How Globalization Has Contributed To Transnational Crime Including Drug Trafficking And Human Trafficking

How Globalization Has Contributed To Transnational Crime Including Drug Trafficking And Human Trafficking

Globalization refers to integration internationally through the exchange of world views, products, ideas and other cultural aspects. This is facilitated by advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure enabling openness in trade, finance, travel and communication (Aart Scholte, 2000). These are the major factors that have generated economic and cultural interdependence, creating economic growth and well-being, and unfortunately, also giving rise to significant opportunity for criminal activities and business (Nelken, 2008).

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With these developments and economic globalization, global governance has failed to keep pace and has enabled the diversification and internationalization of crime which is presently deemed to have reached macro-economic proportions. Globalized crime includes trafficking and marketing of illegal and counterfeit goods across continents, smuggling of migrants in modern day slavery, organized crime gangs in various urban centers and insurgency, cybercrime and fraud, piracy, and money-laundering, among other vices. Despite the gravity of these threats, there persists a lack of comprehensive information and a global perspective on crime trends and the transnational criminal markets (UNODC, 2010).

This paper explores the ways in which globalization has contributed to transnational crime including the trafficking of drugs and human beings. Transnational organized crime (TOC) refers to crime that is organized and coordinated across national borders of more than one country and which involves groups or networks of individuals planning and executing illegal business ventures utilizing systematic violence and/or corruption. This type of crime has inadvertently been a significant beneficiary of globalization (Sangiovanni, 2005).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2000 identified four elementary aspects of globalization: movement of capital and investment, trade and transactions, migration, and the dissemination of knowledge, aspects which lead to the emergence of an international network of social and economic systems (Jones, 2010). Globalization is therefore defined as the intensification of social relations across the globe linking distant localities in such a way that happenings at a local level are shaped by events far and wide and vice versa. The processes of globalization do affect and are affected by the organization of business and work, social and cultural resources, economics, and the natural environment (Kohler and Chaves, 2003).

Human trafficking

Globalization through these effects has contributed to disparities in nations of the globe (increased inequality). This consequently leads to a disruptive effect that drives people into operations in illicit markets and organized crime in attempts to cope with the situations or towards the quest of people for better life. Due to inequalities leading to impoverishment and marginalization and political conflicts in certain parts of the world, as well as socio-cultural change and restrictive policies of immigration in countries that are better endowed economically, many individuals from developing countries hoping to find work and better life are willing to borrow heavily from their communities and to risk their lives for the opportunities desired (UNODC, 2010).

Since this is an illegal venture, these people often seek assistance from organized criminals with knowledge of the system, a trend that increases as nations tighten immigration controls. Being an illegal and clandestine activity, those providing the service have tremendous power over their charges and abuses are known to happen frequently. This particular set of events has led to what is commonly referred to as the trafficking of human beings, sometimes into modern-day slavery (Haken, 2011).

Examples of these are two northward smuggling flows that compose migrant trafficking: from Africa to Europe and from Latin America to North America. In the USA, the large Spanish speaking and Mexican expatriate population exerts a powerful influence on poorer states to the south with immigrants hoping to substantially improve their standard of living. Mexicans compose the largest percentage of illegal immigrants with 90% of them assisted by smugglers given the strict immigration controls and deterrents. Similar to this, the Africa to Europe flow has even stronger push and pull factors. This is however a fraction of the America migration partly due to the difficulty in cros………………………………………….