Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations - Book Report/Review Example

Book review on "Policing the Globe, Criminalisation and crime Control in International Relations" by Peter Andreas and Ethan Nadelmann This book is a revealing history of the attempts of international crime control over the centuries from historical crusades against piracy and servitude to modern-day movements against drug trafficking and global radicalism. Peter Andreas and Ethan Nadelmann, in this book, attempt to elucidate exactly how and why injunctions and policing practices progressively makes crime to advance across national borders, creating a situation where it becomes difficult to control it. The authors state that the mainstream media as well as the public tends to simplify the internationalization of crime control as a normal and unsurprising reaction to the growth of crime at an international level especially when one considers that we live in an era of globalisation. Andreas and Nadelmann believe that this popular view international crime as well as the means that has developed to fight it as being at best inadequate and at worst deceptive. The globalization of policing as established the authors in the book is clearly a reflection of the ambitions of western supremacies through many generations to ensure that there is an exportation of their specific explanations of crime to other non-western countries (Andreas and Nadelmann, 2008). They explain that this has been done mainly for the purpose of not just political and economic gain but also in an attempt to promote their own moral values throughout the other parts of the globe. This book is a thought provoking evaluation of the history of the expansion as well as the rapid acceleration of international crime control, from a national enterprise to one which has created an environment of cooperation between law enforcement agencies from different countries. This book makes a study of crime as a social institution and transnational crime in this case can be defined as an organisation that has a purpose, which it accomplishes through persuading individuals within a certain community to work with it in achieving its goals. Criminal organisations, as examples of social institutions, often develop in those locations where there are certain individuals who desire to have access to the products that these organisations have to offer. According to the alien theory, those individuals who were involved with the mafia in Italy immigrated to the United States not only to escape detection by the local police. In the process, these organisations came to thrive in America and this led to their participating in a diverse number of crimes. This theory looks upon this immigration as the main origin of organised crime not only in the United States but also in the rest of the world and the establishment of its criminal culture. The revelations made in this book can be considered to be most pertinent as they have led to the bridging of the space that has often been there between criminal justice and international relations. In many cases, such a connection has never even been considered by most of the world’s population but if one were to read this book, one would come to the conclusion that there indeed is a direct connection between global policing and international relations, and as such, it is a matter of general importance. This book can be considered an essential guide to the growth of international law-breaking control and recet trend of global police collaboration and how international law has come to be enforced during this period. The authors of the book attempt to present a clear account of the growth of repatriation administrations, which have made it difficult for individuals who commit crimes in one country from being able to escape to others (Andreas and Nadelmann, 2008). It is certain that both mutual and multifaceted exertions through institutions as Europol and Interpol have been widely employed to combat international crime and this has ensured that the aspect of global policing has continued to be more enforced. Through such efforts, there has been growing international cooperation in the fighting of crime as the various countries involved in the world have come to adopt similar laws concerning crime and how to fight it. Globalisation has had the effect of ensuring that western morals concerning crime have spread to the rest of the world and this has made it easier to enforce a global policing regime that is increasingly becoming dominant. One of the points that are made by the authors of this book is the fact that while some activities, such as smuggling or piracy have traditionally been regarded as crimes extending past national borders, there have developed other crimes which have made it necessary to move beyond the traditional definitions of crime. The increasing growth of international crime over the past half a century has come to play a role in the resulting of defining more and more international activities as crimes, for example, money laundering, which is considered to be an integral component of the War on Drugs that has been led by the United States. The authors make the argument that international attitudes toward criminalisation and the control of crime have been shaped to a large extent by the attitudes formed towards it by the United States as well as its security needs and welfare to the exclusion of all other countries that do not share the same interests. While it is a fact that the European Union is currently attempting to develop and grow certain uniformity in its criminal law and practice within its territory, most of this has largely been through the influence of the United States (Nadelmann, 2007). It can be said that it is the United States which has for the most part set the terms of what international crime is and how it is to be dealt with. In this book, the authors present a meaningful description of how police agencies cooperate, but while this may be the case, the authors do not devote enough time to issues that are related to how effective international crime control efforts have been, and whether hard-line American attitudes towards the management of crime have come to distort a consideration of whether some activities should be criminalised or whether they should not. The authors of this book make a reflection of how a global approach to law enforcement can be achieved and make a highlight of the role that international moral entrepreneurs, such as the law makers of the United States, are playing in the development of such legislation that have an influence across international borders. Most of the issues that are legislated on, the authors reveal, is a reflection of the moral attitudes dominant in the United States and some of these include the handling of animals, women's civil rights, ethnic parity and the treatment of juveniles. Because of the development of similar attitudes towards criminal activities mainly through the influence of the United States, the people all over the world are moving near to a point of union in the making of laws concerning crimes, but this is happening at different rates. The authors derive most of their knowledge about cross-border criminality after studying the American-Mexico border and this has ensured that the book is an insightful and practical appraisal of the criminal world and how it is being combated by law enforcement agencies (Andreas, 2011). The books is a basic highlight of the belief that making legislation for an audience that is global and from differing cultures is a problem which is not new and can me tracked directly to the Opium wars of the nineteenth century as well as the end of the slave trade. The authors place heavy focus on the role of moral entrepreneurs at the international level who are responsible for the passing of legislation on crime prevention in many countries. The activities of these individuals are considered as they attempt to ensure that crime is fought directly from its root and not after it has spread to unrecognizable proportions where it is difficult to fight it. The globalisation of crime fighting has ensured that many criminals are unable to get away with their crimes since different countries have the ability to extradite them to the countries in which they committed their crimes. While this has been the case, the authors of this book state that there has been an imposition of the cultural practices of the United States in crime fighting, a situation which is not often compatible with the way in which crime is fought in other countries and cultures. It can be said that American global policing has come to have a profound influence on the cultures of many people in the world, and this influence has been both positive and negative. In certain regions, it can be said to be a blessing to those countries on which it has come to influence, because it has not only enriched these their crime fighting techniques, but it has also ensured that some of their characteristics have been spread all over the world. However, it has also been noted that global policing has led to the near extinction of some local crime fighting techniques and these have come to be replaced with the dominant western culture, which is the driving force behind globalization. One would even go as far as to suggest that the globalization of crime fighting is a force which is inevitably going to will change local crime fighting beyond recognition. It is an irresistible force of crime fighting change which cannot be stopped without the isolation of other countries from the globalised, western one. References Andreas, P. 2011, "Illicit Globalization: Myths, Misconceptions, and Historical Lessons", Political Science Quarterly, vol. 126, no. 3, pp.403-425. Andreas, P. and Nadelmann, E. 2008. Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press. Nadelmann, E. 2007. DRUGS. Foreign Policy, (162), 24-26, 28,30. Read More