Global Economic Collapse Means Boom Times for Criminal Syndicates

By Michael T. Klare, Tomdispatch.com. Posted April 7, 2009.

Russia has, of course, long been plagued by high levels of individual and organized crime. "The U.S. Embassy receives numerous criminal incident reports from private and official Americans on a routine basis. These incidents include, but are not limited to, racial violence, theft, vandalism, robbery, physical assaults, and murder," the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), a State Department agency, reported in February. The current economic crisis has, by all accounts, sharply increased the level of such lawlessness. Russian newspapers have reported increases in everything from shoplifting and aggravated assault to murder. "One of the most significant negative consequences of the crisis could be a change in crime trends," the chief prosecutor of Moscow, Yuri Syomin, observed in February. "If life becomes worse, then crime will rise."

One aspect of the growing violence in Russia likely to be replicated elsewhere is attacks on immigrants, who are often portrayed by racist and ultra-nationalist groups as taking jobs from native people at a time of employment scarcity. "There has been a steady increase in racially-motivated incidents and ethnically-motivated violence throughout Russia," the February OSAC report noted. "Attacks on ethnic minorities by young Russian ultra-nationalists who profess a sentiment of 'Russia is for Russians' have risen for the third straight year." These concerns were heightened last December when photos of the decapitated body of a Central Asian male, presumably an immigrant from one of the former Soviet republics, were sent to human rights organizations in the country by an ultra-nationalist group that claimed responsibility for his murder and mutilation.

Wherever one looks, then, the global economic crisis is destined to be accompanied by rising levels of crime, violence, and -- increasingly -- state repression. Worried governments may attempt to forestall the risk of criminal disorder by spending more on law enforcement or, as in the case of China, stepping up the rate of executions. In a world on the brink, this is unlikely to deter those like the Somali pirates who "only want money so we can protect ourselves from hunger."

Without a global stimulus effort aimed at those at greatest risk of destitution, hunger, and homelessness, expect an epidemic of global crime and boom times for criminal syndicates and cartels everywhere.

See more stories tagged with: crime, globalization, financial collapse

Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency.

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