globalisation + crime

• the global criminal economy

  globalisation led to an increase in trafficking, smuggling, cyber crimes, green crimes and international terrorism
• global risk consciousness

  globalisation creates a new mentality of 'risk consciousness' in which risk is seen as global rather than tied to particular places e.g terrorism and green crimes

  media creates a moral panic about the supposed threat often fuelled by politicians e.g negative portrayal of immigrants as terrorists or scroungers has led to hate crimes against minorities

  this leads to the intensification of social control e.g tougher border control
• evaluation of global criminal economy

  castells fails to recognise how globalisation has helped us to tackle crime - international crime tackling agencies have been created
• globalisation, capitalism and crime

  taylor argues that globalisation has led to changes in the pattern and extent of crime - the type of crime we are seeing is changing and the crimes being committed are more serious. Globalisation has created greater inequality and created crimes at both ends of the social spectrum
• relative deprivation and crime

  globalisation has allowed transnational corporations to switch manufacturing to low-wage countries producing job insecurity, unemployment and poverty - left to turn to welfare benefits which have declined over recent years. more people feeling relatively deprived so turn to crime as a result
• corporate crime

  globalisation creates criminal opportunities on a grand scale for elite groups e.g more opportunities for insider trading and tax avoidance due to the deregulation of financial markets

  companies hire 'flexible' workers who are often working illegally for less than minimum wage or in breach of health and safety laws e.g rana plaza building collapse
• global criminal economy - supply and demand

  transnational organised crime a result of the rich west's demand for drugs, sex workers and other illegal goods. creates a need for supply of illegal goods and service often from less developed countries.

  e.g drug producing countries like columbia and peru have a large percentage of population living in poverty so drug cultivation is a good option to earn money - in columbia 20% of population depends on cocaine production for their livelihood
• evaluation of taylor

  ignores the positive impact that globalisation has had on society

  does not adequately explain why changes in criminal economy make people behave in criminal ways - not all poor people turn to crime
• patterns of criminal organisation


  globalisation created new criminal opportunities and patterns at a local level

  criminal organisations usually involve people with contacts acting as a 'hub' with loose networks composed of other individuals seeking opportunities like selling drugs or stolen goods

  glocal organisations - crime now involves global connections but is locally based e.g operate from a specific locality but maintain international links with global criminal networks especially the drugs trade e.g still need local contacts to buy and sell drugs
• evaluation of patterns of criminal organisation

  ideas cannot be generalisable to other criminal activities elsewhere e.g eastern mafias operate at a local level but still run large international criminal organisations
• mcmafia

  Glenny identifies a distinction between old style mafias and a new type of mcmafia which sells services as part of a private business - economic organisations formed to pursue self-interest

  russian government deregulated most sectors of the economy except for natural resources such as oil. anyone with access to funds could buy up oil, gas, diamonds and precious metals for next to nothing and sell them abroad for large profits - oligarchs - turned to the mafias to protect their wealth.
• evaluation of mcmafia

  glennys ideas are based on one case study of russian oligarchs and his ideas are not representative of different criminal organisations
• what is green crime

  crime against the environment - can be linked to globalisation

  e.g pollution in one country can turn into acid rain in another
• what are the two types of green crime?

  primary green crime - crimes that result directly from the destruction and degradation of the earth's resources

  secondary green crime - crime that grows out of the flouring of rules aimed at preventing or regulating environmental disasters
• what does illegal waste disposal illustrate?

  the problems with law enforcement in a globalised world

  the existence of laws to regulate waste disposal in developed countries pushes up the costs to big business and creates an incentive to dump illegally in third world countries
• global 'risk society'

  beck argues that developments in technology bring risks such as global warming and climate change - man made risks that harm the environment create climate change which is a global risk rather than a local one.

  argues pollution from any country affects the whole world and this can have a knock on effect e.g russia suffered a heatwave due to global warming leading to wildfires destroying grain cops - increased price of grain for countries who buy from russia - led to riots and looting
• evaluation of global risk society

  it is difficult to establish all events and disasters as being manufactured e.g the heatwave in russia might not have been linked to global warming
• green criminology

  focuses on any act that damages the environment - involves zemiology (study of social harms)

  adopt an ecocentric view - sees humans and their environment as interdependent so that environmental harm also hurts humans

  corporations and governments take an anthropocentric view - assuming humans have the right to dominate nature for our own needs
• evaluation of green criminology

  some sociologists may argue that this approach is too radical and that not all pollution is avoidable

  ignores the changes some governments and companies have made to try and reduce emissions and environmental damage
• marxist views of green crime

  green crime clearly linked to inequality - environmental hazards perceived to be greatest in proximity to poor people

  argue green crime is just further evidence of the criminogenic nature of capitalism - ruling class exploit the environment in the pursuit of profit

  many working class people can only afford homes in undesirable localities
• evaluation of marxist views of green crime

  some people argue that enough is being done to tackle green crime e.g the largest growth in legal definitions of new crimes in the UK revolve around environmental issues
• state crimes

  state crime - illegal or deviant activities perpetuated by or with the complicity of state agencies

  the scale of state crime - state has a lot of power so is able to commit extremely large scale crimes with widespread victimisation - has the power to cover up their crimes + influence the media

  state is the source of law - power of state means that it can control the cjs, persecute its enemies and conceal its crimes, evading punishment and avoiding defining its actions as criminal
• what are the case studies of state crime?

  genocide in rwanda - hutus and tutsis - had to have identity cards - hutu extremists blamed tutsis for assassination of president - acts of violence against tutsis including murder (with machetes, clubs and knives), torture, rape, sexual violence

  challenger space shuttle disaster - state agency corporation made 'risky, negligent and cost cutting decisions' - 7 astronauts killed

  deepwater horizon oil rig disaster - government failed to make sure private companies were fulfilling health + safety standards - 11 men killed and 17 injured
• what are two definitions of state crime?

  zemiology - define state crime as illegal acts as well as legal acts that have similar consequences as illegal acts - prevents state making laws that allow them to carry out harmful acts - does not stipulate the level of harm that must occur

  international law - law created through treaties + agreements between states - state crime is any action by the state that violates international law or a states own domestic law - based on globally agreed definition - international law focuses largely on war crimes rather than other state crimes like corruption
• what is the third definition of state crime?

  human rights - should define state crime as the violation of peoples basic rights by the state or its agents e.g states that practice racism, sexism, imperialism - takes transgressive criminology approach and goes beyond traditional boundaries of criminology - some argue the definitions of what constitutes human rights is unclear
• explanations of state crime

  authoritarian personality - some people have personality traits that would make them blindly obey orders from their superiors without question e.g many nazi soldiers displayed authoritarian personality

  obedience to authority - many people are willing to obey authority even when this involves harming others
• what are the three features that produce crimes of obedience?

  authorisation - acts are ordered or approved by those in authority - morals replaced with need to obey

  routinisation - individual may need to commit the crime multiple times - creates a routine where they can detach themselves from the act itself

  dehumanisation - enemy is portrayed as sub-human - makes it easier to see them as a target
• evaluation of explanations of state crime

  ignore external factors that may push people into committing horrendous acts e.g the fear of what would be the consequence of disobeying orders
• bauman's key features

  these key features made holocaust possible

  division of labour - conveyor belt approach to the running of concentration camps - each person responsible for one small task - no one felt personally responsible

  bureaucratisation - normalised the killings by making them repetitive and a routine job where victims would be dehumanised

  instrumental rationality - where rational, efficient methdods are used to achieve a goal

  science and technology - allowed the system to run efficiently through the use of railways to transport victims + industrially produced gas to kill them
• evaluation of bauman

  not all genocides are carried out in this way - rwandan genocide one group was simply slaughtering another using machetes and other weapons
• culture of denial

  states now have to make greater effort to conceal or justify their human rights crimes or to re-label them as not crimes - legitimise actions involving a three stage spiral of state denial

  stage one - it didnt happen

  stage two - it was something else, not state crime (e.g self defence)

  stage three - justification (e.g to fight the war on terror)

  states use this to excuse their crimes once they fail to cover them

  also use techiques of neutralisation
• evaluation of culture of denial

  only useful in explaining certain state crimes such as illegal wars and invasions. techniques of neutralisation cannot help us to explain corruption or state corporate crime e.g space shuttle disaster