Globalization and Illicit Activities Essay Example

Globalization is defined as the international integration existing through the exchange of cultural aspects, ideas, worldviews and even products. From this definition, it implies that globalization is facilitated mainly through advances in telecommunications infrastructure as well as transportation which enable openness in finance, communication, trade and even travel. In other words, these factors have positively generated globalization regarding cultural and economic interdependence as well as developing growth in the financial sector (True, 2012). However, it is unfortunate that despite these benefits arising from globalization, illicit activities are also promoted through the significant opportunities created by globalization.

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With the developments that have been created through economic globalization, it is still evidence that global governance has failed to curb three significant areas of human security trafficking, violence against women and drug trafficking. Despite the threat gravity created by the factors above, it is still evident that there is no comprehensive information and even global perspectives that can better evaluate the illicit trends and the illegal transnational markets (Schulte-Bockholt, 2006). Given the transnational organized crimes such as human trafficking can be described as those crimes that have been organized as well as coordinated by networks of individuals whose motive is to propagate illegal business ventures across the globe. Human trafficking, in other words, is a form of trade that most people embrace across countries despite the security measures put in place by different governments. In propagating human trafficking, globalization has contributed significantly to the disparities in various countries in the sense that the issue of inequality is rising to a higher level. Biases in most cases lead to marginalization and impoverishment where individuals in developing nations hope to find a better life even if illegal acts like human trafficking (Nordstrom, 2007). A good example is the northward smuggling flows that entail the smuggling of migrants from Latin to North America as well as from the African continent to Europe.AS a clandestine activity, human trafficking in these areas is argued to have risen due to the nations' strict immigration controls. Moreover, the situation is similar in Mexican where the population of immigrants smuggled in the country is above 90% despite the severe deterrents as well as immigration laws (True, 2012).

As an illicit activity propagated by globalization, violence against women is an issue that continues to expand through forms of classism, sexism, discrimination, and racism. In this sense, the fact that globalization brings different groups of people together, the minority groups being brought into contact with other hegemonic cultures negatively impact on gender roles that further affects the status of women. It is also arguable that globalization destabilizes local gender arrangement where male authority may seem to disrupt the way in which the community is supposed to generate traditional gender hierarchies. Example of globalization has given rise to violence against women is evident in Ciudad Juarez and even in the French cities (Bagley, 2012). In Mexico, women moving into Asia, India and even America in search of jobs are mostly murdered, repeatedly raped, mutilated and later dumped (True, 2012). In 2001 February, the body of Lilia Andrade was found after she had made multiple calls to the police that she was being beaten and raped. Apart from this example, women workers are subjected to low wages and limited rights at their workplace by the male counterparts. Violence against women is a common problem in Mexico and France as argued in the report of 1989 where fourteen women were murdered at the University of Montreal (True, 2012). Most people understand that globalization is one of the causes of violence against women that is politically motivated in the sense that its primary objective is to preserve male supremacy. In this case, it is visible to argue that violence against women is a universal issue that can be transferred from one region to the other, and can furthermore be intensified in those areas where gentile supremacy, as well as local cultural norms, are most challenged in exposure to labor force that is related to patriarchal gender norms. With the deteriorating social and economic climate in various border zones, male violence against women is rooted on a global scale.

Conclusion

With easy access to telecommunications and the free movement of individuals, globalization has and continues to encourage illicit activities like drug trafficking expanding into international markets. The fact that there is a rise in international trade through economic agreements that are bilateral and multilateral, trade barriers have been minimized between nations (Nordstrom, 2007). These factors have led to the increase in commerce where illicit goods like drugs are exchanged within countries. For instance, research shows that between the years of 1980 and 2005, the growth in supply chains through ports of entry has led to a limited cargo inspection time. Arguably, globalization is seen to have contributed to the efficiency effect in the exchange of drugs in various ways. For instance, due to the technological revolution, transport has been made accessible in that producer-consumer communication has become safer and quicker (Bagley, 2012). New financial systems have made it easy for traffickers to freely engage in money laundering, a factor that reduces the cost of distributing drugs. Additionally, through the risk premium effect, globalization has permitted multiple jobless and skilled workers to take part in the acts of distributing and transporting drugs from one region to another. For instance, between 1998 and 2014, drug exchange in Oceania, Africa, Asia, Europe, as well as South and North America has continued to increase (Bagley, 2012). Hence, it is inferable that globalization has significantly played a significant role in reducing retail drug prices by facilitating more comfortable access to drugs for consumers. In the World Drug Report produced in 2016, the quantity of drug exchange mostly cocaine has doubled in South and North America. For example, Columbia alone has transported over 56% of heroine in South America. However, despite the military operations and the enforced American laws that successfully shut down various routes that were established by Cali and Medellin cartels in the Caribbean, drug dealers, through advanced technology have again opened new pathways in Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela ,North America, and the Gulf of Mexico for more natural flow of drugs from Mexico into America (Peters, 2009).

References

Bagley, B. (2012). Drug trafficking and organized crime in the Americas. Woodrow Wilson Center Update of the Americas.

Nordstrom, C. (2007). Global outlaws: crime, money, and power in the contemporary world (Vol. 16). University of California Press.

Peters, G. (2009). Seeds of terror: How heroin is bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda. Macmillan.

Schulte-Bockholt, A. (2006). The politics of organized crime and the organized crime of politics: a study in criminal power. Lexington Books.

True, J. (2012). The political economy of violence against women. Oxford University Press.