CRIMINALITY AND VIOLENCE AS GROWING PHENOMENA IN THE 21ST CENTURY GLOBALIZED WORLD
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Over the last quarter-century, global governance has lagged behind economic globalization (i.e., since the conclusion of the Cold War). As a result, while unprecedented openness in commerce, banking, travel, and communication has resulted in economic growth and well-being, it has also created enormous opportunities for criminals to thrive.
Organized crime has evolved, spread globally, and reached macroeconomic proportions, with illegal goods originating on one continent, transported across another, and sold on a third. Mafias are now a truly global issue, posing a security risk, particularly in impoverished and conflict-torn countries. Crime fuels corruption, which has infiltrated business and politics and stifled progress. It also undermines the government by granting authority to those who violate the law: Drug cartels are wreaking havoc.
Collusion between insurgents and criminal groups (in West Africa, the Sahel, and Southeast Asia) fuels terrorism and plunders natural resources; migrant smuggling and modern slavery have spread as widely in Eastern Europe as in Southeast Asia and Latin America; and authorities in many cities have lost control.
all over the world. The threat posed by organized crime is so serious that the United Nations Security Council has conducted numerous investigations into its implications in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central America, Somalia, West Africa, and other areas (trafficking of arms, drugs, people, and natural resources).
Globally, organized crime has altered strategic doctrines and threat assessments. Armed forces have been dispatched to the battlefield.
Warships have been dispatched to apprehend pirates and drug cartels. Regardless, the threat remains. Despite the gravity of the threat, organized crime is underappreciated. Data on global criminal markets and trends is scarce. The few studies that have been conducted have concentrated on specific aspects of the problem, such as industries or countries, rather than the big picture. Without a global perspective, there can be no evidence-based approach to combating these crimes. As a result, the study’s goal is to examine crime from a global perspective and offer potential solutions for controlling it.
1.2 Problem description
Global and transnational crime has recently risen to the top of the international agenda.
The United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime became effective. in 2003. Transnational organized crime was identified by the United Nations High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change as one of “six clusters of threats with which the world must be concerned now and in the decades ahead,” citing human trafficking, particularly of women, cocaine trafficking, firearm trafficking, and illegal migration routes from the Mediterranean Sea. Law enforcement officials are also limited to actions within their country’s borders. It is not easy to gather reliable information on which to base this strategy. Citizens rarely approach the police with complaints about organized crime, in contrast to “conventional” crimes (murder, rape, robbery, and so on). Many of the offenses are “victimless,” in the sense that none of the parties involved are interested in bringing the matter to the police’s attention. Consequently,
Most organized criminal activity is only detected when the police go out of their way to investigate it. Some law enforcement agencies do not have the capacity or mandate to do so. Transnational organized crime can have an impact on political stability in vulnerable countries, such as those where insurgencies and illegal armed groups are funded through trafficking (in the Andean region, South and Central Asia, and Central Africa), as well as those where violence and corruption pose a serious challenge to the rule of law, such as West Africa. Thus, this study seeks to investigate criminality and violence as growing phenomena in the globalized world of the twenty-first century.
1.3 The study’s purpose
The primary goal of this research is to investigate criminality.
and violence as a growing phenomenon in the globalized world of the twenty-first century. The study specifically seeks
1. To investigate the concept of transnational crime and violence.
2. To critically examine the various types of transnational crime and violence.
3. To propose a strategy for combating transnational crime.
1.3 Research Issue
The following research question guides the investigation:
1. What do you mean by transnational or globalized crime and violence?
2. What are the different types of transnational crime?
3. What are the strategies or approaches that can help to reduce transnational crime?
1.4 Importance of the research
Because the study focuses on criminality and violence as a growing phenomenon in the globalized world of the twenty-first century, the study’s findings will be critical and beneficial to international organizations.
regional governments, and so on. The study will enlighten them on the importance of developing meaningful strategies for collaboratively combating transnational crimes, given that these syndicates have ties to local crime and politics in their country. More importantly, the study will contribute to the body of empirical literature and serve as a resource for students and other researchers interested in similar research.
1.6 The Study’s Scope
The scope of this study includes criminality and violence as a growing phenomenon in the globalized world of the twenty-first century, with a focus on criminal activities in Sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa.
1.7 Research limitations
The following factors are proposed as limitations during the course of this research.
Financial limitations: Financial limitations
tend to stymie the researcher’s ability to locate relevant materials, literature, or information, as well as collect data (internet, questionnaire, and interview).
Time constraint: The researcher will conduct this study alongside other academic work. As a result, the time spent researching is reduced.
1.8 Methodology of Research
The procedures or techniques used to identify, select, process, and analyze information about a topic are referred to as research methodology. The researchers used historical and descriptive methods for this research. Secondary data was gathered from journals, articles, library materials, and internet sources that were relevant to the study.
1.9 Terms Definition
Organized crime is a term used to describe transnational, national, or local groups of highly centralized criminals.
Criminal enterprises that engage in illegal activity, usually for profit.
Violence is defined as the use of physical force to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy another person.
Transnational Crime: Transnational crimes are crimes that have an actual or potential impact across national borders, as well as crimes that are intrastate but violate fundamental international community values.