The study of transnational crime calls for the development of useful theories, the undertaking of credible empirical investigations, and the formulation of constructive social policy. All of these initiatives are premised on the adoption of a range of key terms and concepts, coherently defined, the positioning of specific forms of transnational crime in relation to other, cognate forms of such crime, and the situating of transnational crime within the context of an evolving globalized, postmodern world. Accordingly, some of the key definitional, typological, and contextual issues at hand are reviewed, with provisional solutions to some of the conundrums that arise. Falk's characterization of the present state of the world is adopted here as an especially persuasive and useful framework for addressing some central issues pertaining to transnational crime. An agenda for global criminology is offered.

Key words: global criminology, transnational crime, white-collar crime, globalization, postmodern context, declining world order, global governance.

The article focuses on criminal justice and national security measures linked to transnational crime with a specific focus on counterterrorism in the context of the "war on terror." Although transnational crime such as global terrorism is conventionally understood to trigger state responses, the article reverses this common-sense assumption. It foregrounds the "response" and suggests that the construction of a transnational crime threat has provided a productive fiction that establishes a rhetorical platform for the transformation and extension of states' coercive capacities. These changes are manifest most intensely and profoundly in the blurring of the boundaries between national security and criminal justice, and consequently between the military and law enforcement. The article argues that transnational crime countermeasures have been successful in developing, maintaining, and extending social, political, and economic hierarchies between and within states. It explores hidden agendas and asks what or who benefits from transnational crime countermeasures.

Key words: counterterrorism, transnational crime, "war on terror," terrorism, security

In response to globalization, Western nations are reconstituting geographic and social divisions through "border reconstruction projects." This article suggests that structural contradictions in global capitalism have generated the social conditions underlying these projects. It outlines several strategies used to reconstruct borders and analyzes one key contradiction: the need to keep borders open to foster global capitalism and to close borders in response to the declining welfare state. It argues that border reconstruction projects mounted in response to this contradiction are the source of much contemporary transnational crime. Finally, conclusions regarding the etiology and prevention of transnational crime are offered.

Key words: borders, migration, globalization, transnational crime

This article briefly observes the meshing of forced migration and transnational organized crime. It examines two predominant narratives of transnational organized crime in relation to refugee protection and considers the extent to which such narratives obfuscate a range of important trends in relation to discourses of rights, changing conditions of sovereignty, and deterritorialized policing practices. It concludes by arguing that the discursive (and otherwise) intertwining of transnational organized crime and refugee protection has the direct consequence of us knowing less about the causes of forced migration and possible long-term solutions, and further delegitimates an already imprecise and opportunistic categorization of transnational organized crime.

Key words: transnational crime, refugees, asylum seekers, statecraft

Using observant-participation with humanitarian and social action organizations in the U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector, the article explores the human rights and socio-legal implications of immigration and border enforcement policies that, through commission and omission, result in preventable suffering and death for thousands of people who migrate in order to labor. The author examines four propositions: (1) that border militarization increases the likelihood that unauthorized entrants will unnecessarily suffer a variety of social injuries; (2) that the injurious consequences of these policies are as harmful and as wrongful as many acts designated as state crimes, because they are specifically designed to force migrants into hazardous environments; (3) because these injuries result from attempts to control transnational actors in transnational contexts, they are analogous to other forms of transnational crime; and (4) that immigration control through border militarization is an attempt to counteract the legitimacy crisis of the neoliberal state.

Key words: immigration, migrants, borders, social injury, border death, transnational crime

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 34, No. 2 (2007): 77-93

Global mobility is a defining feature of our times. The author argues that attempts to control spontaneous border crossing mirror other developments in social control, including government-at-a-distance and the convergence of punitive and actuarial paradigms into strategies of punitive preemption. Moreover, when applied to the transnational phenomenon of border crossing, the imperative to colonize the future has increasingly drawn the power of the state offshore. The article discusses these preemptive measures using three Australian examples. In describing continuities with domestic crime control, there is no intention to identify illegalized border crossers as legitimate targets for coercive control. The point is to highlight and critique the spread of categorical exclusion and pre-punishment to an increasing range of suspect populations, driven by prevailing mentalities of risk avoidance.

Key words: borders, preemption, border protection, risk, migration control, new penology, extraterritoriality

Over the past decade, "crimes" against the environment have assumed, albeit falteringly, a new moral imperative. This article examines recent attempts to regulate, police, and criminalize one major environmental crime, the international trade in illicit timber, by contrasting local with global responses to the trade. The article examines issues of legality and sustainability; the role and sometimes problematic nature of civil society responses--domestic and transnational; and the impact of regulatory and state capture on the market. The focus of the article is an exploration of the interplay between the local and global in the context of a shifting moral and legal framework.

Key words: environmental crime, state crime, logging, regulation

The international market in illicit antiquities is a useful case study of a form of transnational crime. The most significant impact of "globalization" on this illicit market appears not to have been in the production of new expeditious illicit transit networks, but on aiding the emergence of a global discourse concerned with the protection of the world's cultural heritage from the more deleterious of the forces of the market. Increasingly, this discourse has begun to recognize the failure of state-based controls in source countries, and has begun to explore systemic "global" solutions to the problem. The research reported here draws attention to one problematic aspect of demand reduction initiatives: the differential responses of market participants to a changing climate of control. Charted here are the types of denial engendered by legal and moral structural change in the marketplace, and their implications for market regulation.

Key words: environmental crime, antiquities, neutralization, denial, field, habitus

Following the Indonesian-led "scorched earth" events of 1999, Timor-Leste (East Timor) stood in ruins: police stations, court buildings, and prisons had all been decimated; the vast majority of criminal justice personnel had left the country; and the written records of the previous regime had been destroyed. The Timorese people were faced with the challenges of building a domestic criminal justice system from scratch and implementing justice mechanisms to bring serious human rights violators to account. These processes were completely dependent on international assistance, principally derived from the various U.N. missions that have been established in the region. This article illustrates how a range of actors from across the globe garnered strategic, political, and economic power from the human rights violations in Timor-Leste. It also pays particular attention to the transnational trade in criminal justice strategies that have been consolidated within the nascent criminal justice sector. Finally, it exposes the intermeshing of transnational criminal justice initiatives with geopolitical and trade relations.

Key words: human rights violations, state-building, transnational crime, Timor-Leste

Not only are the benefits of the financial "War on Terror" as waged in Australia uncertain, but it also gives rise to particular dangers. The Australian counterterrorist financing regime is based on executive power to ban "terrorist" groups, power that raises the prospect of secret and arbitrary proscriptions. Flows of information under this regime are largely kept secret, raising questions of accountability. Further, while the regime imposes increased obligations upon financial institutions, it also confers significant discretion upon these entities in relation to their compliance with the laws. Financial institutions have also had considerable say-so over the content of these laws. Such power is problematic: it poses challenges to democracy and the privacy of citizens and gives rise to the risk of racial and religious discrimination.

Key words: war on terror--Australia, counterterrorism financing regime, accountability, private power, privacy, discrimination

This article explores the significance of an emerging global anti-corruption industry to the hegemonic ordering of the global economy. To illustrate the centrality of anti-corruption strategies to the emerging global economic order, this article develops a case study of counter-corruption rhetoric and practice in Iraq. The occupiers' anti-corruption narratives in Iraq, unswervingly centering upon Saddam's corruption, have provided a source of justification for the neoliberal transformation and corporate colonization of the economy. Those narratives equate Saddam Hussein's corruption and tyranny with the principle of state ownership and therefore provide a legitimating narrative for a coerced program of privatization and foreign ownership. Anti-corruption rhetoric and practice in Iraq has reinforced two neoliberal myths: first, the idea that the causes of corruption can be attributed to the public sector, rather than the "free market"; and second, that corruption stems from cultural backwardness and an innate tendency toward corruption among government and business elites in Iraq.

Key words: corruption, war on terror, Iraq, neoliberalism