Political Science

In the current world where globalization is taking place at a fast rate, crime has featured very prominently. It can in fact be considered to be part of the culture of globalization as well as other consumerism forms. Crime globalization charts its evolution as it becomes more and more complicated as more advances are made in the world of technology. Through globalization, material crime has been greatly enhanced making millions of people around the world to become vulnerable to several forms of crime that are being carried out as globalization continues to deepen. Criminalization trends, social and crime development, social and crime control, political crimes and also crimes as a result of transitional cultures are all increasing in frequency as a result of globalization. Globalization has therefore had a great impact on crime and has in fact resulted into more of it. Crime has therefore become one of the major menaces associated with globalization (Shelley, 2006 Kyle  Koslowski, 2001).

Globalization and crime
At the close of the twentieth century, there was a new phenomenon that appeared, the globalization of crime intensified. The main crimes that became a global phenomenon include terror, drug trafficking and internet crime together with other computer related crimes. The first two types of crimes are largely traditional but have been greatly enhanced by increased globalization. However, the latter ones are very new and quite complicated due to the technology used as well as the dynamics that are involved in the ever advancing technology. Globalization has resulted into both blue crimes as well as white crimes. In the former, force or other forms of threats are used on the victim while in white crimes, no force is used but the victim still suffers the loss of some valuables. The global crimes are not only found in the poor and developing countries of Africa and Latin America, but they are also present in the most prosperous nations such as the US and the European nations (Passas, 2000).

Terrorism has become one of the major crimes as a result of globalization, it is usually hidden under the unholy trinity which is quite complex, with those involving themselves in terrorist activities arguing that they are protecting their religion. However, it is has become quite evident that in most cases, they are out for material gain. They use terrorism to increase the flow of goods that are illicit such as drugs, in the international markets. The globalized networks of crime work very closely with the terrorists organizations and they are both in a position to undertake their activities in a successful manner as they are also assisted by the corruption endemic. The artificial difference that is usually made between terrorism and crime is founded on the antiquated concept of the two. The maxim that criminals normally involve themselves in criminal activities for profit and other material gains and the terrorists exclusively operate on motives that are political, contradicts their contemporary reality (Broad, 2002).

Crime that is internationally organized has had its activities globalized for basically similar reasons as those of the multinational organizations that are legitimate. Just as these multinational organizations have established operational branches across the world in order to position themselves well and hence take advantage of the attractive raw material and labor, the illicit business organizations has done the same. Moreover, international business organizations, both illicit and legitimate, also set up facilities across the whole world for marketing, production and distribution requirements. Illegal business organizations are in a position of expanding geographically and thus take full advantage of the emerging opportunities, thanks to both international transportation and communication revolution. Terrorists have also gone global in terms of recruiting and they can now recruit new members internationally. They are also able to be near to the Diaspora societies, which offer them support in terms of finances and logistics (Pickering, 2007).

Growth in illegal global activities has been greatly assisted extremely by great advances in the world of technology. The increase in the traffic of commercial airlines and advances in telecommunications such as fax, telephone, together with fast communications via the internet and the increase of international commerce have all greatly enhanced the movement of people and goods. As a result, criminals have exploited each and every opportunity such as chat anonymity across via the internet together with other forms of communications that are based on computers to carryout their activities. A good example is the 911 terrorist attack where the terrorists used public computers to purchase airline tickets and also send messages. Similarly, drug traffickers in Columbia uses encrypted telecommunications in executing and planning their trade (Sheptycki, 2003).

Globalization has been coupled by the free markets ideology and also ideologies of reduced state interventions and free trade. According to the advocates of globalization, decreasing international barriers and regulations to investment and trade increases development and trade. However, these conditions encourage an environment that is globalized, which is very vital for crime expansion. Crime organizations have exploited to a very great extent the lessened controls across borders, reduced regulations, and also the resulting freedom in order to expand their operations around the world by covering more regions in foreign countries. Such contacts have greatly increased in frequency and also the speed at which they take place has also increased dramatically. Whereas legal trade growth is greatly regulated by observance to policies of border control, bureaucratic systems, and customs officials, international crime organizations freely exploit the numerous loopholes of legal systems that are state based in order to expand their reach. Criminals are able to travel areas where it is not easy to extradite them, base most of their activities in nations with corrupt or ineffective law enforcement, and also launder money in nations with few controls that are effective or with bank secrecy. By segmenting most of their activities, criminals are in a position of reaping from the numerous benefits of globalization and at the same time reduce significantly the risks involved in their operations (Bigo, 2002 Pontell  Geis, 2007 George  Page, 2004).

International commerce increased tremendously in the 2nd half of the twentieth century. Incorporated in the massive flow of commodities that are legitimate, is increased merchandise that is illicit. It is quite complicated to look for the illegal flows from the legal ones thus giving the illegal flow a chance to cross borders. It is only possible to check the cargo of a few container ships thoroughly, hence enhancing the movement of contraband, arms and drugs (Adam, 2008).

In the recent past, there has been an increase in several forms of globalized crimes. Trading of drugs was one of the first illegal sectors that were used by crime groups to maximize their profits in a world that was fast becoming globalized. Crime groups made a lot of profits as a result of dealing with drugs and several terrorist organizations used the trade of trafficking drugs as a major source of making money to fund their activities. However, as the drugs market increased in competitiveness and transnational law response for enforcement increased, the profit margin of this trade reduced dramatically as a result of enhanced risk and competition. This compelled criminals to utilize other crime forms that were being facilitated as globalization continued to take place. Criminals have benefited greatly from increased trafficking of arms. Globalization has also resulted to massive increase of illicit trade of species that are endangered, stolen antiquities and art, hazardous waste, counterfeiting as well as crimes that are globalized linked to the credit cards. Organized crime makes use of these operations in order to perpetuate their activities on the world stage (Aas, 2007 Tsang, 2007).

Conclusion
As globalization continues to take place at a fast rate, so is crime globalization. As mentioned earlier, crime is one of the greatest menaces that have been associated with globalization. It remains a huge challenge for law makers and governments around the world to come up with laws and policies that can effectively deal with this menace of globalization. Globalized crime has further been complicated by the advances in technology, which has made it possible for criminals to plan and execute their operations in a very effective manner. As a result of crime globalization, millions of people around the world have been made vulnerable to the ever changing tactics of criminals thus making them to suffer financially, emotionally and physically. Terrorism, is one of the major crimes the modern world is facing and it has been brought about by globalization. Therefore, crime globalization appears to be like weed which grows with crops and it has to be weeded out for the good crop to grow well.