Transnational Organized Crime in the Era of Globalization

Abstract

The authors analyze versatile manifestations of globalization, the internationalization of the global community development in the modern technogenic conditions, and conclude that these processes lead not only to positive, but, unfortunately, also to negative consequences. Specifically, they focus on the qualitative and quantitative changes in the heterogeneous structure of the so-called transnational organized crime. It is claimed that the most dangerous of them are cybercrimes, drug-related crimes, and human trafficking, which became the object of theoretical and empirical research. The study of international and national materials made it possible to apply a multi-aspect approach to the analysis of the normative basis and statistical data in this sphere. The authors identify the trends and regularities in the development of modern drug-related crimes in the plain of global and local socio-political, economic and legal phenomena; they also identify the priorities for the work of government bodies, including law enforcement agencies, aimed at counteracting these crimes. For cybercrimes, the authors outline the scope of the most dangerous types of illegal activities against national and economic security of states, against the rights and freedoms of their citizens; primarily, they single out the spread of terrorist threats, fraud related to financial and commercial information, personal data, etc. They analyze the clauses of the basic international normative legal act on counteracting cybercrime - the Budapest Convention of the Council of Europe - and pay special attention to the differentiation of crimes while taking into account this type of illegal activity, as well as the enforcement of the Convention in modern conditions. The essence of international terrorism is determined based on the statistical data and their correlation in one or another state; ideologically radical worldviews, separatism, personal ambitions of modern elites are recognized to be key prerequisites for this work. It is claimed that, as a type of transnational crime, global human trafficking is rather dangerous for modern society because of its considerable latency; its manifestations are described, it is also noted that a complex of preventive measures should be implemented at the international and national levels. The authors conclude that transnational crime is an urbanized deeply interconnected phenomenon that does not exist in a pure form and requires highly coordinated large-scale actions from the global and the national communities, as well as adequate professional training of law enforcement employees.