The Globalisation of Crime - Essay Example

The globalisation of crime Globalisation is a feature of the world today and it has numerous broad ramifications in the cultural, economic, and political realms. The internationalisation of the world economy has fundamentally transformed the ways in which we do business and is driven by capitalist market principles of economic behavior. Accordingly, the globalisation phenomenon has led to the internationalisation of knowledge, goods and people across international borders. While it is easy to think of globalisation in purely economic terms, this phenomenon has also set the stage for the international distribution of more insidious items. These include drugs such cocaine which is harvested in the jungles of Columbia before it makes its way to the cities of London, New York and Paris. In Afghanistan, the poppies of this country are harvested, sent to heroin processing plants in Eastern Europe before they find their home in the veins of Western Europeans and North Americans. In addition to the globalisation of drugs and the internationalisation of narcotics, globalisation has increased the incidents of piracy, counterfeit goods and organ trafficking. Perhaps most insidiously, globalisation has paved the way for an international traffic in people which involves the smuggling of refugees in addition to the international traffic of women. While some women are trafficked to work as domestic servants or as migrant laborers, the majority are sold into sexual slavery and exist as 21st century slaves. While international piracy, the spread of international counterfeit goods and organ trafficking are all interesting subjects the study from a sociological perspective in light of the internationalisation of crime, due to the limited scope of this analysis the following will focus upon the international traffic of women as well as the internationalization of drugs. Since the global traffic of women for sexual servitude is perhaps one of the most insidious byproducts of the globalisation movement, the following will begin with an overview of this exploitative trade. The transnationalisation of crime has increased in the 21st century. Complex economic interdependence has increased the avenues for criminals seeking to exploit the international economic system and create networks for their criminal endeavors. To say that the transnationalisation of crime exists today is not to say that it did not exist previously. Many of the crimes which are being carried out each and every day existed a century ago in Western Europe and the wealthy countries in North America. For example Sigmund Freud was a reputed cocaine addict and there were many famous people who partook in drugs such as opium and cocaine, amongst others.1 What differs today from recent history is that the internationalisation of economic trade has ensured that business is now global. The technologies which are available for both legitimate and illegitimate business people have grown significantly and the interdependence of global business make it now an international process. For example, the migration of Mexican and Colombian drug barons in the United States exemplifies that not all migration is positive and that some migrants have unsavory motives. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, exemplified through the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, international trade and development increased exponentially. Now many of the countries which were formerly part of the Soviet sphere of influence and were officially socialist, now embrace the ideals of Western capitalism and have thus entered the global economic marketplace. The result in many respects has been positive but an unfortunate result of the globalisation phenomenon has also been the transnationalisation of crime in the 21st century.2 Globalisation and the transnationalisation of crime have paved the way for the international traffic of women throughout the world. How does one define the international traffic of women? According to published research on the subject, the international traffic of women generally refers to the buying and selling of women for sexual purposes and is a modern form of sexual servitude.3 From the perspective of international law, the 1949 United Nations Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others makes it explicit that the transitional traffic of women is illegal under international law. Furthermore, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) explicitly, affirms the reproductive rights of women and targets culture and culture and tradition as influential forces shaping gender roles and family relations...state parties also agree to take appropriate measures against all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of women.4 While the Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others and the United Nation Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women explicitly mention the trafficking of women, this problem remains an international issue which afflicts thousands of women around the world.5 Accordingly, this trade is now commonly referred to as the “Natasha Trade”, thus giving it increasing resonance in the countries of the former Soviet sphere of influence. While this does not mean that the trade in women from Asia has ended, the purpose of this new moniker is that it represents a substantial shift in source countries for an industry which is said to generate between $7 and $12 billion dollars annually.6 Furthermore, The transnational trade in women is based on supply and demand from sending and receiving countries. Countries with large sex industries create the demand and are the receiving countries, while countries where traffickers easily recruit women are the sending countries. For decades the primary sending countries were Asian countries, such as Thailand and the Philippines. The collapse of the Soviet Union opened up a pool of millions of women from which traffickers can recruit. Now, former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Russia, have become major sending countries for women trafficked into sex industries all over the world. In the sex industry markets today, the most popular and valuable women are from Ukraine and Russia.7 As we see above, the trade in women is essentially at its core an economic argument and it remains motivated in large part through capitalist economics. Similar to slavery, in which profit were the underlying motivations for the international traffic of people, the sexual servitude of women remains one of the most controversial, yet under studied, aspects of slavery in the twenty-first century. What motivates the international traffic women from all corners of the globe, but more recently Russia and the former Eastern European countries of the Soviet Union? Women are often lured into the trade with promises of greater opportunities, wealth and the chance to move to the developed world. Accordingly, many women who participate in the trade do so voluntarily but are lied to and the actual work that they will be undertaking once in a new country is frequently misrepresented. Thus while many women do choose to participate in the economic arrangement, few know that they jobs will be that of prostitute or stripper and that the economic opportunities for them in their new homes will be limited or non-existent. Thus, deceit is an important condition which is nearly universal in the case of women who are members of the international trafficking cartels of Western Europe, North America and Israel. While some are told that they will be domestic workers in their new homes, nearly all are put to work as sexual slaves in a new land. With their passports taken and little or no recourse or language skills in the new land, most women are passive sexual servants caught up in position of modern sexual servitude. According to the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, since the trade is secretive, dangerous and illegal there are no concrete numbers on the amount of women who presently are embroiled in this trade. It is however estimated that approximately 500,000 women from Eastern and Central Europe are presently involved in the trade. What motivates the johns/pimps in the international trade of women? As mentioned above, the stakes in the transitional servitude of women are high and this “industry” generates anywhere from $7 to $12 billion dollars annually. Men who are involved in the sexual exploitation of women are motivated by a variety of pecuniary as well as sexual factors. The United Nations reports that approximately 1 million of the 4 million people who are trafficked each and every year are done so for the purpose of sexual exploitation. As a modern day slave trade, the sexual exploitation of women is a shadow market motivated by finances, greed and sexuality.8 The transnational traffic of women responds to migratory patterns and has successfully capitalized on insecurities and widespread beliefs in opportunities abroad. Thus, women and young girls from Eastern Europe are led to believe that the opportunity structures abroad are so much greater than they are at home and are motivated to move to the West to seek their fortunes. This traffic is directly tied to the globalization movement and the internationalisation of crime. The following explores the transnational of drugs and its ties to the globalisation phenomenon.9 The transnational traffic of drugs is similar to the traffic of women in the sense that it hinges upon the internationalisation of the global economic system. For several major drug reducing countries such as Afghanistan and Columbia hold the distinction is being some of the most active exporters other narcotics. Accordingly, Afghanistan is the worlds largest heroin producer and it cultivates and exports drugs throughout Western Europe as well as the United States. Even more insidiously, drug cultivation and exportation reportedly funded the Taliban Islamic movement in Afghanistan and thus paved the way for the transnational funding of modern terror.10 In Afghanistan for example, the opium economy was responsible for an incredible 60% of that countrys total GDP in 2003, three years after the US-led invasion and the overthrow of the Taliban. That opium is cultivated, cured, and turned into heroin in the desolate regions of Afghanistan. According to the United Nations office on drugs and crime, 93% of the worlds opium production originates in Afghanistan.11 Accordingly, the cultivation of poppy opium grew from 165,000 hectares to more than 193,000 hectares in 2003.12 As the United Nations reports opium production is on the rise in Afghanistan. The globalization of international economic trade has set the stage for the importation and exportation of this illicit drug. In United States for example, its close proximity to Columbia make it particularly vulnerable to the importation of cocaine. As a result of the situation emanating from Afghanistan as well as the cocaine problem which is based out of Colombia in Latin America, the United States is trying its best to hinder the illicit traffic of illegal drugs, something which is facilitated by the transnationalisation of the global economy.13 Concluding Remarks Globalisation has had a variety of positive consequences for the global economy as well as some negative ramifications. Facilitated by the internationalisation economic interdependence since the collapse of the Soviet Union, globalisation has also paved the way for other insidious trades. The transnationalisation of crime has led to the international traffic of women as well as the international traffic of drugs. Accordingly, the traffic of women is facilitated by globalisation and the international transfer of knowledge, goods and now people. In addition to drugs, globalisation has led to an international traffic for the purposes of sexual exploitation and servitude. The present international traffic of women is said to account for between $7 and $12 billion USD annually and represents sexual slavery and modern day bondage. The transnational trade in drugs earns unknown millions for the drug barons of the world and is directly related to the globalisation of the international economic system. Accordingly, despite the US invasion in 2001, poppy production in Afghanistan continues to grow. In a globalised world, rules are difficult to implement as the UN laws which deal with the international traffic of women, as well as the issue of drugs in Afghanistan, demonstrate. The preceding has drawn a direct correlation between the globalisation phenomenon and the transnationalisation of crime in the twenty-first century. references Bird, C 1998, "100,000 Ukrainians slaves of Wests sex industry," Reuters 6 July 1998. Campaigns. , 2009, The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, viewed November 4, 2009 http://www.catwinternational.org/campaigns.php Davenport-Hines, R 2004, The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, W. W. Norton & Company, New York. Gay, P 1998, Freud: A life for our time, W. W. Norton & Company, New York. Goodhand, J 2004, “Frontiers and Wars: the Opium Economy in Afghanistan”, Journal of Agrarian Change, 5:2, pp.191-216. Hughes, DM 2000, ‘The “Natasha” Trade: The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women’, Journal of International Affairs 53.2, pp. 625-651 Paringaux, R-P 1998, "Prostitution take a turn for the West," Le Monde, 24 May 1998. Paris, R 2006, “NATOs Choice in Afghanistan: go big or go home”, Policy Options, pp. 35-43. Specter M, 1998 "Traffickers New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women," New York Times, 11 January 1998. The United Nations and the Status of Women 2009, The United Nations, viewed November 4, 2009 http://www.un.org/Conferences/Women/PubInfo/Status/TextOnly.m Read More