Crime & Globalisation (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

The global criminal economy

• Globalisation has created a worldwide criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per year (Castells, 1998)

• Forms include:

  • arms trafficking to illegal regimes and terrorists

  • trafficking nuclear materials from former communist states

  • smuggling illegal immigrants, e.g., Chinese Triads

  • trafficking women & children for sex work/slavery

  • trafficking endangered species for traditional medicine

  • trafficking body parts for organ transplants in rich countries

  • drug trade, e.g. cocaine from Colombia and heroin from Afghanistan

  • cybercrime, such as hacking, ID theft, viruses, and online fraud

  • money laundering of organised crime profits

Demand and supply

• Demand comes mainly from the wealthy West (e.g., drugs, sex work, cheap goods)

• Supply comes from low- and middle-income countries where crime (e.g., drug cultivation) provides income and survival

Global risk consciousness

• Globalisation has produced new insecurities, such as terrorism, migration, and climate change

• Risks are now seen as global rather than local

  • E.g., the movement of migrants and asylum seekers has fuelled anxieties about crime and disorder in Western countries

• Much of our knowledge of risks comes from the media, which often exaggerates threats and fuels moral panics (e.g., 'migrant crisis')

• The political response has often been increased border controls and surveillance

Globalisation and increasing crime

• Globalisation has increased crime in several ways

Effects on local crime

• Taylor (1997) argues that globalisation gives free rein to market forces, which increases inequality and rising crime

• Deindustrialisation, where transnational corporations move manufacturing to low-wage countries, has led to job insecurity, unemployment, poverty and marginalisation

• The impact of this is that the poor turn to crime and look for illegitimate job opportunities, e.g., drug dealing and gang crime

  • Drugwise (2016) estimated 306,000 heroin users in the UK were responsible for over 50% of property crime, funding global drug networks

Inequality

• Globalisation has resulted in mass unemployment and poverty in the USA and UK

• Marxists and left realists argue this is a major cause of crime because the poor feel envy, hostility and relative deprivation

Consumerism

• Globalisation spreads consumerist values throughout the world

• Reiner (2007) argues that the inability to achieve the status and goals marketed by capitalism leads to rising crime rates in Western societies

• Marxists argue that capitalism is criminogenic – it produces crime both locally and globally

Opportunity

• Globalisation creates new opportunities for crime and new types of crime, such as:

  • cybercrime

  • human and drug trafficking

  • money laundering

  • smuggling of goods and people

Crimes of the powerful

• Global companies exploit global markets by:

  • moving production to low-cost countries with weaker labour and environmental laws

  • subcontracting 'flexible' workers, often below minimum wage, in illegal or unsafe conditions

  • using 24-hour offshore banking allows tax avoidance

  • exploiting deregulated financial markets for insider trading

• These are examples of corporate crimes, showing how elites profit from globalisation while avoiding accountability

'Glocal' crime

• Hobbs and Dunningham (1998) observe that the way crime is organised is linked to the economic changes brought by globalisation

• They argue that crime is increasingly 'glocal' in character – local in organisation but linked to global networks

• Individuals act as hubs in loose networks, combining legal and illegal opportunities

• Crimes vary by local context but are shaped by global markets (e.g., drug supply chains)

Examples

• Drugs trade: Prices/profits for UK dealers depend on global cartels’ ability to move drugs efficiently, while avoiding detection

• Prostitution – National Crime Agency (2014) estimates 3,000–4,000 women trafficked annually into the UK by Eastern European gangs. to work against their will as constrained prostitutes

• Smuggling – Glenny (2009) estimated the UK loses £6 billion annually in taxes from cigarettes smuggled in from Eastern Europe

Globalisation and decreasing crime

• Globalisation has led to new ways of tackling crime more effectively, making it harder for offenders to operate across borders

Transnational policing & intelligence sharing

• International agencies such as Interpol and Europol now share information across borders

• This improves coordination, tracking, and extradition, making it harder for criminals to hide in other countries

Surveillance & biometrics

• Shared databases (e.g. biometric passports), facial recognition, DNA records, and CCTV analytics make it easier to identify and trace offenders

• Haggerty and Ericson (2000) describe how different technologies combine (e.g., CCTV, credit card data and GPS tracking) to create 'data doubles' of individuals, helping to monitor movement and activity

Risk management

• In today’s 'risk society' (Beck), crime prevention focuses on predicting and preventing crime before it happens

• Garland (2001) calls this 'actuarial justice', where resources are directed to high-risk groups and places

• E.g., airports use passenger profiling to spot potential offenders or terrorists before boarding

Border governance & supply-chain controls

• International agreements mean stronger checks at borders, container scanning, and shared watchlists

• Nadelmann & Andreas show how global cooperation has tightened control over trafficking and smuggling routes

Evaluation of globalisation and crime

Strengths

• Valuable research

  • Highlights new and serious forms of crime (e.g. cybercrime, trafficking, terrorism) that were previously overlooked

  • This helps criminologists and policymakers understand how global as well as local forces shape crime

• Global–local connections

  • Shows how international processes such as migration, trade, and digital networks influence crime at the local level

  • Demonstrates that globalisation does not replace local crime but interacts with it in complex ways

Criticisms

• Secretive and complex nature

  • Crimes like global financial fraud or trafficking are difficult to research because they require specialist knowledge

  • Reliable statistics are often unavailable, raising questions about the validity of research findings

• Impact may be exaggerated

  • Globalisation has had a greater impact on crime in some regions than others, especially where corruption and weak policing are common

  • In countries with strong law enforcement, globalisation may have less of an effect on everyday crime patterns

• Most crime is low-level

  • The majority of offences remain routine, everyday crimes committed within local communities

  • This suggests globalisation may play a smaller role than claimed in shaping overall crime rates