Global Crime Analysis, Reaction Paper Example

Introduction

The global crime in the world currently presents a new challenge for the local and international criminal justice system. The traditional way of dealing with criminals at the local level required enforcement of the laws by arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating the caught offenders in a particular jurisdiction. The rise of international crime such as cyber crimes means that offenders can be able to steal the identities of citizen and commit crimes without setting foot in the country itself.

Identify the major global crimes and criminal issues in the globe

For a long time the globalization trend has been effectively used to enable good and investment to move from one location of the world to another. This has greatly reduced the relevance of the geographical boundaries by bringing people together. On the on the other side, international crimes has used the same channels of globalization making criminals actions of one part of the world to affect other parts leading to serious new challenge to the local criminal justice system that has traditionally operated in a defined geographical and jurisdictional limits. International Criminal justice system and the international arena are very different and difficult compared to the national system where there is a single government with all the instruments of power (William, 2005). The concept of individual being able to be held accountable for criminal actions in the international arena came into actions in the Nuremberg trials when the Nazi leaders were indicted. Currently the people who commit international crimes are prosecuted in international tribunals and the criminal justice system. Sometimes, the truth reconciliation and justice commissions are used to support the court and tribunals process. Some of the traditional international crimes include:

Genocide

This is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of part of or an entire ethnic, religious, racial and national group in a society. This has been termed as the crimes of all crimes by international law scholars because the perpetrators actions are driven with the intention of wiping out an entire population.

Crimes against humanity

This are the actions committed against part of a population of a country. It has the characteristics of a widespread attack that is directed on the civilian population and may include things like murder, enslavement, torture, extermination, rape, deportation, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and enforced prostitution. Other elements of crimes against humanity include persecution, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and imprisonment. (Hacket, 2006) Due to its various natures, the crime against humanity can take place during war as well as in times of peace.

War crimes

Also known as the humanitarian international law has been defined as the violation of customs or law of war. It therefore include breaches of the international law like killing willfully, inhuman treatment and torture, use of biological experiments on human being and will fully causing serious injury and suffering to the body.

Aggression

The crime of aggression occurs when one state uses force unlawfully against another. According to the UN charter, any state that acts with force on another state without the authorization of the UN Security Council commits an act of aggression.

As a result of globalization, modern international crimes have changed and include such crimes as human trafficking, counterfeiting, money laundering and computer crimes. These crimes do not follow the geographical boundaries. For example, the violence cause by competition and rivalry between the drug barons in Mexico has spilled over to some states like Texas in the US, making it hard for the local criminal justice system to solve the problem of crime locally. As a result, there is more need of cooperation and coordination between the local criminal justice systems in the different countries of the world. The current trend international crime is formation of alliances between global crime organizations that cross national boundaries. For instance, the Russian mafia has been forming alliances with some criminal groups in Eastern Europe.

Compare and contrast various international justice systems

The law enforcement is a major role of the both the international police like Interpol and local police in a nation. The transnational nature of the global crime has blurred the line between the domestic and foreign affairs because the crimes are done in one location but has a global impact. The law enforcement perspective of the global crimes is increasing at the global and national levels. The Interpol as a major player in the global criminal system is limited in its area of operation since it cannot enforce the law by arresting some the criminals who traffic drugs in some jurisdictions that are not cooperative.

On the other hand, bodies established by international statues like the international criminal court lack the jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the major global criminals like human traffickers and drug barons. The intelligence perspective is another aspect of dealing with the changing nature of the global crimes. This is used by local and international criminal justice system to examine the global crimes in terms of economic and political impacts of actions done overseas but has impacts on the security of national government (Handelman, 2005). The intelligence agencies investigate information on the nature of the global organized crimes that assist the law enforcement department in investigations and also providing the policy makers in the local criminal justice with the intelligence on crime.

In the international criminal law has established various treaties and institutions for pursuing the cause of justice and prosecuting the core international criminals. For instance, the UN has put in place several special courts and international criminal tribunals that come up on ad hoc basis. The international criminal court since its inception in 2003 is playing a major role in the prosecution of international crimes.

But when it comes to global crimes, the local criminal systems have had to deal with the challenge individually. For example, the police in London suburbs have been dealing with the global organized crime in isolation. The local criminal justice system needs to have a lot of cooperation so as to successfully fight the global crime organizations that is powerful and multinational in nature. The local criminal officers need also to knowledge on the operation of the criminal cartels that operates across the world.

How the major global crimes and criminal issues are addressed.

The national governments like the US and the UK have reacted to the organized global crimes by a national response framework. It has been found that the tools of diplomacy are irrelevant in dealing with international criminal groups because the nations of the world cannot negotiate and come to some consensus with terrorists. This is because most global crime operatives are not only interested in political power for the protection it can provide them in their business.

There is difficulty in the enforcement of international law in place to deal with the global crimes. The law enforcement agents have also faced difficulties in collection of evidence that will prove the case beyond reasonable doubt (John, 2005). The international law networks allow the criminals to hide their trucks by having different bank accounts, storage areas and partners around the world. It has also been found that in such circumstance that the leader of a criminal gang is prosecuted, the group decides to promote another criminal and the criminal business continues.

The local and international justice system has also applied the intelligence approach in dealing with the menace of Global crimes. For example, the crime and narcotic center have been able to provide information on criminal activities, looking at the networks, political and economic impacts of crimes. Human source intelligence has been very effective in provision of intelligence information on the global crime.

There has been international cooperation in the law enforcement and intelligence of dealing with the global crimes. For example, the American law enforcement agents have visited different parts of the world to train the local police and investigators of global crimes.

Reference

Hacket, J., (2006)Missile Disaster wake-up call, The Washington Times.

Hallett, G., (2004) The International Black Market: Coping with Drugs, Thugs and Fissile Materials. Panel for Center for Strategic and International Studies Conference on Global Organized Crime.

Handelman, S., (2005) Comrade Criminal. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

John, H., (2005) Diplomatic Associate Checklist for the Future of Intelligence. Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Occasional Paper I.

William, J., (2005) International Organized Crime. Society Vol 32 / 2 18-29.