Open Access Research Article
TRANSNATIONAL CRIME AND GLOBAL CRIMINOLOGY
Published Paper
Article Details
TRANSNATIONAL CRIME AND
GLOBAL CRIMINOLOGY
AUTHORED BY - MEHUL DHARMENDRA SHAH
P.E.SOCIETY’S
Modern Law College
Ganeshkhind University Circle, Pune
Abstract :
Transnational crime has become an increasingly
pervasive and complex challenge in our interconnected world. This abstract
provides a concise overview of the critical issues addressed in the field of
global criminology, focusing on the study of transnational crime. In an era of
globalization, criminal activities such as human trafficking, drug smuggling,
cybercrime, and terrorism transcend national borders, posing significant
threats to the security and well-being of societies worldwide. Global
criminology seeks to understand the dynamics, causes, and consequences of transnational
crime, while also exploring strategies for prevention and intervention. This
abstract delves into key themes, such as the role of international cooperation,
the impact of technology, and the importance of cultural, economic, and
political factors in shaping the landscape of transnational crime. It
highlights the evolving nature of global criminology as an interdisciplinary
field that brings together law enforcement, legal scholars, sociologists, and
policy experts to confront the multifaceted challenges posed by transnational
criminal networks. By examining these critical issues, this abstract sets the
stage for a comprehensive exploration of the complexities surrounding
transnational crime and the indispensable role of global criminology in addressing
this global menace.
Introduction
:
Transnational crimes are
violations of law that involve more than one country in their planning,
execution, or impact. These offenses are distinguished from other crimes in
their multinational nature, which poses unique problems in understanding their
causes, developing prevention strategies, and in mounting effective
adjudication procedures. Transnational crimes can be grouped into three broad
categories involving provision of illicit goods (drug trafficking, trafficking in
stolen property, weapons trafficking, and counterfeiting), illicit services (commercial sex and human trafficking), and infiltration of business and government (fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and corruption) affecting multiple countries. Transnational
crimes are distinct from international crime, which involves crimes against humanity that may
or may not involve multiple countries. Examples of international crimes are
genocide and terrorism, which are also included in this guide to sources.
Who are the criminologists
at the forefront of the shift to a global framework for the field of
criminology? Disproportionately, they are criminologists whose ideological
orientation falls on the progressive side of the spectrum. There are several
reasons for this. Progressive (or leftist) criminologists are by definition
especially focused upon the crimes of the powerful as opposed to the crimes of
the powerless. Transnational crime is disproportionately the crime of
relatively powerful organizations and entities, in part because some level of
power or resources is necessary to commit crime effectively on a global scale.
Second, progressive
criminologists are collectively less likely to do the type of work that is
dependent upon major grant support, and the principal funding entities are
oriented toward funding projects focused upon conventional forms of crime and
its control. Third, progressive criminologists are especially likely to be
engaged with the large-scale issues of the global political economy that are
inevitably entangled with issues of transnational crime and its control.
If specialization of focus
is the norm within academe, my own interests are about as far removed from such
a focus as possible. The contribution I propose to make here goes to
fundamental definitional, conceptual, and typological issues, and the provisional
"mapping" of an emerging scholarly terrain. At
the outset, it is necessary to provide some perspective on the criminological
enterprise itself.
Definition :
The definition of transnational crime is rather overlaps with
organized crime which is often broadly defined which is the nature of the mafia
gang. In the past, transnational crimes were often perceived as organized
crimes. Due to the definition of transnational crimes committed across borders
between states. This requires planning, preparation, and networking. However,
nowadays information technology and internet media have played an important
role in people's livelihood. Technology is used to commit crimes without the
need to act as a group. Also, the various information technology networks that
now exist allow the criminals multiple avenues of opportunity. For example,
using computer viruses which may hack into or disable a system. This is a
criminal offense that is done across borders that violates security and order.
Thus, organized crime is a form of transnational crime
Different forms of
transnational organized crime :
Transnational organized
crime is not stagnant, but is an ever-changing industry, adapting to markets
and creating new forms of crime. In short, it is an illicit business that
transcends cultural, social, linguistic and geographical boundaries and one that
knows no borders or rules.
Drug trafficking continues to be the
most lucrative form of business for criminals, with an estimated annual value
of $320 billion. In 2009, UNODC placed the approximate annual worth of the
global cocaine and opiate markets alone at $85 billion and $68 billion,
respectively.
Human trafficking is a global crime in
which men, women and children are used as products for sexual or labour-based
exploitation. While figures vary, an estimate from the International Labour
Organization (ILO) in 2005 indicated the number of victims of trafficking at
any given time to be around 2.4 million, with annual profits of about $32
billion. Recent research on overall forced labour trends however would suggest
that the scope of the problem is much bigger. In Europe, the trafficking of
mostly women and children for sexual exploitation alone brings in $3 billion
annually and involves 140,000 victims at any one time, with an annual flow of
70,000 victims.
Smuggling of migrants is a well-organized
business moving people around the globe through criminal networks, groups and
routes. Migrants can be offered a "smuggling package" by organized
crime groups, and the treatment they get along the route corresponds to the
price they pay to their smugglers. In the process of being smuggled, their
rights are often breached and they can be robbed, raped, beaten, held for
ransom or even left to die in some cases, when the risks get too high for their
smugglers. Many smugglers do not care if migrants drown in the sea, die of
dehydration in a desert or suffocate in a container. Every year this trade is
valued at billions of dollars. In 2009 some $6.6 billion was generated through
the
illegal smuggling of 3 million migrants from Latin America to North America, while the previous year 55,000 migrants were smuggled from Africa into Europe for a sum of $150 million.
illegal smuggling of 3 million migrants from Latin America to North America, while the previous year 55,000 migrants were smuggled from Africa into Europe for a sum of $150 million.
Illicit trading in
firearms brings
in around $170 million to $320 million annually and puts handguns and assault
rifles in the hands of criminals and gangs. It is difficult to count the
victims of these illicit weapons, but in some regions (such as the Americas)
there is a strong correlation between homicide rates and the percentage of
homicides by firearms.
Trafficking in natural
resources includes
the smuggling of raw materials such as diamonds and rare metals (often from
conflict zones). The trafficking of timber in South-East Asia generates annual
revenues of $3.5 billion. In addition to funding criminal groups, this strand
of criminal activity ultimately contributes to deforestation, climate change
and rural poverty.
The illegal trade in
wildlife is
another lucrative business for organized criminal groups, with poachers
targeting skins and body parts for export to foreign markets. Trafficking in
elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts from Africa and South-East Asia to
Asia produces $75 million in criminal profits each year and threatens the existence
of some species. Organized crime groups also deal in live and rare plants and
animals threatening their very existence to meet demand from collectors or
unwitting consumers. According to the WWF, traffickers illegally move over 100
million tons of fish, 1.5 million live birds and 440,000 tons of medicinal
plants per year.
The sale of fraudulent
medicines is
a worrying business, as it represents a potentially deadly trade for consumers.
Piggybacking on the rising legitimate trade in pharmaceuticals from Asia to
other developing regions, criminals traffic fraudulent medicines from Asia, in
particular to South-East Asia and Africa to the value of $1.6 billion. Instead
of curing people, however, they can result in death or cause resistance to
drugs used to treat deadly infectious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.
In addition to traditional trafficking methods, criminals continue to build a
lucrative online trade in fraudulent medicines targeting developed and
developing countries alike, which can also lead to health implications for
consumers.
Cybercrime encompasses several
areas, but one of the most profitable for criminals is identity theft, which
generates around $1 billion each year. Criminals are increasingly exploiting
the Internet to steal private data, access bank accounts and fraudulently
attain payment card details.
Globalization and
Transnational Crime :
Globalization, generally
described as the removal of barriers to cross-national movement of goods and
funds, has been beneficial for
transnational organized crime networks. The global forces of supply and
demand have created new markets for illicit goods and services provided by
criminal organizations. There is high demand for things like drugs
(particularly in Europe and North America), weapons (in Africa and the Middle East),
exotic wildlife and animal parts (Asia), and exploitable humans (virtually
everywhere). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
has recently estimated that the
international trade in counterfeit and stolen goods amounts to as much as half
a trillion dollars. Criminal networks also have new opportunities to establish
facilities in various countries from which they can produce and distribute
their illicit goods, decreasing costs and maximizing profits. Similarly, just
as we see with legal multinational corporations, transnational criminal
networks can outsource an array of support services to areas around the world
with internet connectivity and lower labor costs.
For example, massive
amounts of cocaine are now smuggled by ship and air from Latin America (mainly
Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela) to West Africa, and heroin is smuggled
from Central and South Asia to East Africa (and sometimes West Africa as well).
In both cases, the drugs then make their way from East and West Africa to the
primary drug consumer markets in Europe and the U.S. According to the 2018 UNODC World Drug Report, ‘the quantity of cocaine
seized in Africa doubled in 2016, with countries in North Africa seeing a six
fold increase and accounting for 69 per cent of all the cocaine seized in the
region in 2016.’ Interpol’s World Atlas of
Illicit Flows identifies a handful of countries as being particularly
important transit hubs for drug trafficking, including Guinea-Bissau, Cape
Verde, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Ethiopia. This report
also notes that illicit trafficking and use of captagon (a brand name for the
drug fenethylline, a combination of amphetamine and theophylline, which
increases alertness) is rising throughout Africa. India is allegedly a primary
source for both of these drugs, and increased use is particularly noticeable in
Mali, Chad, and Nigeria. While Niger, Benin and Togo have been described as
important transit hubs. Meanwhile, dozens of methamphetamine labs have been
discovered throughout West Africa, including one in Nigeria
capable of producing billions of dollars’ worth of the drug.
Of course, criminal
enterprises also generate millions of dollars in profits each year from
trafficking in small arms and
light weapons, cigarettes, counterfeit DVDs, and many other items.
Globalized shipping, including the intermodal maritime system, can be exploited
by transnational organized crime networks to smuggle huge shipments of illicit
items in cargo containers. They seek to take advantage of the fact that the
overwhelming number of containers shipped each year make it physically
impossible to inspect each one. As maritime
security expert Peter Cook notes, ‘The greatest challenge … is the
sheer volume of containers moving through the ports and the speed with which they
have to be processed.’ In August 2018, U.S. government
authorities announced the seizure of counterfeit luxury goods (including purses,
handbags, and belts) worth at least $500 million, that had been manufactured in
China. Over 30 men and women were arrested—all of Chinese heritage and living
in the U.S. illegally. This was the culmination of a six-year investigation,
which found that twenty of the cargo containers came into the U.S. through the
Port of New York and New Jersey, and two through the Port of Los Angeles. In
another of the largest counterfeit-goods cases ever prosecuted in the U.S., 29
people were arrested in New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Florida for trying to
smuggle $325 million worth of fake goods from China into the U.S.
But worse than drugs or
counterfeit goods is the recent increase of human traffickers using compromised
intermodal shipping containers. Illegal immigrants apprehended at ports in
Britain, Canada and the U.S. (among other countries) after arriving inside shipping
containers revealed that many of them had paid a criminal network large sums of
cash for the dangerous journey inside a steel crate. For others, this journey
ended tragically, like the 39 Vietnamese
whose bodies were discovered in a cargo container at a British port in March
2020. The same month, the bodies of 64 Ethiopians
were found in a shipping container in Mozambique. In both instances,
authorities believed the victims had suffocated to death.
Globalization also
facilitates new opportunities for intersections
(especially logistical, financial and operational) between terrorist networks
and transnational organized crime. The ability for terrorists to
attract and move financial resources, weapons and operatives throughout the
world is greatly enhanced when collaborating with existing routes developed and
maintained by transnational criminal networks. Further, there are individuals
who can navigate both the legal and illegal economic sectors (such as
accountants, attorneys, notaries, bankers, and real estate brokers), providing
services to legitimate customers, criminals, and terrorists alike. And while
globalization has led to an increased volume of legitimate cross-border
financial transactions and investment, it also has allowed criminals to launder
the proceeds of crime more easily.
Finally, myriad
opportunities for both transnational criminals and terrorists are now available
via the Internet. These days, Internet connectivity worldwide brings new
opportunities for credit card fraud, theft of corporate data (or holding it
hostage for ransom), extortion, identity theft, and a range of other kinds of
potentially lucrative criminal activities online. Money laundering schemes of
various forms can flourish within a digital environment that is weakly governed
yet connected with the rest of the world. Globalization allows greater access
to the products and services available on the so-called Dark Web, from
purchasing explosives or other weapons to hiring a competent cross-border
smuggler, document forgery expert or bomb-maker. And of course, operational
communication is now much easier between criminal or terrorist network
operatives in disparate parts of the world. According to Yuri Fedotov,
the executive director of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, ‘Thanks to advances in
technology, communication, finance and transport, loose networks of terrorists
and organized criminal groups that operate internationally can easily link with
each other. By pooling their resources and expertise, they can significantly
increase their capacity to do harm.’
To sum up, transnational
organized crime networks have benefited significantly from globalization, and
will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As a result, there is a
growing need for effective
international cooperation in security, intelligence and law enforcement across all countries
of origin, transit and destination. No country, even the most powerful, can
effectively confront the challenges of transnational organized crime entirely
on its own. This is no time for increased nationalism or the kinds of rhetoric
and policies that lead to political isolation. Every country, including the US,
must re-invigorate their engagement with international institutions and
incentivize a collaborative effort to turn the tide against these transnational
criminal networks. Failure to do so will only further embolden, enable and
enrich them, at our expense.
Global threats, local
effects :
While transnational
organized crime is a global threat, its effects are felt locally. When
organized crime takes root it can destabilize countries and entire regions,
thereby undermining development assistance in those areas. Organized crime
groups can also work with local criminals, leading to an increase in
corruption, extortion, racketeering and violence, as well as a range of other
more sophisticated crimes at the local level. Violent gangs can also turn inner
cities into dangerous areas and put citizens' lives at risk. Organized crime affects people in the
developing and the developed worlds. Money is laundered through banking
systems. People become victims of identity theft, with 1.5 million people each
year being caught out. In many developed countries, criminal groups traffic
women for sexual exploitation and children for purposes of forced begging,
burglary and pickpocketing. Car theft is also an organized business, with
vehicles stolen to order and taken abroad. Fraudulent medicines and food
products enter the licit market and not only defraud the public but can put
their lives and health at risk. Added to this is the trade in counterfeit
products, which deprives countries of tax revenues. This can also have an
impact on legitimate companies when illegally produced goods displace sales of
original products, which in turn hurts employer revenues.
Organized crime adds to an
increase in public spending for security and policing and undermines the very
human rights standards that many countries strive to preserve, particularly
when activities such as human trafficking in human beings, kidnapping and
extortion are taken into consideration. It can also fuel local crime, which in
turn drives up costs such as insurance premiums and adds to the general level
of criminality and insecurity in society.
Relation between
transnational crime and global criminology :
Transnational crime and
global criminology are two interconnected concepts that revolve around the
study and understanding of criminal activities that transcend national borders
and have a global impact. Let's break down each of these concepts:
- Transnational Crime:
Transnational crime refers to criminal activities that involve actors,
organizations, or networks operating in multiple countries or across
international borders. These crimes are often complex, sophisticated, and
may include various illegal activities such as drug trafficking, human
trafficking, cybercrime, terrorism, money laundering, organized crime, and
more. Transnational crimes typhically involve coordination and
collaboration among criminals or criminal organizations in different
countries.
Key features of
transnational crime include:
- Involvement of multiple
jurisdictions: Perpetrators, victims, and illicit activities span across
multiple countries or regions.
- Global impact: These crimes can
have significant global consequences, including threats to international
security, economic destabilization, and harm to individuals and
communities worldwide.
- Adaptability and innovation:
Criminal organizations involved in transnational crime often adapt
quickly to changes in law enforcement efforts and technology.
- Global Criminology: Global
criminology is an interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on the
examination, analysis, and understanding of crime and criminal justice
issues from a global perspective. It seeks to address the challenges posed
by transnational crime and the interconnectedness of criminal activities
across borders. Global criminology involves the study of various aspects
related to crime, including its causes, consequences, prevention, and
control, within a global context.
Key areas of focus in
global criminology include:
- Comparative criminology:
Analyzing crime rates, criminal justice systems, and law enforcement
practices across different countries and regions to identify patterns and
differences.
- Transnational crime research:
Investigating the dynamics, causes, and impacts of transnational criminal
activities.
- International law and criminal
justice: Examining the legal frameworks and international organizations
involved in addressing transnational crime.
- Global policing and
cooperation: Studying how law enforcement agencies from different
countries collaborate to combat transnational criminal networks.
- Human rights and justice: Considering
the implications of transnational crime on human rights and social
justice issues worldwide.
Global criminology aims to
develop a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of crime in a
globalized world and to inform policies and strategies to combat transnational
crime effectively. Researchers and practitioners in this field often work together
to promote international cooperation, enhance legal frameworks, and develop
strategies to address the challenges posed by transnational criminal
organizations.
Conclusion:
An emerging global criminology should attempt
to arrive at some consensus on defining itself coherently. It should identify
the parameters of expanded criminological concerns within the context of
globalization. It should address the definition of crime issue anew within this
context. It should attend to defining the key terms associated with an emerging
global criminology clearly and cogently. It should develop a coherent typology
of global crime or transnational crime, and of the institutions of control of
such crime. A global criminology needs to address systematically the formidable
methodological issues that arise in relation to studying global and
transnational crime. It should adopt a credible "world order"
framework within which transnational forms of crime and its control can be
analysed. It should identify optimal strategies for promoting a broader
awareness within the discipline of the need to adopt a global framework. It
should identify viable and useful empirical projects that can advance the understanding
of transnational crime and its control. It must also identify optimal
strategies for securing funding and support for such projects. It needs to
identify the major policy issues that now arise in relation to transnational
crime and its control, and the optimal resolution of these issues. Finally, it
needs to delineate the relation? ship of an emerging criminology to a range of
disciplines including international law and comparative
politics that address some of the same concerns.
Article Information
TRANSNATIONAL CRIME AND GLOBAL CRIMINOLOGY
Authors: MEHUL DHARMENDRA SHAH
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2024/04/22
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Access Open Access
- License CC 4.0
All research articles published in International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis are open access and available to read, download and share, subject to proper citation of the original work.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis.