Routledge Handbook of International Criminology

Cindy J. Smith, Sheldon X. Zhang, Rosemary Barberet

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781135193843
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

The Routledge Handbook of International Criminology brings together the latest thinking and findings from a diverse group of both senior and promising young scholars from around the globe. This collaborative project articulates a new way of thinking about criminology that extends existing perspectives in understanding crime and social control across borders, jurisdictions, and cultures, and facilitates the development of an overarching framework that is truly international.

The book is divided into three parts, in which three distinct yet overlapping types of crime are analyzed: international crime, transnational crime, and national crime. Each of these perspectives is then articulated through a number of chapters which cover theory and methods, international and transnational crime analyses, and case studies of criminology and criminal justice in relevant nations. In addition, questions placed at the end of each chapter encourage greater reflection on the issues raised, and will encourage young scholars to move the field of inquiry forward.

This handbook is an excellent reference tool for undergraduate and graduate students with particular interests in research methods, international criminology, and making comparisons across countries.

1

Progress of international criminology

Cindy J. Smith , Sheldon X. Zhang and Rosemary Barberet

Criminology has changed tremendously in the past few decades, most of which can be summarized in one word: internationalization. Spurred by the advent of the internet, digital media, and ease of transnational travel, researchers from around the world have increasingly come into contact physically and virtually at a level that was never possible before. These increased and intensified interactions have ushered in a period in crime research in which no one can ignore or overlook what is going on elsewhere.

Crime has been international for a long time. Slavery and sea piracy have existed since antiquity (Felsen and Kalaitzidis, 2005). However, for a long time, scientific inquiry into crime and justice policies was mainly ethnocentric, constrained by researchers’ cultural and geographical boundaries. To some extent this mirrored the reach of the criminal justice system, which was largely a domestic venture (see Joutsen, Chapter 12). We no longer have the simplicity of assuming that a crime committed here and now is a local and isolated incident. Examples vary widely, including kidnapping, homicide, drug distribution, and human trafficking. What is considered local or regional has become relative, and geographical boundaries are receding rapidly due to ubiquitous digital media and global commerce. While localized crime continues to occur, the torrents of individuals, groups, and corporations from different countries and cultures clash and produce additional crimes of great intricacy and complexity.

So what is international criminology, as opposed to local or nation-state-based criminology? Multiple terms have been used to describe this research endeavor that is non-local. Adjectives that qualify this brand of research include global, transnational, bi-national, cross-national, trans-border, and comparative. Comparative criminology and criminal justice studies are probably the better known of them all, where we compare cattle theft in two or more nations, pool cross-national data, or examine police practices in one or more nations, or even compare immigrant group behavior in one country. Different researchers will offer up different definitions, all of which can claim some validity. Suffice it to say, there is no definitive definition because it is still evolving, and we do not pretend that we have all the answers to settle the debate once and for all in this book. However, we do want to make significant progress in this book towards a more clarified and uniform definition of what the subject matter is and how we can collectively pursue and build a common knowledge base.

There are two ways to define international criminology. From the perspective of subject matter, international criminology includes the study of: 1) international crime (i.e. activities that are so horrendous that they threaten the very basic human existence – such as genocide), and 2) transnational crime (i.e. activities that are specified in the Palermo convention, so for a particular crime if:

(a) It is committed in more than one State;

(b) It is committed in one State but a substantial part of its preparation, planning, direction, or control takes place in another State;

(c) It is committed in one State but involves an organized criminal group that engages in criminal activities in more than one State; or

(d) It is committed in one State but has substantial effects in another.

(United Nations, 2000; Article 3(2))

Based on this definition, it is difficult to identify a crime that can be considered purely domestic (e.g. trafficking of young girls by a local man) or purely international (e.g. trafficking of young girls in one country into another country by a foreign organization), because the local crime has foreign impact and the international crime has a local impact, albeit varying in degree of impact. As a result, it is impossible for researchers to avoid the global perspective in their work.

Although subject matter (or crime type) carries significant influence over a study’s general conceptual orientation, it is inadequate in defining international criminology. We believe a much more sensible way to define international criminology is to emphasize the meaningful context with which a researcher contextualizes his/her work and upon which he/she projects the findings. International criminology is a culturally sensitive and globally mindful approach to crime and social control problems where they happen to be.

A key element that runs through our examples and main ingredients of this definitional effort is the global and geographically transcending nature of the scientific inquiry. International criminology aims to create a knowledge base that reflects and appreciates political and cultural complexity in a global context, while pointing out the shared and common patterns of human behavior. To put it differently, our scientific inquiry embraces cultural and political diversity, and promotes a nuanced appreciation of different interpretations and applications of research findings. More importantly, we pursue a research agenda that is not only about what or why certainly crime happens, but what it means or implies to people in one context as well as in others.

To some extent, criminology within each nation-state has gone through similar growth in the past century. What researchers found in one particular city early in the 1900s has been applied, modified, replicated, and expanded by other researchers elsewhere in their study of criminal activities. The famous Chicago School is such an example. We are envisioning a further expansion in this century where researchers from different parts of the world, with few geographical and communication constraints, engage in studies with implications beyond their immediate location. It is in this global transcending environment we seek common as well as unique patterns about crime and social control policies.

In this spirit, we attempt to include as diverse a set of examples as possible but constrained only by the physical space allotted by the publisher. Examples in this text include Chapter 21, which discusses how organized criminal groups in the post Cold War era are working together internationally. They are creative and innovative, permeating criminal acts not previously associated with organized crime and dividing the world between the mafias. We must understand how to intervene before their tentacles are permanently embedded throughout the world. On the other hand, Chapter 22 describes how loosely tied Chinese criminal organizations migrated to different corners of the world, taking advantage of emerging criminal enterprises. Thus, even a seemingly isolated incident may be connected to a greater organization.

This text articulates this relatively new way of thinking about criminology that challenges the existing knowledge built on the traditional nation-state-based justice system and monocultural production of criminological knowledge. We embrace the intricacies of complex cultural and law violating behaviors and conceptualize our research from a perspective that finds various legal and social transgressions not easily defined through one’s own cultural lenses. For instance, amidst transnational crimes we find in each country or culture its own unique crime problems, as well as problems in common with many other countries. Transnational crime crosses national borders and is often exacerbated by borderless technologies. Examples include some acts of terrorism, drug or people trafficking, piracy of intellectual property, and cybercrime. On the other hand, international crime is legally defined as when a crime affects humanity regardless of where it is perpetrated, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is reasonable to think that these crimes might fall under international law, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. However, all of these crimes also may fall within domestic jurisdiction. It is with this framework that this text provides an introduction or overview of international criminology and its components. The detail in this text is sufficient to introduce and discuss the contours of this framework, but the general topic is so broad that each component could fill its own book.

Some of the specific questions addressed in this handbook include: What has been our understanding and response to international criminology? What do we know about international crime? How does our crime compare to their crime? Do we know what causes these crimes? Do we have theories that cross borders and cultures? Do we have laws that cross borders and cultures? Are our research methods adaptable to international crime research, which includes comparative crime research? What has been the response to international, transnational, and domestic crime? Is one country responding more effectively than another? Do we understand the transferability of our “successful” programs? These questions are not yet adequately addressed in the current knowledge found in textbooks and journal publications.

One oft-cited shortcoming of the existing “international criminology” texts is that they were written by the Anglo-Saxon academics (e.g. United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia), without the benefit or full knowledge of the differences in cultures and the input from our fellow scholars around the world. Although this is not to downplay the significance of our fellow English-speaking authors, the lack of representation of perspectives or voices native to other parts of the world is rather glaring in our current state of knowledge on international criminology (see also Barberet, 2007). This text makes a remedial attempt at addressing this gap.

Diversity

Much like the world described in this book, this text is strong in its diversity. First, the text is diverse in the topics it covers, research methods, and international and national crime. It covers some of the most cutting-edge international crime topics (e.g. cybercrime), as well as the more traditional topics, such as terrorism and drugs. The 20 country assessments of the state of criminology and the criminal justice system include countries from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Second, the authorship of this text is truly international. Among the 54 authors, only 14 are from the US and many have a mother tongue other than English. Additionally, the gender mix is approaching equal. This brings a culturally diverse perspective to the topics discussed.

This text was written with three guiding principles. First, to foster a future generation of international criminologists, teams of authors were preferred with a seasoned author paired with a newer international author. Eleven chapters were co-authored with this in mind, providing an opportunity for mentoring newer scholars while ensuring high quality and state-of-the-art information is included in the text. Second, the text was written for readers at the third year of undergraduate school or beyond with the intention of raising their awareness for possible academic careers, as well as for the purpose of providing libraries with a clearly written handbook for the uninitiated scholar. The chapters provide the state-of-being of each topic in context and conclude with five research questions that will help to guide future research. Third, this text comes at a time when universities are increasing their international breadth with students, both in the classroom and through the use of online courses where geographic location does not dictate the nationality of the student population. Therefore, its diversity responds to the increasing diversity of the student population worldwide.

The state of criminology

Criminology is lagging behind other disciplines in terms of internationalizing its research and broadening the cultural awareness of its students and faculty. The world has globalized, creating new business and crime opportunities. Business began to globalize in the seventeenth century and modernized through the technology boom after World War II. Crime opportunity expanded to these new markets, incorporating new methods. Our response to crime around the world is slowly changing. Our research in international criminology is at a snail’s pace.

Three major changes have been instrumental in the recent rapid change in globalization. Transportation (e.g. airline industry), technology (e.g. borderless technologies such as the internet), and communication (e.g. mass media, mobile phones, and satellite) have changed the way the world does business and interacts. Unfortunately, the same conditions that changed the economic and social interactions between and within countries also have changed crime (Howard et al. 2000; Smith, 2009).

Crime research in an international context implies comparison, often between and among nations. However, social, political, and cultural differences in international research often lead to definitional challenges. The same criminal behavior may be counted differently and the judicial environments of different legal systems may produce different outcomes. For instance, in the US attempted murders are counted as aggravated assault, but they are treated as other homicides in England and Australia (Lynch, 1995).

Definitional issues aside, different justice systems also respond to crime and criminals differently. For instance, plea bargains are widely practiced in the US criminal justice, in which the accused may accept a lesser charge or even admit to an entirely different crime. Such a practice allows the prosecution to shorten the legal proceedings and cut down workload, while the accused avoids the uncertainty of a trial for the charged offense. However, such a practice would be unthinkable in many other legal systems.

International organizations that routinely gather crime data, such as the United Nations, European Sourcebook and, until recently, INTERPOL, caution against inappropriate use (i.e. making country comparisons), because of differences in the way that crime is defined, reported, measured, and reacted to in different countries (United Nations, 2006). In the United States, the most commonly referenced national crime data are produced from two sources: the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). There are few venues where cross-national crime data are routinely gathered and published.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is probably the only organization that gathers and publishes cross-national crime data, since INTERPOL stopped releasing its data. Through the UN Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems the UNODC provides crime data pooled from Member States and its own survey mechanism. Spreadsheets of various crime data are readily available for download at the UNODC website (http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/crimedata.html). Of all crimes, homicide probably has the most comparable definition. UNODC presents statistics of homicide in a more refined analysis than all other crime statistics, which are simply kept in spreadsheet formats for download purposes.

Thus, the state of criminology is lagging behind other disciplines in terms of internationalization. That is to say, the world of technology and business have expanded rapidly, creating new crime, and the academic discipline is struggling with definition, differing responses to crime, minimal data collection across nations, and almost no comparable international data collection. This text attempts to shed light on these issues.

Format of the book

The text is divided into three parts: (1) research methods, (2) international crime topics, and (3) country specific case studies. The goal of the part on research methods is to discuss the main analytical strategies researchers have employed to examine crime problems nationally, as well as in an international comparative or transnational context. Comparative research methods are more comprehensive than the traditional methods commonly taught in the Western world. In addition to a solid implemented research design, comparative research methods place the research and subjects in a contextual framework (Howard, et al. 2000; Smith, 2009). Simply stated, comparative research methods highlight the contextual similarities and differences between the research subjects. This enables the findings to be generalized to the relevant group, as opposed to generalizing to a greater population made up of various cultural groups, each having its own norms, moral, and values. Chapter 21 by Arsovska is an example of this contextualization as she discusses the United Nations’ origins of the definition of organized crime. Without the understanding of this context, researchers are led to criticize the definition when it is the only way to make the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime applicable to all member states. The first chapter in the research methods section (Chapter 3) includes a discussion of the challenges of doing criminal justice and criminology research during an era when it is not respected and not considered mainstream. The next two chapters, Chapters 4 and 5, provide the qualitative and quantitative perspectives of international research. Chapter 6 provides a slightly different perspective, using an update on a decade of research through the Campbell Collaboration. In Chapter 7, Karn examines how crime prevention and evaluation fit into cri...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of plates
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of boxes
• Notes on contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Progress of international criminology
• PART 1. Methods and theories
• PART 2. Special topics
• PART 3. Criminology and criminal justice in context
• Index