to corruption within law enforcement agencies + national govs. (where bribery + corruption is rife)
  • Links to Karpanos
• AO2: Karpanos


  Organised crime + the Russian state have always been interdependent (Links to Blackburn et al.)
• Conflict between who can hinder the policing of global crime?


  International agencies
• AO3: 2 factors of global crime making it hard for sociologists to research?

  Secrecy + complexity
• AO3: Global interconnectedness ➡️ international agencies sharing more info, e.g. about t________

  Terrorism
• AO2: Castells

  • Organised crime groups resemble business networks
  • Use globalisation to link w/ criminal groups in other countries