Global Crimes (Border Criminology) 2-4 PM PDF

Global crimes (border criminology) VALERIA FERRARIS THURSDAY AND FRIDAY 2-4 PM Basic concepts 1. Criminology 2. Crime, criminalisation 3. Social control 4. Harm 2 Criminology Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon that inclu...

Global crimes (border criminology) VALERIA FERRARIS THURSDAY AND FRIDAY 2-4 PM Basic concepts 1. Criminology 2. Crime, criminalisation 3. Social control 4. Harm 2 Criminology Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon that includes within its scope the process of making laws, of breaking laws and of reacting towards the breaking of laws. (Edwin Sutherland) Criminology has no distinct theoretical object and no distinct method of inquiry of its own. Rendez-vous discipline (Garland) What is a crime? 4  The Definition of crime is subject to debate LEGAL-ORIENTED SOCIOLOGICAL-ORIENTED DEFINITION DEFINITION (CRIMINAL LAW) (CRIMINOLOGY) Crime is a violation of the law that Crime is historically changeable and can be subject to prosecution and relative. Crime is the result of a punishment. Criminal lawyers are legal/cultural/social construction (so concerned to conceptual structure, called, process of criminalization). doctrinal content and judicial Criminologists are concerned to interpretation. development and scope of criminal law. PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH DESCRIPTIVE APPROACH What is more serious?  Crime is not an objective entity but also the result of a process of social construction. Many circumstances (social, cultural, and historic) influence the definition of what is a crime. ✔ The conventional concept of crime does not include new situations or does not consider the harm caused by certain behaviours (e.g. private security personnel on the battlefield; white collar crimes/environmental crimes) ✔ Crimes of globalisation (Friedrichs 2011) The relativism of the concept of crime  “Crime is a problematic category used routinely to describe a set of behaviours that, beyond a central core, are highly contested. Legal definition cannot adequately recognize the historical development, social relationships, practices, ideologies and interests that determine what, at any given moment, is designated criminal” Lucia Zedner (2004) Criminal Justice, p. 69 The role of the State in defining what is criminal is changing due to globalization 8  C R RELATIVITY SELECTIVITY I M E  The relativity of the concept of crime becomes evident, particularly when we refer to transnational issues such as terrorism, smuggling, and border control, or to matters related to personal spheres like moral, religion and ethics." We cannot forget that CRIME also becomes a political category of blame and is used “more as an ideological weapon than as an analytical tool” (Ruggiero, 2003) 10 Crime and relativity Definitions of crime are historically changeable and relative. 11 Worldwide laws regarding same-sex intercourse, unions and expression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory Abortion law Adultery laws Crime and relativity (it is not only a matter of different legal rules) Some behaviours are legally criminal but are not always in public opinion and common sense considered “criminal” (and vice versa). Examples? “The real question is this: was all this legal? Absolutely f***ing not. But we were making more money than we knew what do with” (The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013)  The selectivity of crime Meanings given to certain acts in a given social framework SELECTIVITY (offence) Social control/ OF CRIME criminalization Definition of “criminal” given to certain individuals/social group in a given social framework (offender) The criminalisation process is also a matter of selectivity and relativity DEFINITION OF CRIME : CRIMINAL SENTENCING & WHAT IS LEGAL/ILLEGAL? PROCEDURE PUNISHMENT (Legislative procedures, (Judgment) (Law enforcement agencies) Growth of Regulatory-state, over- criminalization) Actors involved: Actors involved: Courts, Judges, Prosecutors, Police, Social and health Actors involved: Lawyers, cares experts Legislators, Political parties, Lobbies and Groups of interests PUBLIC OPINION PUBLIC (EMOTIONS) MORALITY MEDIA The criminalisation process is also a matter of selectivity and relativity TO SUM UP: The criminalization process is selective because not all deviant behaviors are treated equally, and it's relative because what is considered criminal can vary depending on social, cultural, and historical factors. Power relations, societal values, and political contexts play a crucial role in determining what becomes criminalized and how laws are enforced. The same reasoning applies to de-criminalization. Criminalisation Criminalisation as an outcome, refers to the result of the legislative process (and then the prosecutorial and judicial processes) Criminalisation as a practice, as a process refers to the activities performed by the legislator, the police officers, the judges and even the members of the public; these activities may end in criminalization as an outcome (but not necessarily) Smoking: Steps of a “worldwide” process of criminalization Smoking has been highly criminalized across US and Europe with a different timing but now is the dominant approach. It does not affect all the other areas of the world, but there are international campaigns against this behavior. The discovery that smoking was dangerous for health created first a medical issue Smoking becomes an unhealthy habit Dangerousness for other people (the issue of secondary smoke) was a further relevant step Smoking: Steps of a “worldwide” process of criminalization Smoking is less and less socially tolerated. The behaviour is today associated with other negative social characteristics, and was not in the past. Smoking in some areas or places is forbidden with increasingly higher penalties; the range of areas where smoking is forbidden increases too, with prohibition gradually shifting from public to private spaces. The criminalization process expands in other countries.  Gender related crime: Steps of a “worldwide” process of criminalization Female genital cutting and other cultural related practices involving women (forced Stepsmarriage, of a “worldwide” widow killings, female infanticide, etc..) process of considered a crime by international agencies and there is a campaign for They are criminalization at the criminalization: national level. gender Basedcrime related on the idea of the violation of human physical integrity and dignity. Considered by the UN as a form of human rights violation. Problem: cultural conflict. States that allow these practices and do not see them as crimes do not accept the international campaigns to prohibit them. Social control Social control refers to al the processes by which social order is maintain. We distinguish formal social control and informal social control 24 Those organized responses to crime, delinquency and other form of deviant and/or socially problematic behaviour. They can be: Reactive (after the putative act has taken place or the actor has been identified) Or Proactive (aimed at avoiding deviant/criminal action) 25 Formal social control Formal social control refers to means of controlling people’s behaviours based on a formal mechanism and on actions taken by agencies of the criminal justice system. A fundamental mechanism of exercising formal social control used in most societies is deterrence. The threat of punishment through criminal law deters people from engaging in behaviours forbidden by the law. Informal social control Informal social control is based on different instruments: Early socialization of children at home and at school Community control, peer groups control, etc. Such forms of control focus on the reinforcement of socially accepted norms of behavior in various social environments. 27 Disasters or crimes? 9/27/24 Chernobyl, April 26, 1986: the world’s worst nuclear disaster A radioactive cloud spread from the nuclear power plant into part of the USSR and Western Europe. Contained on May 4. 134 people injured during the operations to contain the disaster, 28 died The number of victims as a consequence of the contamination of the ground and the air is unknown Estimates of death rate for the exposure to contamination (for some types of cancer) range from 9.000 to 16.000). 29 9/27/24 Fukushima, March 11, 2011 Fukushima was a 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The direct cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. 30