Globalisation, Capitalism and Crime

• Taylor 1997: globalisation has led to changes in the pattern and extent of crime. By giving free rein to market forces, globalisation has created rising inequality and further crime.
• Globalisation has created crime at both ends of the social spectrum, where transnational corporations have switched to unethical manufacturing in low-wage countries.
• Deregulation has ensured govts have little to no control over their economy.
• Marketisation has encouraged people to see themselves as individual consumers, calculating personal costs and benefits of each action, undermining social cohesion.
• Left Realist: increasingly materialistic culture promoted by the global media portrays success in terms of a lifestyle of consumption. 
• Insecurity and widening inequalities encourage people to turn to crime. Lack of legitimate job opportunities destroys self-respect and drives the unemployed to look for illegitimate opportunities. 
• Los Angeles: deindustrialisation has led to the growth of drugs gangs numbering 10,000 members 
• Deregulation of markets has created further opportunities for insider trading and the movement of funds globally to avoid taxation. 
• Creation of IGOs like the EU has led to fraudulent claims for subsidies estimated at over $7 billion per annum in the EU. Globalisation has led to the use of subcontracting to recruit ‘flexible’ workers, often working illegally or employed at less the minimum wage or working in unsafe conditions. 
• Taylor’s theory is useful in linking global trends in the capitalist economy to changes in the pattern of crime. However, Taylor’s theory does not adequately explain the changes that make people behave in a criminal way.