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
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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
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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.
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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.
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