Globalisation

• Globalisation is an ongoing process that involves interconnected changes in the economic, cultural, social, and political spheres of society.
• Globalisation involves the ever-increasing integration of these aspects between nations, regions, communities, and even seemingly isolated places.
• Held states that the globalisation of crime is the growing interconnectedness of crime across national boarders, sometimes referred to as the transnational organised crime.
• Castells argues that there is now a global criminal economy of over £1 Trillion per annum.
• Strengths of globalisation include focus on the newest, most dramatic and serious of crimes, increased connectedness between law enforcement agencies around the world, and the ability to investigate crimes due to secondary sources and reliable statistics.
• Weaknesses of globalisation include difficulty in investigating crimes due to the secretive and global nature, dependency on secondary sources and reliable statistics, and the potential for crimes to be exaggerated in terms of impact.
• Bauman argues that growing individualism and consumer culture means that individuals are left to weigh the costs and benefit of their decisions and choose the best course to bring them the highest rewards.
• Globalisation, technological advancements and communications have led to newer types of crime as well as new ways in which to carry out crime, including the Dark Web which allows criminals to communicate and conduct crimes whilst undetected.
• Lash and Urry argue that increased deregulation and fewer state controls over business and finance have led to greater job insecurity, less social cohesion and fewer job opportunities in the west which can increase crime rates.
• Beck argues that growing instability in the globalised world has led to people being more risk conscious, with the causes of the risks often global in nature which can make it hard to pinpoint who is responsible and the media can play on this fear.
• Globalisation creates new patterns of inequality, with the winners from the process being the rich financial investors and transnational corporations, and the losers being the workers.
• Globalisation has led to the growth of new types of crime such as the global drugs trade, human trafficking, money laundering, and cyber crime.
• The global drugs trade is now worth over $300 billion per year, often cultivated in third world countries such as Colombia, Peru and Afghanistan which have large impoverished populations so drugs is an attractive trade as it requires little investment but commands high prices especially in the western world.
• Organised crime networks based on economic links, such as “McMafia”, have developed from the deregulation of global markets and the fall of the soviet union.
• Technological and communication advancements have made international terrorism easier, as groups are able to communicate with members all over the world and cultivate in-state members through online radicalisation.