Cambridge Professional Development Paper 4 – Script H 2 ‘It is becoming harder to detect and punish global crime.’ Evaluate this view. [35] In this age of globalisation, trade and travel restrictions between countries had mostly disappear before the global pandemic Covid 19 crisis. World economies have become increasingly interdependent. There is increasing breakdown of the boundaries among nation states. This has given rise to the flow and migration of undesirable people, illicit trade, ideas, objects and transnational criminal activities across the boundaries. Organised crimes have increase globally including money laundering, terrorism, human and arms trafficking, cybercrimes, human and drug smuggling. Global crime total value is equivalent to 15% of the world’s wealth. There are two opposing views, for and against, the notion that global crime is becoming harder to detect and punish. Here I will discuss globalization and crime from the perspectives of Marxist, hyperglobalist, sceptical globalist, and transformational globalist. First, hyperglobalists are optimist about globalization that will provide cooperation at international level to detect global crime. Social media such as Facebook and Instagram may contain rich and timely postings of information relevant to public safety. The content-text and images- of these social media can be monitored and analysed. This social monitoring by law enforcement agencies provides a proactive way to target criminal events that can potentially lead to human disasters. With the progress of big data analytics software, posts that are related to criminal activity can be detected. In addition, these predictive analytical tools offer the potential to track suspected criminal movements 24/7 based on their documentations in social media. Second, global information, intelligence sharing, cooperation and formal agreements between the international policing organisation, INTERPOL and regional bodies such as ASEANPOL, AFRIPOL and EUROPOL had helped detect organised crime. This information made accessible to frontline police and customs officer at international borders helps in intercepting the movement of organised criminal activities. At the same time, greater regional law enforcement cooperation facilitates police cooperation between regions. Third, organised crime such as narcotics drug trafficking and its associated money laundering, terrorism, illegal immigration and arms trafficking are transnational in nature. Individual countries have limited ability to combat these global crimes. The UN General Assembly has, over the years, initiated several conventions, treaties and protocols that provide comprehension measures to combat the crimes mentioned. For example, the UN conventions against illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and 9699_Ext_Script H 1 against transnational organised crime provide practical measures against drug trafficking, money laundering, legal frameworks for law enforcement and extradition among member countries. The international cooperation fostered by the UN had help detect and punish transnational crime. Fourth, Post 9/11, airport controls to detect travellers before they reach their destinations have been strengthened against terrorism that involves the use of violence to disrupt or coerce a government or community to create fear and intimidation. Risk profiling of air passengers based on big data gathering aims are used to distinguish between genuine travellers and those with criminal intent. At the same time, external borders are strengthened through better police cooperation and exchange of information among nations, utilisation of technologies at airports such as machine readable biometric passports and visas. These actions have made it easier to detect and punish potential terrorists. The securitisation of borders such as stricter border controls and visa requirements had help to detect crime. However, sceptics argued that although globalization brings economic liberalisation and cross border activities including control and surveillance of global crime but liberalization of trade can also increase global corporate crimes that are hard to detect. The neo-liberal approach to governance has led to greater privatisation of state assets and deregulation of financial markets. The flow of money without any government regulation has made financial crimes such as money laundering easier. Money laundering is a key feature of illicit supply chains, transactions of funds and tax evasions. Since the funds are integrated into the legitimate financial system, the original source obtained through such criminal activities is hidden. Therefore, in a globalised environment where there is little or no government regulation on financial exchange, organized transnational criminal networks can escape from being detected and punished. In addition, the Internet provides a virtual platform for a variety of illegal crime, including child pornography, and computer hacking. Since the Internet provides a wide range of freedom for global citizens, tracking the activities of cybercrime is difficult. Law enforcement agencies faced difficulties such as anonymity of cybercriminals, jurisdiction issues, and inadequate legislation for enforcement of cybercrime laws. Cybercrime is a transnational crime that can be committed in a virtual space that transcends nation states and jurisdictions. Even if the identity and country of residence are known, the court of the country in which the crime is committed lacks the power to initiate or conduct legal actions. Moreover, not every country in this world have laws relevant to cybercrime. This has hampered the enforcement of cybercrime laws globally. Another difficulty faced by law enforcers of illicit drugs is that transactions of drugs have moved from the terrestrial to the virtual world of the World Wide Web. The case of trading online on the World Wide Web can bypass the government’s criminal laws. The Dark Web is anonymous and 9699_Ext_Script H 2 difficult to detect due to its use of Tor onion browser and electronic cryptocurrencies that operate without central banking control. For example, one of the most notorious website located on the Dark Web was The Silk Road which is an online global distributor for illegal services and contraband that generated an estimated 1.2 billion dollar in sales in from 2011 to 2013. Law enforcement has continually pursued organised cybercrimes such as child pornography and illicit drug distribution on the Dark Web. Nikita Malik (2018) claims that the dark net is being used by extremist and terrorists to raise funds and recruit new followers to plot future attacks. Marxists and Sceptics will argue that the rich and powerful use advanced technology to commit and conceal evidence of their crimes globally has made it difficult for law enforcement to detect. According to the World Health Organization, trafficking of human organs is a global crime committed through a variety of illicit channels for the purpose of financial gain. Countries whose populations fall prey to organised crime networks dealing with human organ trafficking are generally poor and underdeveloped. Victims are generally reluctant to report such activities due to death threats to them and their families. Moreover, coordination between law enforcement and authorities in the affected countries in all aspects of the supply chain is often lacking. Thus detecting this treacherous global crime is a difficult process. Next, multinational/global corporations and financial institutions often hide their financial assets to escape the control of nation states. Governing these global corporations by individual nations is difficult. The gigantic wealth hidden in offshore banks by these corporations showed the helplessness of the individual countries. This global flow of illicit funds away from state control can weaken the state in terms of their sovereign crime control. Certain countries such as Cayman Islands and Bermuda had used the power of law to create safe havens for unethical and illicit activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion by these unscrupulous corporations. This made detection of such crime difficult. Furthermore, human trafficking of illegal migration has increased in the form organised global crime. It involves the use of threats and coercion to recruit and transport persons for the purpose of exploiting them for monetary gain. These exploitations include forced labour or services, slavery and removal of organs. Human trafficking can be attributed to the social context of wars, poverty, violence and economic deprivation in the undeveloped and developing countries as well as the demand for the services of these illegal migrants in developed countries. The hyperglobalist argue that the rapid communication and exposure through Internet, globalised TV broadcasts have brought changes to consumerism and lifestyle. Exposure to western materialistic values have increased temptation to commit crime to achieve the lifestyles of the rich and famous have increase global crime. 9699_Ext_Script H 3 The Marxist perspective of globalisation argued that the relentless drive for profits would lead companies to mechanise their workplaces, causing overproduction of goods at minimum costs by exploiting workers. This has led to the spread of capitalism throughout the world in search of new markets. This search for new markets, demand for cheap labour and natural resources resulted in the growth of multinational corporations that seek cheap labour to maximise profits. Joseph Stiglitz argued that the domination of international capital is the domination of the strong nations over the weak. Countries become trapped in poverty via economic sanctions where they have policies imposed on them. Hence, global forces exerted their power economically, politically and culturally on the economy, sovereignty and identity respectively of nations. Crime rates and social unrest increase in underdeveloped societies due to poverty. Marxists believe that global crime is inevitable because global capitalism is criminogenic i.e. global crime is a natural outcome of international capitalism. Wallerstein (1983) that global capitalist class contribute to global crime by practicing neocolonialism. Even international aid that assist LEDC often disappears and is misappropriated by a local kelptocracy. Marxists and sceptics argue that there are more evidence that shows the negative consequences of globalization on crime. The fact that global organised crimes have continued to flourish due to globalisation, deregulation of financial markets, freedom of usage of Internet, high global demand for illicit drugs, and human trafficking for slave labour and exploitation of cheap labour shows the difficulty to curb them. Countries have taken numerous steps to address the problem involving transnational organised crime. These steps had been largely ineffective in breaking the demandsupply chain for illicit drugs and illegal immigrants. Crimes continue to increase globally due to difficulty to detect and punish such criminals in a borderless world. 9699_Ext_Script H 4