Why Cross-Border Crime Has Increased With Globalization - Essay Example

 Explain Why Cross-Border Crime Has Increased With Globalization Introduction Over the last several decades, improvements and changes in technology and infrastructure have caused a paradigm shift in the way human beings interact, access information and relate to each other. The world has become what is commonly referred to as a global village, and some of the key factors that have occasioned this trend are developments in the transport and communication system. For this matter, the communication system encompasses a plethora of genres ranging from mobile communication and the Internet. In addition, with globalization, the concept of free markets and minimal regulation trade has led to the increase in mobility of resources and capital. Background information The distance that was previously covered in long sea can today cover journeys taking as many as 3 months in a matter of a few hours. The communication network has also undergone considerable changes with a shift from the traditional snail mail to email, mobile telephony and many other modern technologies. These advancements have made it easier for people to access places and services with time and convenience that were previously inconceivable. This examples paint a rough picture globalization. It has been defined as a system of integrating the world economies to develop the global economy. It involves unification and interaction of economical, technical political cultural and exchanges between countries. The world is described as village owing to the ease by which two people in different countries can trade and/communicate. It is analogous to the manner which two people in a hypothetical village can transact their affairs with each other. The transports system has made it possible for people to travel world over and transact business or pursue leisure activities anywhere in the planet. Information technology has been one of the most instrumental factors in this. It enables people to share information and experiences in bulk and with speed. The same has been applied in all sectors of the economy ranging from banking advertising and media just to name a few. Communication wheatear on an individual or group level has been exponentially enhanced over the years. Television virtually brings a myriad of cultural situations to ones living room prompting the shrinking of the world into a small unit where information, goods and people move and interact freely. Predictably, globalization has been immensely beneficial to many individuals and firms. It has helped people access information, purchase goods and find a market for their goods. It has helped in resolving political tensions. However, the tools of globalization are, but tools and in the wrong intentioned hands, their potential to be harmful rivals the capacity to be beneficial in magnitude. While in retrospect, crimes were often confined within a countries border, thanks to globalization, criminal activities have taken an international, hence cross border outlook. Globalization enables business people to increase their market and drug dealers to recruit mules to market their drugs. Terrorist, smugglers, human traffickers and many other unscrupulous people will use globalization to promote their antisocial agendas. Globalization can be seen as a double-edged sword and it cuts both ways. Many crimes have been made possible through it. Others that were in existence have been made easier to commit and get way with by globalization. The catchment areas for criminals have also extended past political and geographical boundaries. With transport and communication system, many crimes can be committed in different countries. They often target victims across borders, in addition this, the criminal gangs plot and scheme with their contemporaries abroad on the internet. The money earned through crime can be paid or cleaned illegally through foreign banks or money laundering outfits that transcend states and national divisions. This is made harder to combat since while the markets have taken an international perspective, the legal differences between countries limit most law enforcement activities efficiency, autonomy and mandate within the borders of their respective countries and agencies. International co-operation between law enforcement agencies is rarely as strong as the determination of the highly committed and motivated criminals. They are wont to use the gaps in legal systems and policing to escape them. This paper will discuss the various crimes that have a cross border scope and the role globalization has played in developing improving or occasioning them. Terrorism One of the criminal activities that could be argued to have been made possible by globalization would be terrorism. For one, it often involves attacks by foreign nationals. It has also proven to require detailed planning and organization that require travelling all over the world and this is heavily reliant on the internet. Just like business organizations outsource and delocalize to take advantage of the economic variables, terror groups have used globalization to strengthen and widen their scope. Today terrorist use the internet to communicate messages and propaganda, this way, the illicit activities are able to exist across boundaries, and many terror cells have Diaspora members who provide information and support to the main faction who may not be able to act also due to the strict surveillance in entry points such as airports. Terrorist groups are known to recruit people from anywhere in the world on line, and they train and pay their members through as facilities meant for international money transfer such as PayPal. Air transports used both as a means to ferry the terrorist to their destinations for attacks a target, and tool for the destruction. The attacks on September 11 epitomize terrorists embracing technology and global transport infrastructure occasioned by globalization to wreck havoc in the name of their cause. Investigations proved a lot of the planning for the attack had been done through the internet. The cyber and religious environment played a crucial role in the attacks, moreover, instructions for the attack that took place in American soil are said to have originated from from Osama Bin Laden, a terrorist who is believed to have orchestrated despite being in another continent at the time. Terrorist often to thrive in the TBR (it is a free border region between Mexico, Brazil and Argentina). It provides a conducive environment for funding of their activities due to a Diaspora population and the lax security. Criminal gangs have used these as an avenue to supply drugs and arms (Shanty & Misra 161). This is a classic case of globalism being use to promote terror. Another example of this is the pirates in the Indian Ocean coast with links to the al Qaida. They highjack ships in international waters irrespective of their country of origin and demand payment which is often done through wired money transfer. In retrospect before globalization took hold, the process may have been way more difficult since even if they capture the ship, getting the ransom demand to the owners or country as the case may be, and the publicity which makes them more likely to get a pay off (which the media abundantly supplies) would have been virtually impossible. From this, we can Euclid that terrorist such as the al Qaida and Al Shaabab are principal beneficiaries of globalization, and it has helped them further their bloody causes immensely. Web Scams and Cybercrime The internet has provided a level ground on which people from the world over can connect, network and transact business without being hindered by geographical and political borders. The banking system has made allowances for a transaction that are done online moreover; most leading banks provide an option for online banking. This is a monumental step in globalization since someone in Europe can buy a camera through e-bay from someone in America. However, this is also a fertile breeding ground for a new crop of criminals who like terrorist, have been occasioned by the process of globalization. A few years ago, there were several cases of online scams many originating from Nigeria. They targeted people all over the world. These scams involved sending people emails soliciting for charity or requesting them to supply their bank details for use in nonexistent joint investments. The latter ones were accompanied by promises of monumental profits. Many people fell for the enticing lies and as a result lost their money and savings. Other examples can be found in today’s frequent cases of identity theft, phishing and impersonation as well as hacking of private pages and illegally gaining access to private data. One can access data from anyone in the world and use it for steal their money as long as the victim has an online banking account. With the quickly changing trends in technology, it becomes increasingly difficult to trace these criminals since many have levels of technical expertise that may even surpass those attempting to apprehend them. Illegal pornography Still on internet crimes line, other crimes such as child pornography are committed with an international catchment for both clients and victims. There are some sites in the internet which provide pictures, and videos of children engaged in sexual acts. They have a customer base that spans over the world. These pay to get access to this pictures and by so doing encourage the operators to target children all over the world to provide for the diverse needs of their clients. This is not only morally atrocious but against human rights and the laws of any and every civilized country. Once again, because of globalization, such crime can occur and the criminals can get away scot-free by taking advantage of the legal complications and hiding within the many crevices the global village avails as well the legal difficulties. Furthermore, the distribution of other adult entertainment in a way that it can be accessed by children still amounts to a crime. This is evidenced in the many porn site which anyone to access pornographic materials with no regard to the fact that, in some countries it is illegal for children under certain ages to be expose to this. The free, unrestricted material, is often availed to promote premium products. Human trafficking Human smuggling, while it has been going on for many year and dates as far back as slavery days has been given a shot in the arm by globalization. It can be defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion. There are many reasons why humans are trafficked varying from labour in sweatshops for sale in the many sexual slavery rings. These establishments are run covertly all over the world and this is often done via online dating sites where women particularly from third world countries are enticed with promises of a better life in the west or east. Recently the media have been awash with cases of workers from third world countries being abused and even killed by their employers. Instead of engaging them in the agreed services, they tried to use them a sex slaves. The internet provides international hunting grounds for these sexual predators. They exploit the ignorance and poverty of residents of poorer countries who may have turned to the internet to look for employment. They get engaged and agree to marry men they have never met in person, ultimately when they get to their matrimonial home, they realize that they have been brought no a spouses but as sex slaves. Others are tricked by dealers posing as travel agents who later take why their passports and force them into a myriad of dehumanizing practices ( Lea Para 26) Human trafficking can also involve illegal immigrants wanting to leave their country for any number of reasons and move to another one. There are people who provide services to do this and fro a price they can smuggle on into a country without any documents. This business that is common in Mexico and Cuba and even further abroad where one can find people trying to get to America illegally. This sometimes ends up fatally as the conditions under which they travel are extremely difficult. Money laundering Globalization has been accompanied by substantial developments in the field of financial information. With the levels of technology available, money can be moved in and out of accounts anywhere in the world rapidly and easily (UNODC Para 1)This is often dirty money earned through illegal or corrupt means such as drug deals or robbery. Criminals often deposit this money in foreign banks or used cover businesses such as casinos and clubs to lauder the money. This is often done in counties without strict laws to govern laundering it is estimated that 20 billion is laundered through Brazil annually (Shanty & Misra p. 160)Another common form of laundering involves putting deep into international banks. This makes it very difficult for law enforcement agencies to trace this money 2 to 5 percent of the global GDP is laundered money ( Thirlwell 2010 Para 10) . Criminals use the international banking system to hide the money they gain through illegal means from the authorities and the taxman. This is done by shifting it through many different banks until it can be gotten to tax havens. These are countries, where the banks are not likely to disclose any information about the client's cash making them hard to trace. The existence of digital or megabyte money which enables international transaction to be carried out effectively also assists in the promoting of money laundering. Drugs and arms trafficking Many of the conflicts especially in the third world countries are med possible by the illegal weapon that gunrunners supply to them. Because of globalization and an improving in the transport system, arms can be quickly moved to conflict on such as sierra Leone by arms dealer whose motives are often either simply the money from proceeds of helping one side win so they can get some benefit like mining rights in the country. Consequently, many people have died in civil wars in the third world countries because of these arms. One of the documented groups of international arms dealer is the Arabs who, transact their wares from Texas to Mexico and Central America and supply weapons to the zeta (Global report 2009). In America, drugs are a monumental problem that has affected many especially the youth, however, cocaine and heroin so popular and available e is not grown in the country. Most of it is imported through these illegal channels by the mafia groups. Drugs like ecstasy, crack/cocaine and heroin enter the country through the porous borders especially from Mexico. In fact, the DTO has it that drug trafficking organizations in Mexico pose the greatest organized crime threat to USA. Research indicates that about 450000 people employed in the industry and income in excess of 25 billion dollars annually making it only second to Mexico’s economy (Thirlwell 2010 Para 15). FARC (which is one of Columbia’s biggest drug cartels) is suspected to have extended its tentacles into the USA and Mexico from this; it is evident that the global access that the infrastructure and open border policies have been used by the criminals to transact their trade, which often has disastrous consequences. With cross border travel becoming considerably uncomplicated process due to globalization, it has become easy for people to migrate from one country to the other. The US customs have claimed that 436 million people enter the US by air, sea or land. (Colleen Collins Para 1)They come by ship plane or vehicles. In this, there are unusually many avenues for trafficking drugs and many dealers use this wave of human traffic to ferry their commodities. Organized crime Organized crime consists of entrepreneurial grouping in criminal activities that engage in intimate, social contact. It is often based on kinship, like mafia families. It is highly organized with hierarchies and different ranks. They attempt to create their own sub governments meting their own version of government and economics. They exist in many different countries alongside local governments and due to the power and influence they wield have proven difficult to contain by law enforcement firms. Many of them transact illicit drugs and weapons trade, the trade which has a global an approach, necessitates their co-operation. They liaise and from sot of international drug cartels. They transact business together in harmony with other organization with similar goals. Terrorists are often in cohorts with such dealers who help fund their agendas. Counterfeit goods Globalization has enabled information on products to be accessible from all over the world. As a result, many counterfeits are using the global trade organization to sell counterfeit goods in bulk to unsuspecting consumers especially in third world countries, the different laws on counterfeiting, make it difficult to stop this. Due to the low cost of manufacturing and labour intensive techniques facilitated by the extensive population of china, any companies have outsourced their manufacturing plants to china to save on costs. However, this has created and opening from other illegal business. China is said to be the source many of the counterfeits in the market today. This is manufactured in underground and factories. The laws in china are not particularly strict on counterfeits and even when they are detected, they are not necessarily confiscated. The counterfeiting includes a variety of products from designer clothes perfumes, electronics headed to the EU just to mention a few (The Telegraph 2006 ). These goods are usually taken to the western countries such as America and England, not for sale since they are well equipped to detect fakes but for further export to third world countries especially Africa. This is because they know goods coming from the west will appear legitimate to the African consumers who are ill equipped to detect fakes. The fact that they can hardly afford the originals makes the counterfeits popular and the authentic manufactures are unable to make business. The fakes include articles that are hazardous such as drugs made from materials that are poisonous. (The Telegraph 2006 Globalization also facilitates easier piracy and plagiarism of artistic and private works. Since students can interact with their colleagues on an international scale, many use this connection to buy and borrow term papers and projects. With the many of the term papers, being done online there is a booming business in purchasing assignment doctorates and even thesis papers which often amounts to academic crimes. When one gets these assignments from a foreign country, it becomes difficult for the tutors to detect the plagiarism due to the colossal amount of information available on the web. As such, globalism promotes “stealing” of copy write protected intellectual works. The many books, which have been availed online for review, and promotional purposes, are downloaded, printed and bound sold with no revenues going to the legitimate publishers. The entertainment industry has also been plagued with incidences of similar activities with movies and music being pirated. Since one can purchase them online, some pirates buy one copy and duplicate for commercial purposes. Many companies, especially those who deal with software like Microsoft lose millions in revenue to those pirating their products. Conclusion Globalization has brought about undeniable improvements in the way people transact business travel and access information. However, that it has opened many borders has also taken crime to an international level. Cross border crime, while it might have come a long way before globalization, has been given a shot in the arm by it. The fact that the legal system is not adopting as fast to the new trends, gives the criminals a virtual carte blache to do as anything. A myriad of political and social cultural issues make it difficult to conduct international policing since what is acceptable in one place may be allowed elsewhere much for what is in others. In some parts of the world, some items are considered illegal drugs but are acknowledged in others moreover, gun laws also vary since owning weapons is allowed for anyone in the country like in America but unacceptable elsewhere. Ultimately, for the world to enjoy the benefits of globalization without living in fear of its negative effects, governments and individuals need to step up the fight against s criminal activities before it starts to look like it is not worth the trouble it causes. References SHANTY, F & MISHRA, P. (2007). Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara, California. The telegraph. (16 July 2006). Fakes are a real headache; [online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2943446/Fakes-are-a-real- headache.html JORGEMEDELLIN. (November 22, 2009). Illegal Weapons Trafficking Grows in Mexico; ground report; [ONLINE] 5th May 2012 Available at: http://www.groundreport.com/World/WEAPONS-TRAFFICKING-IN-MEXICO_19/2912160 THIRLWELL M. (31 May 2010). The Dark Side of Globalization. The interpreter. [online] 5th May13, 2012 . Available at: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2010/05/31/The-dark-side-of-globalisation.aspx COLLINS C. (1999). Facts on Drug Trafficking, E how.com [online] 5th May13, 2012 Available at :http://www.ehow.com/about_6392628_drug-trafficking.html UNODC . ( 2012). Money-Laundering and Globalization.[online] 5th May13, 2012 Available at: Collins; 2007; Globalization & Crime, SAGE 2007[online] 5th May13, LEA, J. ( 2005). Globalization and criminal networks [online] 5th May13, 201 Available at: http://www.bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/orgcrim/3805a.htm Read More