ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the increasing process of globalization which is closely linked to neoliberalism and involves the distribution of products, technology, information and jobs across national borders and cultures. It describes the economic interdependence of nations around the globe which is fostered through free trade. Globalization is thus the increasing interconnectedness of societies with what happens in one locality being invariably shaped by – or itself shaping – distant events. The world is a global village. The same process has also brought about the spread of transnational organized crime. Legitimate business both actively seeks relations with criminal organizations while adopting methods akin to those of organized crime. Global criminal networks involve complex interconnections between a range of criminal networks which transcend national boundaries including the American Mafia, Columbian drug cartels, the Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads and the Sicilian Costa Nostra. A recent EU-funded Organised Crime Portfolio project has estimated that organized crime costs the EU economy about €110 billion per annum or approximately 1% of EU gross domestic product. Serious and organized crime affects more UK citizens, more often, than any other national security threat and leads to more deaths each year than all other national security threats combined.
