Transnational Crime: Organized Crime and its Global Impact

This report provides an in-depth analysis of transnational crime, exploring its various facets and implications. It begins by defining transnational crime and its significance, differentiating it from organized crime and highlighting the role of money laundering as a key component. The report examines recent trends in money laundering, detailing the methods employed by criminal organizations to disguise illicit funds. It also analyzes the role played by organized crime groups in perpetrating such offenses, emphasizing their structure and activities. Furthermore, the report discusses the effects and harms caused by transnational crime, including its impact on national economies and societal stability. It also explores the relevance of globalization in facilitating and exacerbating transnational criminal activities. The report concludes by summarizing the key points and emphasizing the need for international cooperation to combat these complex and evolving criminal challenges.

Running head: TRANSNATIONAL CRIME
TRANSNATIONAL CRIME
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
This paper aims to discuss the transnational crime along with the organized crime which is
prevailing among the countries. It also aims to discuss the reasons behind such and the recent
trends that are taking place due to such transnational crime relating to money laundering. In
addition to such, it also discusses about the role the organized criminal groups play in
commission of such an offence. Along with such it further discusses the relevance of the
globalization among these transnational organized crimes and how such has caused an impact on
the countries and their economies. Lastly, it concludes by summarizing the points that have been
discussed in the paper.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Money Laundering as a Transnational Crime.............................................................................4
Recent Trends regarding Money Laundering as a form of Transnational Crime........................5
The role played by the organized crime groups in commission of such an offence....................6
The effects and the harms caused by this offence.......................................................................6
Relevance of Globalization..........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Transnational crimes are considered to be the crimes which have an actual effect or a
potential effect across the various national borders and these crimes offend the fundamental
values of the various international community as these are intrastate. This particular term is
considered to be used commonly by the law enforcement as well as the academic communities.
The TOC or the Transnational Organized Crime are considered to refer particularly to the
transnational crimes that are carried out by the several crime organizations. These crimes include
various criminal activities such as human trafficking or drugs and weapons trafficking along with
money laundering and contraband and extortion among others. Therefore, the term transnational
crime does not restrict itself to international crimes but they also involve criminal activities that
happen through cross-border transference which are considered to be an integral part of their
criminal activities (Kar and Spanjers 2017).
This discusses briefly about the transnational crimes and goes on to explain the organized
criminal activity which is money laundering as a form of offence. In addition to such it would
also discuss the recent trends regarding these criminal activities and the role played by the
organized crime groups in the commission of such an offence. Furthermore, it would also discuss
the effects along with the harms caused by such an offence. It would discuss the relevance of the
globalization to these particular aspects. Lastly, it would conclude by summarizing the points
that have been discussed in the paper.
Discussion
According to the authors, Rabasa et al., (2017), it has been stated that the Transnational
crime is considered to be the crimes which have been part of the customary international law

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which have occurred in certain circumstances internationally or in situations where the crimes
are considered to take place against the humanity. The international community is considered to
be confronted or effected with the increasing level of such crime as the criminal conducts of the
countries are considered to cause an impact on the other countries as well. However, it can also
be stated that these contemporary transnational crimes are considered to take advantages of the
globalization along with the trade liberalization which helps in exploding numerous amounts of
new innovations and technologies which assists in perpetrating diverse crimes in order to move
money as well as goods or the services along with the people or the individuals in an
instantaneous manner for the purposes of committing and enacting violence for the political ends
(Kar and Spanjers 2017).
Money Laundering as a Transnational Crime
Most of the crimes, which take place in this world, are considered to be committed due to
greed and the criminal networks are considered to generate huge amounts of money which are
similar to any other form of business. They are considered to require a certain kind of access to
the financial system internationally in order to conduct or carry out their difficult and challenging
operations. Money laundering is considered to be an illegal activity as it permits and allows the
criminals to profit from a certain kind of crime as it usually involves more than one illegal step to
happen. The term money laundering is considered to be commonly used in order to describe the
procedure or the process by which the offenders or the criminals try to disguise their original
ownership along with the control of the proceeds of a certain kind of criminal conduct by
converting it and making it seem like such proceeds have been taken or derived from a legitimate
source. These processes are considered to be extensive as they are derived in an illegal manner
(Hicks and Graycar 2019).

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According to the authors, Halliday, Levi and Reuter (2019), it has been stated that the law
enforcement agencies are considered to focus or concentrate on prohibiting and forbidding the
physical objects predominantly like the bags containing cocaine or boxes comprising of
counterfeit Rolexes, which are considered to be smuggled by the criminals. However, it has also
been stated that the enforcement agencies are concentrated on preventing the usage of such rather
than trying to track and seize the money which is being earned by various other criminal
networks (Jakobi 2018).
Recent Trends regarding Money Laundering as a form of Transnational Crime
It can be understood that money laundering is considered to be any act which would
convert the money or any other property which has been obtained through illegal activities into
money or any property that has been derived from a legitimate source thereby obscuring and
masking the illegitimate source. This is considered to be profit motive and the criminal
enterprises try to generate the funds in various ways but the primary stages of such remains by
the placement of the various criminal proceeds into that of the financial or other transfer system
or through the layering of the funds which would help in concealing the original source and
integrate such into the legitimate financial source in the financial markets through the banks or
the credit companies or the brokers or through real estate among others. It can also be through
the structured transactions relating to the deposited financial institutions or through the cash
couriers along with bulk cash smugglers. In addition to such it can also be through the Money
service businesses along with the Informal Value Transfer systems and trade based money
laundering. It can also be through online sources. These are the recent trends through which
money-laundering activities are taking place as these are one of the most crucial organized

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crimes and also a form of transnational crime which are affecting and causing an impact on the
cross-border countries (Gutterman and Roberge 2019).
The role played by the organized crime groups in commission of such an offence
The organized crime groups are considered to play a significant as well as a crucial role
in commission of such an offence as these are considered to be highly centralized enterprises
which have been set up for the primary objective of engaging in various criminal activities and
such enterprises get involved in activities like theft, robbery, kidnapping for some ransom or
demanding protection for payments, fraud among several other crimes. The organized crime
groups are considered to generate enormous and huge amounts of money through activities
which would comprise of drug trafficking or through arms smuggling, theft, along with various
other financial crimes. The launderers would go and mingle these with the illegal money as the
revenue would be used which have been made from these illegal businesses in order to disguise
and mask themselves from these illicit funds. The Mafia activities are considered to mainly
restrict itself to the Northeastern United States along with Chicago where they are considered to
dominate the organized crime in spite of the increase in the numbers of the other crime groups
(Pieth 2018).
The effects and the harms caused by this offence
Transnational Organized Crime is considered to be an organized crime which is
coordinated across the various borders and it also involves various groups which are working in
more than one of the countries in order to plan as well as execute the illegal businesses and those
ventures. Therefore, in order to achieve their goals these groups are considered to have a
systematic violence as well as corruption. These crimes are considered to widely undermine the
democracy of a nation and their economy. It also disrupts the markets along with draining the

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national assets. In addition to such, it also tries to inhibit the development and try to restrain the
stable development or progress of the societies. It has been deliberated upon that the national as
well as the international criminal groups are considered to threaten the security of the nations or
the countries and the victims in connection to these transnational crime networks are considered
to be the governments which are unstable as they are not powerful enough to protect the nation
and prevent these criminal activities from happening (Jakobi 2018).
Relevance of Globalization
According to an author, it has been stated that globalization has increased the inequality
which are persisting around the globe and this has a disruptive impact or effect which has caused
the individuals to go into organized crimes in order to operate in the illicit markets as the coping
mechanisms. The large westernization as well as the cultural imperialism has also led to a
homogenous global society and these in turn has affected and destroyed the local cultures. The
infrastructure regarding globalization permits rapid international travel and also facilitates the
international crime along with such. However, the crimes which are committed across the
national borders flourish during the time of global poverty. Therefore, in order to sustain the
individuals become or get engaged in various criminal activities and therefore they are inclined
towards such (Passas 2017).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be understood that, the organized criminal activities are considered to be
increasing through the individuals who are rapidly growing vast or huge enterprises for these
organized criminal activities in order to cause a grave impact on the economy of the countries as
well as fight against humanity. This has increased the cross-border crimes and therefore, in order

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to prevent such the law enforcement agencies along with the government of different nations are
coming together to reduce and prevent such activities in the future.

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References
Gutterman, E. and Roberge, I., 2019. The Financial Action Task Force: fighting transnational
organised crime, money laundering, and the limits of experimentalist governance. In Handbook
of Organised Crime and Politics. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Halliday, T., Levi, M. and Reuter, P., 2019. Anti-Money Laundering: An Inquiry into a
Disciplinary Transnational Legal Order. UC Irvine J. Int'l Transnat'l & Comp. L., 4, p.1.
Hicks, D.C. and Graycar, A., 2019. Money laundering. Cambridge University Press.
Jakobi, A.P., 2018. Governing illicit finance in transnational security spaces: the FATF and anti-
money laundering. Crime, Law and Social Change, 69(2), pp.173-190.
Kar, D. and Spanjers, J., 2017. Transnational crime and the developing world. Washington:
Global Financial Integrity. Retrieved on May, 30, p.2019.
Passas, N., 2017. Globalization, criminogenic asymmetries and economic crime. In International
Crimes (pp. 17-42). Routledge.
Pieth, M., 2018. Transnational Economic Crime: the Example of Gold Laundering. JACL, 2,
p.132.
Rabasa, A., Schnaubelt, C.M., Chalk, P., Farah, D., Midgette, G. and Shatz, H.J.,
2017. Counternetwork: Countering the Expansion of Transnational Criminal Networks. Rand
Corporation.