Transnational Organized Crime
| Author | Hans-Jorg Albrecht |
| Pages | 124-129 |
Page 124
Transnational crime must be linked to basic changes in modern societies, changes that affect labor markets, the economy, and mechanisms of social integration. Transnational crime is therefore also linked to migration and immigration and those processes that have led to multicultural or multiethnic societies in both Europe and North America. These changes concern not only the emergence of transnational enterprises and a global economy, but also the emergence of transnational ethnic communities that bridge borders and possibly also cultures. Transnational crimes, that is, crimes affecting more than one country or nation at a time, as well as crimes characterized by their cross-border nature, are not new. Transnational crimes have always been part of the crime phenomenon. What has changed is the quantity and quality as well as the structures of transnational crime, which today are determined by the market economy, organizations and networks, rational choice, and migration.
With cyberspace, a completely new environment emerged in which crime is bred in forms that have come to be called cybercrime, but which could easily be conceptualized as a another form of transnational crime. Cyberterrorism, cyberstalking, and cybervandalism, as well as numerous varieties of property crime, such as money laundering, that make use of the Internet, create a sort of globalized threat that fuels insecurity. Cybercrime further fuels demands to establish security and safety through expanding social control, in particular, electronically based systems of control.
International and national criminal-law reforms and police strategies are geared toward better control of transnational crimes. Along with cybercrimes, the transnational crimes that attract policy attention include trafficking and smuggling of illegal immigrants, a variety of economic crimes, environmental crime and cross-border pollution, drug trafficking, trafficking in women and children, money laundering, international corruption, and transnational terrorism, which emerged in the 1970s.
Transnational crime is characterized by either a criminal who perceives opportunities to commit crimes beyond national borders or by the cross-border transfer of illegal commodities. The motivation to cross borders and to engage in transnational crime are twofold. First, transnational criminals sometimes are enabled by the exploitation of the established national legal and administrative frameworks, which differ from country to country. Second, certain cross-border crimes, such as drug trafficking, simply cannot be accomplished without crossing national borders because supply and demand are located in different countries and regions.
The term transnational crime refers to networks of criminals or organized crime groups. Moreover, and from a methodological perspective, transnational crime is not accessible through the conventional instruments of criminological research, such as surveys, interviews, or participant observation, which are routinely deployed to study such conventional subjects as youth crime. The United Nations is investigating methods for incorporating the variables of transnational crime into its surveys on international crime trends.
However, the phenomenon of transnational organized crime is part of a trend toward the integration and convergence of social, cultural, and economic systems. It is, in particular, subcultural systems that display symptoms of globalization and integration, with transnational
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terrorism being an exception because it aims at disintegration. The process of integration is based on well-known general trends, such as the mobility and globalization of economy.
Transnational crime can be classified into four groups based on the forms the crime takes, the control and investigation problems it poses, and the means by which societies can or should respond to it. These categories are:
Crimes related to the market economy.
Organized crime.
Crimes related to immigration and migration.
Crimes involving ethnic minorities and the social and ethnic segmentation of modern societies.
Transnational crime is related to the market economy. All transnational crime is a response to an economy that is regulated by demand and supply. Along with markets for illicit commodities, there are markets for licit goods that stem from such acquisitive crimes as subsidy and tax fraud. There are also markets for illegal risks (e.g., illegal waste disposal or various types of investment fraud) and markets for illicit services, such as gambling, prostitution, money laundering, illegal immigration, software piracy, and the transfer of restricted or controlled technology.
Modern societies in Europe and North America have produced an enormous demand for an undocumented labor force that exists outside of the regulated labor market. This demand for undocumented labor continues to attract illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration has created a major market for transnational crime groups. It is estimated that approximately three-quarters of illegal immigrants had the support of organized groups in traveling to Europe and in crossing European borders. Some experts estimate that the number of immigrants illegally smuggled and trafficked stands at about four million per year.
Brokerage of illegal immigrants into labor markets concentrates on the construction industry, domestic service, sweatshops, and agriculture, as well as various types of shadow economies. Conventional organized crime groups, in particular the Chinese triads, are heavily involved in trafficking immigrants. In Germany, estimates put the number of illegal immigrants in the construction business at approximately 500,000. Several million illegal Mexicans live and work in the United States (most of them in parts of the South, where agriculture plays a major role). International adoption practices also point to an illegal market for children. The emergence of shadow economies leads to the accumulation of capital, which, in turn, demands the reallocation of such illicit capital into legal markets.
The law enforcement response to shadow economies and black markets has been multifold. However, the most important responses are: (1) disruption of local retail markets through zero-tolerance and proactive policing; and (2) disruption of the global economy of illicit goods and services through strategies that pursue the proceeds of crime.
Anti-money laundering and confiscation measures rank high on the policy agendas of European countries. Demands to prevent organized criminals from profiting from various types of illegal activities, especially drug trafficking...
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