Castells (1998) – global
criminal economy is
now worth over £1
trillion per annum
Arms trafficking, Trafficking
women and children, Sex
tourism, Green crimes,
Trafficking endangered
species
There is a demand and
supply side
Scale of transnational crime is due to
demand for its products and services in the
West
But could not function without the
supply side that provides the drugs
and sex workers
Afghanistan has a large population
of people in poverty – drug
cultivation is an attractive option
that requires little technology and
commands high prices
Colombia – 20% of
population depends on
cocaine production –
outsells all other exports
Global risk consciousness
Globalisation creates new
insecurities and produces a new
mentality of “risk consciousness”
e.g. increased movement of people
(migrants seeking work or asylum
seekers) has caused anxieties of
people the West about the risks of
crime and the need to protect
borders
Knowledge about risks comes from
media (can question validity of source as
views can be exaggerated) – e.g.
immigration – media has created moral
panics about the threat as they are
portrayed as terrorists – leads to hate
crimes against miniorities in Europe
Result
Intensification of social
control – toughening
borders (fine airlines if
passengers don’t have
documents)
No legal limits of how long a
person can be held in
immigration detention
CCTV and thermal imaging devices
- Increased attempts at international
cooperation – ‘wars’ on terror and
drugs – increased since 9/11
Globalisation, capitalism
and crime
Ian Taylor (1997) –
globalisation has led to a
change in patterns and
extent of crime
Free rein of market forces =
great inequalities and rise of
crime
Globalisation has
created crime and both
ends
TNCs switch manufacturing to
low-wage countries –
unemployment, poverty =
crime
Causes governments
to have little control
over economy
Marketization has caused people to
see themselves as individual
consumers – undermines social
cohesion
Left realists – increasing the
materialistic culture – causes
relative deprivation which leads to
crime
Also creates criminal opportunities on a grand
scale for elites
Deregulation of financial markets –
insider trading and movements of
funds to avoid taxation - Creation of
EU – fraudulent claims for subsides –
estimated $7 billion per annum in EU
Useful in linking global trends but does
not explain how the changes make
people behave in criminal ways – not
all poor people commit crime
Patterns of
criminal
organisation
Hobbes and Dunningham –
the way crime is organised is
linked to economic changes
brought by globalisation
Individuals with contacts acting as a ‘hub’
around which a loose-knit network forms
Contrasts with large scale
‘mafia’ style criminal
organisations
‘Glocal’ Organisations: New
forms of organisation
sometimes have
international links (drugs
trade) but crime is still
rooted in its local context
locally based with
global connections
Changes associated with
globalisation has led to
changes in the patterns
of crime
However – not clear
that these patterns are
new or that the old
ones have disappeared
McMafia: Glenny
(2008)
Refers to organisations that emerged in
Russia and E. Europe following the fall of
communism and breakdown of the Soviet
Union (1989) – origins of transnational crime
(coincided with deregulation of global
markets)