International Crime

Throughout the term we have encompassed an array of information pertaining to international criminal justice practices. The examination of past, present, and future trends facing global justice systems has led us to embark on research and topics for many different countries. This paper will cover the topics of social phenomenon, social behavior, legal traditions of contemporary society, Interpol and Europol, and what is forthcoming for future trends in international criminal justice practices.The difference in studying crime as a social phenomenon and in studying crime as a social behavior is that crime as a social phenomenon deals with the crime itself and crime as a social behavior deals with the person committing the crime. The person committing the crime tells the social behavior of the individual as well as the environmental status. The phenomenon deals with the crime itself not who committees it. â€Å"Comparative criminological thoughts do affect social phenomenon through soc ial behavior individuals place on others† (Reichel, 2008). The comparative criminological ideas help with the study of different criminal element through domestic, international, and transnational crime. These concepts, theories, and ideologies help researchers to come up with different methods to help for resolving the issue of social disorder. Criminal behavior helps contrive summaries on the issue of social phenomenon on transnational to international crime; furthermore, â€Å"crime as a form through social behavior does as a social phenomenon through different identities through patterns and summaries in countries worldwide† (Reichel, 2008). A great example of a social phenomenon would be the twitter phenomenon The recent announcement that social-networking phenomenon Twitter â€Å"has agreed to settle FTC charges that Twitter engaged in inadequate privacy and information-security practices illustrates some simple mistakes social media and other online companies can make† (ftc. gov). The crime that was committed by twitter was the releasing of information pertaining to an individual’s sense of privacy. In order to understand the magnitude of the social phenomenon on a more global scale we can look at myspace, twitter, linkedin, and facebook as resources. These social networks gather information from clients in order for individual companies to keep track of their consumers and are also used as informational portals for blogging, networking, and file sharing. With young people being able to watch satellite television or the Internet to see the pro-democracy uprisings in other countries, and could communicate with activists across social networks that the secret police have difficulty controlling, governments across the region have reason to fear of contagion. One recent example of the power of social phenomenon was the revolution that began in Egypt on the 25th of January 2011. â€Å"The protest consisted of street demonstrations, acts of civil disobedience, riots, marches, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labor strikes, and violent clashes throughout Egypt as part of a longer-term campaign of civil resistance† (law. com). Millions of protesters from a variety of social economic backgrounds and religions demanded the overthrow of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, along with an end to corruption and police repression, and democratic reforms of the political system. On the 11th of February, Mubarak resigned from office as a result of determined popular protest. These spiraling events were the end result of a facebook group who attracted 80,000 attendees. This goes to show how powerful social phenomenon’s were, can be, and will be in the future. Nigeria utilizes these social phenomenons for criminal purposes to gain access to important information like American birthdates, social security numbers and other vital information. The majority of the information gathered from these countries usually is gathered from social networks. Because lately Nigeria has been one of the top countries that has been listed in the forefront of the news for scams that have cost many individuals across the world money a closer look have been taken to prohibit these types of cybercrimes. Crimes people place among others throughout any organizations and society does affect the social and psychological motives on the person. The issues of international crimes help to explain the social and psychological motives throughout the globe. The images of social behavior help improve both theoretical and psychological motives that created individuals organizations to help to prevent violence throughout society. According to Reichel the comparative criminology does focus through social and psychological behaviors through community. The future of these cybercrimes is uncertain; furthermore, the more technology seems to increase the more technical and savvy criminals become. When considering the legal traditions of contemporary society a person would have to take into consideration many different attributes to determine the legal traditions. With reference to my personal opinion the three primary legal traditions are Common law, Religious law, and Contemporary law. â€Å"An argument can be made that a fourth tradition, socialist, exists on its own right but can also be considered and argued to be a part of civil law† (Reichel, 2008). Common law had its basis formed in Western Europe whereas civil law had its foundation in Roman times (Reichel, 2008). An apparent difference between civil and common law was the existence of common law in its relation to civil law. Common law was based on religious decisions from the Christian Church (Reichel, 2008). Islamic law has its foundation in a divine source but also incorporates the use of reasoning as well as â€Å"reasoning by analogy† (Reichel, 2008). Religious laws would be considered are religious law these are laws with that hold ethical, and moral standing. A great example is Hindu, Islamic, and etc. which rule by the basis on religion and old law. In simple religion and custom are laws. Contemporary law means the present and prevailing law. This states that laws will be referred to laws that are already in place in order to obtain a mutual consensus throughout the court system. The difference between legal systems and legal traditions is that legal systems are comprised of â€Å"legal institutions, procedures and rules† (Reichel, 2008). Legal traditions deal with the culture and historical attitudes of a society regarding law and how it should be applied (Reichel, 2008). â€Å"Common law had its basis formed in Western Europe whereas civil law had its foundation in Roman times† (Reichel, 2008). An apparent difference that I read between civil and common law was the existence of canon law in its relation to civil law. â€Å"Common law was based on religious decisions from the Christian Church† (Reichel, 2008). Islamic law has its foundation in a divine source but also incorporates the use of reasoning as well as â€Å"reasoning by analogy† (Reichel, 2008). In lament terminology common laws help to develop a better democratic form of governments; that helps prevent any acts of individual’s violation of his or her rights. Therefore, traditional laws help to develop a stronger republic to help protect an individual’s rights and liberties throughout modern world. Religious laws help to determine the action that came from the churches and how their ideological approach does help to improve society. Interpol in short stands for International Criminal Policing Organization. Its sole purpose is to oversee internationally crime trends and crack down international wrong doing. Interpol plays a major roll on the international scene in regards to policing because it’s the world’s largest international police organization. It encompasses approximately 188 countries globally and was created in 1923. â€Å"Interpol aims to facilitate international police co-operation even where diplomatic relations do not exist between particular countries. Action is taken within the limits of existing laws in different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Interpol’s constitution prohibits any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character† (inter. int). Europol in short stands for â€Å"European Law Enforcement Agency which aims at improving the effectiveness and co–operation of the competent authorities in the Member States in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and other serious forms of organized crime† (euro. ur). Europol is the law enforcement agency of the European Union. Our aim is to help achieve a safer Europe by supporting the law enforcement agencies of European Union member states in their fight against international serious crime and terrorism. More than 620 staff at Europol headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands work closely with law enforcement agencies in the 27 European Union member states and in other non-EU partner states such as Australia, Canada, the USA and Norway† (euro. eur). These two different but very similar methods of trying to police in an effort to prevent and stop crime I feel is very beneficial globally. These two organizations contribute very greatly with regards to international policing. One focuses on European countries while the other focuses on international countries. Sharing vital statistics, crime trends, and data is the Achilles heel for both organizations. They both rely on information sharing with local agencies to produce productive results. For the prevention of international crimes both play major and important rolls with information and data sharing. This is a great system in place because now there isn’t really any criminal that can abscond from justice. Interpol /Europol concentrate on three broad categories of international criminal activity. â€Å"Both contributes to providing information terrorism and crimes against people and property, including crimes against children, trafficking in human beings, illegal immigration, automobile theft, and art theft; economic, financial, and computer crimes, including banking fraud, money laundering, corruption, and counterfeiting; and illegal drugs and criminal organizations, including organized crime† (inter. nt). Interpol’s everyday operations are managed by a General Secretariat under the direction of a secretary general, who is appointed for a five-year term by the General Assembly. Interpol was reorganized in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the United States. The new post of executive director for police services was created to oversee several director ates, including those for regional and national police services, specialized crimes, and operational police support. In conclusion, the international criminal system does have its ups and downs. Based on the readings and discussions up to this point, it becomes very apparent that the futures of international criminal activities are uncertain. â€Å"There’s no question that terrorism, the growth of multicultural populations, massive migration, upheavals in age-composition demographics, technological developments, and globalization over the next three or more decades will affect the world’s criminal justice systems† (ojp. gov). The research predicts that global trends will play a significant role in how criminal justice is delivered throughout the world. This can be because of the dramatic growth in the number of foreign born Americans and suggests that increasing diversity in populations will have a significant impact not only in the United States but worldwide. Such growth has the potential for disharmony; furthermore, in South Africa, for example, the court system now recognizes eleven official languages. â€Å"As a result, lawyers may speak one language, the judge another, and the defendant, a third. Often, the only two people in the courtroom speaking the same language are the victim and defendant with the judge, prosecutor, and defense lawyer relying on interpreters† (ojp. gov). The lack of similarities extends beyond language to social norms and expectations can prove a huge problem for the future of international criminal justice. Ultimately, the priority over the next couple of decades should be to develop policies and technologies that will help policymakers, decision makers, and citizens establish a criminal justice system that is fair, equitable, and respectful.Reference http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/twitter.shtm http://www.interpol.int/public/icpo/default.asp http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/journals/255/2040.html