Globalization in Law Enforcement

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First, critically reflect upon your professional and personal experience in the light of course readings and discussions. Drawing upon and applying the course concept and using them to support your ideas, thoughtfully articulate your perspective on:
Q.1 What does globalization mean to your particular industry, and how does it affect you locally?
Professional and Personal Reflection
Globalization has created an environment that supports and challenges law enforcement efforts in equal measure. Based on professional practice, I have learned that globalization has created systems and networks that have eased law enforcement efforts. One such system is the internet. The internet facilitates cross-border collaboration and information exchange between governments and intelligence organizations (Yvonne Crittenden, 2010). However, the same platforms have made the work of crime detection a complex endeavor. Detecting international crimes, such as money laundering, drug, and human trafficking, has been complicated since these crimes are disguised as cross-border legal activities. Therefore, most illegal activities go undetected. Still, globalization supports transnational crimes since criminals no longer need a physical presence in a particular jurisdiction. Criminal gangs can easily collaborate, coordinate, and perpetuate criminal activities through online platforms. The phenomenon has led to the advent and proliferation of cyber-crime. Leveraging the internet, criminals perpetrate illegal activities dispersed across the globe (McCusker, 2004).
Globalization has complicated the work of international law enforcement since local investigators have a difficult task differentiating local from international crime. While the trend facilitates cross-border law enforcement collaboration, it has redefined the traditional meaning of crime. Also, it has introduced a legal challenge that is hampering local law enforcement efforts. Reason being that countries have disparate legal frameworks. The lack of a harmonized legal framework complicates cross-border law enforcement efforts (Ronconi, 2012). However, the formation of international police (Interpol) and other international police networks have proved essential in curbing international crime.
Globalization has had a significant impact on the law enforcement industry. However, it has unified the world. For instance, it has socialized the global community, creating international criminal organizations that operate beyond national borders (Ansley, 2013). The trend has led to eliminating national borders as barriers to fighting crime, even though it has exposed domestic law enforcers to deal with intricate global criminal networks. It has opened up countries to international crime (Aguilar-Millan et al., 2008).
However, it also provides a platform for inter-governmental collaboration in the area of law enforcement. The globalization era now places businesses and governments in the global marketplace, which has both benefits and drawbacks for domestic enforcers. The drawback is that domestic law enforcement agencies are ill-equipped to deal with the complex nature of the transnational crime (Ronconi, 2012). Though globalization has enhanced international law enforcement efforts, its drawbacks outweigh its benefits. For instance, it has increased domestic crime to unprecedented levels never witnessed before. Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) has remarkably impacted law enforcement efforts and the exchange of intelligence information across borders. However, domestic and international criminal networks leverage the same to commit crimes. Domestic law enforcers can now tap into the global intelligence networks through globalization, thereby simplifying investigating crimes (Godinho, 2020). However, the expansion of cross-border trade and collaboration has provided an avenue for criminal networks to thrive. Through the internet, police and intelligence organizations can access and share intelligence data from the ICPO (Yvonne Crittenden, 2010). It necessitates inter-governmental collaborations, making the work of identifying, tracking, and arresting criminals easy. The physical location of a criminal no longer matters since the internet has bridged the border gap.
Similarly, law enforcers resident in one country can conduct investigations in a different jurisdiction. Therefore globalization has made transnational law enforcement a lot easier even though it has complicated domestic law enforcement efforts (Ansley, 2013). Globalization has led to the emergence of and proliferation of transnational crime. The reason is that it facilitates international trade while complicating the efforts of regulating international trade. Traffickers and smugglers have exploited the complexity to engage in illicit trade, thereby complicating the effort of law enforcement (Godinho, 2020).
The disruptive effects of globalization have pushed people to engage in transnational crime. The internationalization of business has caused deregulation in the global financial markets. Deregulation has allowed criminals to easily launder the proceeds of crime across borders (Ronconi, 2012). While law enforcement has made steps toward reregulation of markets, the efforts are ineffective in countering money laundering. Terrorists, insurgents, and their adherents perpetuate their illegal activities, e.g., money laundering, drugs, and human trafficking, in the guise of globalization (Yvonne Crittenden, 2010). The internet has opened up the world, thereby necessitating direct group-to-group contact of crime networks. Through Interpol (ICPO), law enforcement efforts have been significantly enhanced since crimes disguised as legitimate and legal activities can be tracked. Globalization has redefined the meaning of international crime and international law enforcement (Godinho, 2020). Global crime has taken a new dimension leading to a change in the modus operandi of criminal organizations. It means that international criminal networks no longer operate on a single...