What developments over the last 20 years have made transnational crime harder to detect and prosecute - Essay Example

Transnational crimes can be referred to as the violent activities carried out in a country by any rival country either by means of physically participating in terrorism / crimes or by supporting or exploiting the local individuals through brain-washing or the financial support. It is considered as a new form of warfare thereby avoiding physical contact with rival country, hence ensuring safety of men and material which are likely to be damaged during physical war (Netanyahu and Mekhon, 1981).

Such crimes may also include those activities which are undertaken in the same countries but their affects / fallouts have effects on the other countries as well. These include the human / drug trafficking, arms / goods smuggling, information warfare / propaganda and even the cyber- crimes (Williams & Vlassis, 2001-pg 16). At times, it becomes very evident as which country is involved in such international crimes, but it is very hard to bring them to justice or trial in international courts due to non-availability or paucity of requisite proofs.

Since last two decades, many countries developed laws to tackle such crimes. United Nations Security Council in its resolution 1373 / 2001, decided that all states should render their full assistance to other countries for criminal investigation and proceedings. Necessary evidences may also be provided by the state, to the one investigating the transnational crimes. At present INTERPOL (International Police) is the world-wide organisation in this regard, which renders its assistance to the other countries involved in investigation / prosecution of criminals by bringing the criminals to justice who evade to other countries (Mallory, 2007-pg 176).

Despite having joint investigation teams, it is very difficult to bring these criminals to justice because of many reasons. The most obvious reason in this regard is difficulty in identification of hostile actors operating from across the border. This problem becomes even more pronounced due to ‘lack of will’ by the government of the state which was involved in transnational crimes. The state / country that is to provide the evidences / proofs, try to hide the facts because if it is proved that that transnational crime has taken place from their country, it will tarnish the image in international community.

Gathering evidences from the country which is already an adversary may not be an easy task due to conflicting laws or in some case the restrictions on law enforcement agencies in cooperating with international agencies. A lot of financial resources are required in joint investigations. Moreover, the issue regarding who will pay the incurred amount; the country which has been affected by the transnational crimes or it will shared between both of the countries, remains a question mark (Shanty & Mishra, 2005-pg 287).

Another difficulty faced in prosecution / follow up of transnational crimes is difference of mind-sets. Terrorist or criminal for one nation can be a hero or freedom fighter for the other country (Abadinsky, 2010-pg 7). The affected state will definitely not be able to accrue the desired results in this situation. The fast growing technology, exploited by criminals for cyber-crimes or propaganda about other countries may not be easy to identify and prosecute as their exact location cannot be identified very easily.

Although there are international rules on cyber-crimes, but we have