Topic 15 - global crime

• Global/Transnational Crime


  Crime that goes beyond national borders, such as drug and human trafficking, kidnapping, and money laundering.
• Example of global crime industry

  20% of Colombia's population have jobs relating to the drug trade.
• Global crime has increased due to globalisation - airline travel and communication have created better links between cocaine farmers and dealers.
• Glenny

  • Mafia has gone global - 'McMafia'
  • Criminal organisations pay to use The Mafia's name and reputation, and pay a small percentage of their profits in return
• Chomsky (Neo-Marxist)

  • The main global criminal are governments, particularly the USA
  • Snowden - American government hacked into emails and social media accounts to gain political power in global negotiations
  • Tortures, kidnaps, and imprisons suspects without trial - Guantanamo Bay has 7 prisoners who had been prosecuted
  • Global nature of state crimes - use locations where no country has jurisdiction
• Walby (triple systems feminist)

  • 75% of human trafficking victims are female, mostly used for sexual slavery
  • Long term effect - psychological damage and life changing infections like HIV
  • Targets the most vulnerable, usually from deprived, ethnic backgrounds
• Green Crime


  Criminal activity that harms the environment in some way
• Primary green crime


  Not yet illegal under international law but directly harms the environment.

  Examples: air and water pollution, deforestation
• Secondary green crime 


  Actually illegal acts that harm the environment, but may not be enforced.
• South et al (On primary green crimes)

  • Hard to prosecute as one single nation is not responsible for the rest of the world
  • Relies on centralised organisations like the EU and UN, but funding and time is often an issue
  • Transgressive criminology is needed to challenge governments and large corporations who harm the environment
• Snider

  • Corporate crime usually goes unpunished due to the government's fear of these large corporations - corporate crimes against the environment often go unpunished.
  • E.g. VW and employees avoided prosecutions even though they fooled their car's CO2 emission tests, even though the pollution would have led to hundreds of deaths
• Beck (Postmodernist)

  • Environmental problems have led to the 'democratisation of risk' in which we are all victims due to the global effects
  • E.g. climate change, global warming, and air pollution
• Organised crime makes up 15% of the world's GDP