Question

what is transnational crime? give examples

Answer 1

• The concept of 'transnational crime', from a criminological perspective, originates from the mid-1970s when the United Nations used the term in order to identify certain criminal activities which transcend national jurisdictions.
• In 1995, the United Nations identified eighteen categories of transnational - and mostly organized - criminality. Transnational crime was then defined as ‘offences whose inception, prevention and/or direct or indirect effects involved more than one country.
• The crimes listed included, among others, money laundering, terrorist activities, theft of art and cultural objects, theft of intellectual property, illicit arms trafficking, aircraft hijacking, sea piracy, insurance fraud, computer crime, environmental crime, trafficking in persons, trade in human body parts, illicit drug trafficking, fraudulent bankruptcy, infiltration of legal business, corruption and bribery of public or party officials.
• Transnational crimes are violations of law that involve more than one country in their planning, execution, or impact. These offenses are distinguished from other crimes in their multinational nature, which poses unique problems in understanding their causes, developing prevention strategies, and in mounting effective adjudication procedures.
• Transnational crimes can be grouped into three broad categories involving provision of illicit goods (drug trafficking, trafficking in stolen property, weapons trafficking, and counterfeiting), illicit services (commercial sex and human trafficking), and infiltration of business and government (fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and corruption) affecting multiple countries.
• Transnational crimes are distinct from international crime, which involves crimes against humanity that may or may not involve multiple countries. Examples of international crimes are genocide and terrorism.
• Example of transnational crime involving illicit goods is that of counterfeiting. Without a doubt, one of the most popular currencies to counterfeit, due to its value, is that of the U.S. dollar. Individuals, criminal groups, and even some government actually forge the U.S. currency. They will produce batches of the currency, distribute it within their home country or around the world, and sell it for a steep discount to its proposed value and pocket real money in return. One country known for doing this for illicit purposes is North Korea.
• Weapons trafficking is another transnational crime. A weapon (or a counterfeit of one) may be produced in one country, such as Russia or China. From there, the weapons may be sold (by government consent or as a result of corruption) to a country in Africa, for example. Here, the weapons will be used against a country's own civilians or neighboring countries. The planning for the scheme may have occurred in a neutral country. The execution would've occurred in part in the weapon's manufacturing nation and the buying nation. The impact will be widespread, however, as those weapons can be used to harm people in multiple countries.
• Transnational criminal organizations’ objectives are to increase their profits as well as influence over territory, which in turn allows them to have further control over their criminal actions. However, in many cases, these criminal organizations–in order to conduct their businesses–are reliant on several other criminal groups, whether it is with regards to the delivery of a product, or assistance in shipping a product.