Globalisation

Globalisation, Green Crime, Human Rights and State Crimes

Lesson Objectives

• To understand the ways in which globalisation and crime are related.

• To investigate what Sociologists can tell us about green crime

• Look at the relationship between state crimes and human rights

• Globalisation- refers to the increasing Interconnectedness of societies: what happens in one locality is shaped by distant events and vice versa

• Globalisation has many causes including the spread of new ICT and the influence of the global mass media, cheap air travel and the deregulation of financial and other markets

Activity

• Using the globalisation and crime starter sheet link up the type of crime to its definition.

The global criminal economy

• Held et al claimed that there had been a globalisation of crime. The increasing interconnectedness of crime across national borders, and the spread of transnational organised crime.

• Globalisation creates new opportunities for crime, new means of committing crime and new offences e.g. Various cyber crimes

• Castells (1998) argues there is a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per annum

• There is both a demand side (West) and a supply side (Third World Countries)

• The global criminal economy could not function without a supply side that provides drugs, sex workers etc

• This takes many forms:

Arms and nuclear material trafficking

Trafficking and smuggling people

Trafficking body parts

An estimated 2,000 organs are taken from criminals in China.

Sex tourism

Cyber crime

Green Crimes

Smuggling of Illegal Goods

International Terrorism

Trafficking cultural artefacts

Trafficking endangered species

Drugs trade

Worth an estimated $300- 400 billion annually at

street prices

Money Laundering

Global Risk Consciousness• Globalisation creates new insecurities or ‘risk

consciousness’. Risk is seen as global rather than tied to particular places e.g. Economic migrants and asylum seekers fleeing persecution have given rise to anxieties in western countries about risks of C&D and need to protect borders

• Along with media creating moral panics- negative coverage of immigrants- leads to hate crimes

• Leading to intensification of social control at the national level- UK tightening border controls

• Another result of globalised risk is the increased attempts at international cooperation & control in various ‘wars’ on terror, drugs & crime

Globalisation, Capitalism and Crime

• From a Marxist perspective, Taylor (1997) argues that by giving free reign to market forces globalisation has led to greater inequality and rising crime

• Transactional corporations (TNCs) can now switch manufacturing to low wage countries to gain higher profits, producing job insecurity, unemployment and poverty

• Deregulation means government have little control over their own economies (create jobs & raise taxes)

and state spending on welfare has declined

• Marketisation has encouraged people to see themselves as individual consumers, calculating the personal costs and benefits of each action, undermining social cohesion

• The increasingly materialistic culture promoted by the global media portrays success in terms of a lifestyle of consumption

• These factors create insecurity and widening inequalities that encourage people to turn to crime e.g. lucrative drug trade (Deindustrialisation in LA led to growth of drug gangs)

• For the elite globalisation creates large scale criminal opportunities e.g. Deregulation of financial markets creates opportunities for insider trading and tax evasion

• Globalisation also led to new employment patterns creating new opportunities for crime e.g. Using subcontracting to recruit ‘flexible’ workers often working illegally or for less than minimum wage or working in breach of H&S or labour laws

Patterns of Criminal Organisation

• As globalisation creates new criminal opportunities, it is also giving rise to new forms of criminal organisation:

1.‘Glocal’ organisation- Hobbs & Dunningham found that the way crime is organised is linked to globalisation. It involves individuals with contacts acting as a ‘hub’ around which a loose-knit network forms, often linking legitimate and illegitimate activities.

• This is different from rigid hierarchical ‘Mafia’ style criminal organisations of the past

• These new forms of organisation have global links (e.g. Drug smuggling) but crime is still rooted in its local context (still need local contacts and networks to find opportunities and to sell their drugs).

• Concluding that crime works as a ‘glocal’ system- locally based, but with global connections

Organised crime and Globalisation (McMafia)

2. McMafia- refers to the organisations that emerged in Russia & Eastern Europe following the fall of communism (which was a major factor in the process of globalisation).

• The new Russian government deregulated much of the economy, leading to huge rises in food prices and rents

• However commodity prices (for oil, gas, metals etc) were kept at old prices (lower than world market price). Therefore well connected citizens with access to large funds could buy these up very cheaply and sell them on the world market (selling at profit- creating Russia’s new capitalist class ‘oligarchs’)

• To protect themselves from increasing disorder oligarchs turned to the new ‘mafias’ (ex-state security/secret servicemen from old communist regimes).

• With their assistance the oligarchs were able to find protection for their wealth and a means of moving it out of the country

• These criminal organisations were vital for the entry of the new Russian capitalist class into the world economy

ACTIVITY

• Summarise Globalisation and Crime in 100 words

H/W• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/global_crime_report/investigation/

• Here you will find short articles about different aspects of global crime.

• As a group, you should each choose one of these to investigate.

• Make sure you understand the details of your chosen case and then take it in turns to summarise your case as a presentation to the group.

Essay practice

Item B : In today’s society we learn about crime and deviance largely

from the mass media. Unfortunately, however, the image we are given

is often an inaccurate one. While we might expect fictional portrayals of

crime- in films, on TV, in novels and so on- not be an accurate

representation, many sociologists argue that the image presented via

the news media also distorts the reality of crime.

Sociologists are very interested both in the possible causes of these

misrepresentations and also in the effects that they may have on

deviant behaviour

Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess sociological

explanations of the media representations of crime and their effects (21

marks)

Globalisation Globalisation and crimeand crime

GlobalisationGlobalisation

Definition: Definition: The way in The way in which we seem to live in an which we seem to live in an increasingly ‘shrinking increasingly ‘shrinking world’, where societies are world’, where societies are becoming more becoming more interconnected and interconnected and dependant on each other.dependant on each other.

Global crime (1 Global crime (1 trillion)trillion)

Arms traffickingArms trafficking

Smuggling immigrantsSmuggling immigrants

Trafficking women and Trafficking women and childrenchildren

Sex tourismSex tourism

Cyber-crimes – Cyber-crimes – identity theft and child identity theft and child pornporn

Drugs tradeDrugs trade

Money launderingMoney laundering

Transnational crimeTransnational crime

Greater communication and Greater communication and travel have made the drugs travel have made the drugs industry extend industry extend beyond beyond national boundaries.national boundaries. Often Often involving many countries the involving many countries the supply comes from south supply comes from south America (Colombia) and its America (Colombia) and its demand from western demand from western countries. countries.

Risk consciousnessRisk consciousness

Increased terrorism has Increased terrorism has increased our awareness increased our awareness of the international risks of the international risks we face and increased we face and increased security at our national security at our national borders, airports, ports borders, airports, ports and train stations. and train stations.

Increased crimeIncreased crime

Ian Taylor (1973) Marxist Ian Taylor (1973) Marxist argues that argues that globalisation globalisation has allowed capitalism to has allowed capitalism to create more crimecreate more crime by by exploiting workers abroad exploiting workers abroad and creating fraud on a and creating fraud on a larger scale. larger scale. manufacturing products manufacturing products abroad has led to a lack of abroad has led to a lack of jobs and opportunities for jobs and opportunities for the working class, which the working class, which leads them to crime. leads them to crime.

Changing crimeChanging crime

Hobbs and Dunningham say Hobbs and Dunningham say crime is now longer local but crime is now longer local but ‘Glocal‘Glocal’ meaning it involves ’ meaning it involves networks of people across the networks of people across the globe. Gleeny (2008) argues globe. Gleeny (2008) argues even the mafia has gone even the mafia has gone global, it has franchised its global, it has franchised its businesses to different parts of businesses to different parts of the globe – the globe – McMafiaMcMafia