Globalisation and crime | AQA A-Level Sociology

For Specification 7192

AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes

Estimated study time: 70 to 80 minutes

Globalisation has changed the connections between societies, economies and technologies, creating important consequences for crime. This Globalisation and crime A-Level Sociology revision page examines how crime can cross national borders, how global markets and digital technology create new opportunities for offending, and how sociologists explain these developments. You will also consider an important counterargument: globalisation can strengthen international cooperation against crime. The lesson develops recent crime patterns and trends [Recent patterns and trends in crime] and leads into topics including green crime [Green crime] and state crime.

Learning Objectives 🎯

By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:

• Define globalisation in relation to crime.

• Explain how increasing global interconnectedness may influence crime.

• Describe forms of crime associated with a globalised society.

• Analyse relationships between global and local criminal activity.

• Compare different sociological explanations of globalisation and crime.

• Evaluate the view that globalisation necessarily increases crime.

Revision Notes 📚

Globalisation and crime A-Level Sociology revision

AQA requires students to understand globalisation and crime in contemporary society. Crime and Deviance must also be studied through the core themes of socialisation, culture and identity, and social differentiation, power and stratification. The central focus remains contemporary UK society, but AQA specifically requires the UK's position within its globalised context to be considered.

Globalisation and crime therefore involves more than simply listing crimes that occur in several countries.

You need to explain:

• how global connections create opportunities for crime;

• how technology changes offending;

• how legal and illegal markets can cross borders;

• how global inequalities may contribute to crime;

• how crime may combine global and local processes;

• why globalisation may also improve the ability to control some offences.

What is globalisation?

Globalisation refers to increasing interconnectedness between societies across national boundaries.

For Crime and Deviance, particularly important dimensions include:

• technological connections;

• international trade;

• financial connections;

• movement across national borders;

• links between global and local markets.

AQA's 2020 Paper 3 item explicitly connected globalisation with the development of new technologies and increased trade across national borders.

This interconnectedness can influence both legitimate and criminal activity.

The basic sociological relationship is:

greater global interconnectedness → new opportunities and networks → changing forms of crime

However, this relationship is not automatically one-directional. Global interconnectedness can also allow states and agencies to cooperate against crime.

Globalisation changes opportunities for crime

One of the clearest AQA-supported arguments is that globalisation can create new opportunities for crime.

The 2023 Paper 3 item states that increased connections across a globalised world have created both:

• new opportunities for offending;

• new types of crime.

This occurs because activities that previously depended more heavily on physical proximity can increasingly involve:

• people in different countries;

• international markets;

• cross-border movement;

• digital communications;

• international finance.

Crime can therefore become less restricted by national boundaries.

Transnational crime

Transnational crime is crime that involves or crosses national boundaries.

Globalisation can make this more significant because connections between countries allow people, goods, money and information to move across borders.

However, the concept of global crime should not lead you to assume that every offence is completely detached from particular places.

AQA's 2020 mark scheme makes precisely this point. It explains that internationally organised drug markets may ultimately depend on local contacts and networks when drugs are distributed within the UK.

Global and local processes therefore interact.

Glocal crime

AQA's 2023 mark scheme includes glocal crime among relevant concepts for globalisation and crime.

Glocal crime describes criminal activity in which global and local processes are interconnected.

For example, a criminal market may involve:

1. production or supply in one part of the world;

2. movement across international boundaries;

3. national or international criminal networks;

4. local contacts distributing goods to consumers.

The crime is therefore neither purely global nor purely local.

This is an important evaluation of the claim that globalisation has completely transformed crime. Global connections may expand the scale of a criminal market, while offending still relies upon local relationships and opportunities.

AQA identifies Hobbs and Dunningham among sociological sources relevant to this area, alongside the concept of glocal crime.

The global drugs trade

The drugs trade is explicitly recognised in AQA assessment material as a form of crime connected with globalisation.

AQA's 2020 mark scheme explains that illegal drugs may be produced in one part of the world, smuggled across national borders and sold in markets elsewhere, including the UK.

Globalisation can therefore influence the drugs trade through:

• international supply networks;

• movement across borders;

• global markets;

• communication between different parts of criminal networks.

Yet the same mark scheme stresses that distribution still depends on local contacts.

This makes the drugs trade a strong example of glocalisation:

global supply → cross-border movement → local distribution

Global trade and organised crime

Increased international trade can create legitimate opportunities for economic activity, but global movements of goods may also provide opportunities for illegal markets.

AQA's globalisation mark schemes recognise organised crime and the effects of increased trade as relevant material.

Organised crime involves coordinated criminal activity carried out by groups or networks.

Within a globalised society, organised criminal activity may involve:

• cross-border markets;

• international movement;

• financial transactions;

• locally based networks connected to wider criminal markets.

AQA also identifies Glenny and the concept of McMafia among material that may be relevant to global crime.

For examination purposes, the key point is that organised criminal networks can make use of the same increasing global connections that support legitimate international economic activity.

Human trafficking

Human trafficking is another form of global crime specifically recognised in AQA's 2023 globalisation mark scheme.

Its global dimension comes from movement and organisation that can cross national boundaries.

It demonstrates that globalisation can involve criminal markets based not only on:

• goods;

• money;

• digital information,

but also on the movement and exploitation of people.

Detailed discussion of human rights links naturally to human rights violations and state crime [Human rights and state crimes].

Globalisation, technology and crime

Technology is one of the clearest links between globalisation and changing crime.

AQA's 2023 examination material states that the rise of new technology has contributed to the development of cybercrime.

Cybercrime refers to offending made possible or facilitated by digital technologies.

Technology matters because communication and activity can increasingly take place across very large distances without offenders and victims having to be physically close to one another.

This can change:

• who can become a victim;

• where offenders can operate;

• the geographical scale of offending;

• how quickly criminal activity can take place.

AQA's 2025 mark scheme also recognises that technological development and new media create new opportunities and new types of crime, specifically including cybercrime.

This creates an important link with media and crime [The media and crime].

Technology and international terrorism

AQA's 2020 mark scheme also accepts international terrorism as an example of crime influenced by globalisation.

It notes that ideological links can operate through the internet and other technologies.

The sociological relationship is therefore:

global communication technologies → connections across national boundaries → new possibilities for internationally connected criminal activity

The important examination skill is to explain the connection rather than simply naming terrorism as a "global crime".

Global finance and money laundering

Globalisation has also increased connections within financial systems.

AQA's 2020 mark scheme identifies:

• 24-hour digital banking;

• offshore banking and tax havens;

• money laundering

as relevant to explaining how globalisation may influence crime in the UK.

Money laundering involves attempts to disguise the criminal origins of money.

The AQA example shows how internationally connected financial systems can make it harder for law-enforcement agencies to trace criminal funds.

A simplified chain is:

international financial connections → movement or concealment of criminal money → greater difficulty tracing funds

This illustrates an important feature of global crime: the offence or proceeds of crime may operate across several jurisdictions.

Economic and corporate crime

AQA's 2023 mark scheme also recognises:

• economic crime;

• corporate crime;

• the global economy

as relevant material.

The 2023 examination item specifically presents a Marxist argument that reduced control over finance and corporations within a globalised economy may contribute to insecurity, inequality and crime.

This links globalisation with the wider questions of:

• economic power;

• regulation;

• inequality;

• the ability of states to control organisations operating internationally.

These issues build on the relationship between inequality and offending examined in social class and crime [Social class and crime].

Globalisation and Marxist explanations of crime

A Marxist explanation focuses on capitalism, economic inequality and relationships of power.

AQA's 2023 globalisation item gives a clear Marxist argument:

reduced control over finance and corporations → greater insecurity and inequality → increased crime.

The indicative content for the same question also includes:

• consumerism;

• relative deprivation;

• corporate crime;

• the global economy;

• Marxism.

Inequality and relative deprivation

Global economic processes may contribute to inequalities between individuals and groups.

Relative deprivation occurs when people feel disadvantaged compared with others or compared with what they believe they should possess.

A Marxist or inequality-based argument can therefore suggest:

global economic inequality → relative deprivation and insecurity → pressures towards some forms of crime

This overlaps with explanations already encountered when studying social class and crime [Social class and crime].

Consumerism

AQA also recognises consumerism as relevant to global crime.

Consumerism is the strong emphasis placed on acquiring and consuming material goods.

If globalised culture makes desirable lifestyles and consumer goods increasingly visible while access to them remains unequal, this may contribute to:

• feelings of relative deprivation;

• pressure to achieve material success;

• some forms of offending.

The key sociological point is not that consumerism automatically causes crime.

It is that consumer expectations can interact with unequal resources and opportunities.

Corporate power and regulation

Globalisation may also affect the relationship between states and corporations.

The 2023 AQA item specifically links reduced control over corporations with crime.

A global corporation may operate across more than one country, while state laws and enforcement agencies are often organised nationally.

This can create questions about:

• which state is responsible for regulation;

• which laws apply;

• how harmful corporate behaviour should be defined;

• how offences operating across borders should be investigated.

This issue becomes particularly important when studying green crime [Green crime], where environmental harms can involve companies and countries in different parts of the world.

Green crime as global crime

Green crime concerns environmental harm and is explicitly included by AQA among the forms of crime relevant to globalisation.

Environmental problems often do not remain neatly within one national border.

This creates difficulties because:

• the harm may cross national boundaries;

• corporations may operate internationally;

• laws may differ between countries;

• deciding where an offence should be recorded may be difficult.

AQA's 2022 mark scheme specifically highlights the difficulty of measuring green crimes involving companies and countries in different parts of the world.

The full sociological debate is developed in environmental harm and offending [Green crime].

State crime, political crime and war crime

AQA's 2023 globalisation mark scheme also recognises:

• state crime;

• political crime;

• war crime;

• human rights

as relevant to global crime.

These forms demonstrate why studying crime solely through ordinary domestic criminal law can be limiting.

Some harms involve:

• governments;

• political power;

• conflicts crossing or affecting national boundaries;

• international human-rights standards.

The detailed sociological treatment of these issues belongs in state crime and human rights [Human rights and state crimes].

For this lesson, the important point is that globalisation widens the scale on which criminologists may examine crime and harm.

Globalisation and risk

AQA's 2023 mark scheme recognises risk society and manufactured risks as relevant concepts and identifies Beck as a possible sociological source.

A manufactured risk is a risk created through human social and technological activity.

Globalisation matters because some contemporary risks can:

• cross borders;

• affect populations far from their original source;

• be difficult for individual states to control alone.

This perspective is particularly relevant to globally connected environmental, technological and corporate harms.

It broadens the study of global crime beyond conventional street offending.

Postmodern approaches

AQA explicitly identifies postmodernists as a perspective that can be used when evaluating the relationship between globalisation and crime.

A postmodern approach draws attention to a society characterised by:

• rapidly changing technologies;

• greater diversity;

• global connections;

• changing identities and lifestyles;

• increasingly varied opportunities for crime.

From this perspective, crime itself may become more diverse as society becomes more complex and interconnected.

Cybercrime provides a clear example because technological change creates forms of offending that differ from traditional crimes tied to a specific physical location.

Global crime and the problem of definition

Globalisation creates a major problem for criminology: whose definition of crime should be used?

Laws are usually created and enforced within particular legal systems.

However, global crimes may:

• involve several countries;

• cross legal boundaries;

• involve conduct treated differently in different societies.

AQA's 2023 mark scheme explicitly recognises problems of defining crime in a global context as a legitimate form of evaluation.

This is especially clear with green crime, where AQA notes that environmental laws differ between countries.

The broader sociological issue is:

Something classified as criminal within one legal framework may not necessarily be classified or recorded in exactly the same way elsewhere.

This develops your understanding of the social construction of crime from [Crime and deviance].

Measuring global crime

Global crime is also difficult to measure.

Potential problems include:

• offences crossing several jurisdictions;

• differences between national legal systems;

• crimes remaining hidden;

• powerful organisations concealing offending;

• uncertainty about where an offence should be recorded.

The AQA 2023 mark scheme explicitly identifies problems with measuring the extent of crime in a global context as valid evaluation.

This means that claims such as:

"Globalisation has increased crime"

must be evaluated carefully.

An apparent increase may reflect:

• genuinely new opportunities;

• new types of offence;

• improvements in detection;

• changes in legal definitions;

• better recognition of previously hidden harms.

The exact evidence matters.

Does globalisation only increase crime?

No. This is one of the most important evaluative points in the lesson.

AQA's 2023 examination item explicitly challenges the idea that globalisation simply produces more crime.

It states that globalisation can also enable more effective ways of tackling international crime, because states may cooperate to address offences such as:

• green crime;

• human-rights abuses.

The relationship is therefore two-sided:

Globalisation may facilitate crime	Globalisation may facilitate crime control
Creates new opportunities	Makes international cooperation possible
Creates new types of crime	Allows states to cooperate across borders
Connects criminal markets	Can improve responses to transnational offences
Allows money and goods to cross borders	Makes coordinated action possible
Creates cybercrime opportunities	Can support wider forms of international regulation

A strong essay should evaluate both sides rather than assuming globalisation must increase crime.

International cooperation

Crime that crosses borders can be difficult for one state to tackle alone.

However, the same interconnectedness that makes crime more global can encourage states to work together.

This creates a useful evaluation:

globalisation of crime → need for global cooperation in crime control

AQA's 2023 question specifically identifies cooperation against green crime and human-rights abuses as evidence for this argument.

This provides a useful bridge to approaches to controlling crime [Crime control].

Globalisation may alter crime rather than simply increase it

Another useful evaluation is to distinguish the amount of crime from the nature of crime.

Globalisation may:

• create new types of crime;

• transform existing criminal markets;

• expand the geographical scale of offending;

• connect local crime with international networks.

This does not automatically establish that the overall amount of all crime has increased.

For example, the emergence of cybercrime demonstrates a changing opportunity structure, but by itself it does not provide a complete measure of total crime.

AQA's 2023 mark scheme explicitly accepts difficulties in establishing the extent of global crime as evaluation.

Global crime remains locally experienced

Although globalisation can make criminal activity transnational, its consequences may still be experienced in particular communities.

AQA's 2020 mark scheme gives the drugs trade as a clear example. Illegal drugs may pass through international networks, but local contacts remain important for selling them within the UK.

This creates a useful analytical distinction:

global production and movement + local markets and networks = glocal crime

This helps avoid the mistake of treating "global crime" as activity that exists somewhere outside national or local society.

Globalisation and the UK

AQA's specification places contemporary UK society within a globalised context, and its 2020 Paper 3 specifically asked how globalisation might influence crime in the UK.

When applying globalisation to the UK, you might therefore explain how:

• international drug markets connect to UK demand and local distribution;

• globally connected financial systems can be used to move criminal funds;

• digital technologies allow offences to cross national borders;

• internationally connected crime creates challenges for UK law enforcement.

Do not assume that discussing global crime automatically answers a question about the UK.

The examiner report for the 2020 paper specifically identified failure to make this connection as a common error.

Comparing sociological explanations

Approach	Main focus	How it explains globalisation and crime
Opportunity approach	Increased global connections	Technology, trade and international networks create new opportunities for offending
Marxist approach	Capitalism and inequality	Reduced control of finance and corporations, insecurity and inequality may contribute to crime
Relative deprivation	Unequal access to resources and consumption	Global consumerism and inequality may increase feelings of deprivation
Postmodern approach	Diversity, change and new technology	Increasing social complexity creates more diverse forms and opportunities for offending
Risk-society approach	Manufactured global risks	Human-created technological and environmental risks may cross national boundaries
Labelling and social construction	Definitions of crime	Different legal definitions complicate deciding what counts as global crime
Global cooperation argument	Crime control	Interconnected states can cooperate against crimes that cross borders

A strong answer does not simply list these approaches. It uses them to debate the same question.

Evaluating the relationship between globalisation and crime

Several lines of evaluation are particularly useful.

Globalisation creates opportunities, but opportunity does not guarantee offending

Technology or international trade may make an offence possible without explaining why particular individuals choose to commit it.

This means opportunity-based explanations may need to be combined with explanations based on:

• inequality;

• relative deprivation;

• capitalism;

• social control.

Globalisation can produce both crime and control

More international connections can assist offenders, but they can also assist cooperation between states.

The direction of the effect cannot simply be assumed.

Global crimes can remain local

Global criminal markets may depend upon local networks, meaning the distinction between global and local crime can be too simple.

Global crime is difficult to measure

Different definitions, jurisdictions and levels of detection make it difficult to prove exactly how much global crime exists or how rapidly it is changing.

Not all crime is global

Globalisation may be highly relevant to some offences, but this does not mean every form of crime is primarily caused by global processes.

A strong answer stays focused on the forms of crime for which globalisation provides a convincing explanation.

Using sociological thinkers in an exam

AQA's mark schemes identify a range of sociologists who may be relevant to globalisation and crime, including:

• Castells;

• Glenny;

• Hobbs and Dunningham;

• Beck;

• Bauman;

• Cohen;

• Taylor;

• White.

You do not gain marks simply by inserting names.

Use a sociologist only when you can connect them clearly to the argument being made.

For example, it is more effective to explain a glocal relationship between international and local crime than simply to write a sociologist's name without development.

The 2023 examiner report confirms this broader point: sociological concepts and thinkers can give an answer structure, but vague statements such as "some sociologists argue" are much less useful when they are not developed.

Building an evaluative essay

Suppose the question asks whether globalisation has increased crime.

A strong structure could be:

1. New opportunities: explain cross-border networks and international markets.

2. Technology: develop cybercrime and internationally connected offending.

3. Organised crime: explain the drugs trade and the relationship between global and local networks.

4. Marxist explanation: reduced control of finance and corporations, inequality and insecurity.

5. Global harms: green, corporate or state crime where relevant.

6. Measurement evaluation: question how reliably global crime can be defined and measured.

7. Counterargument: globalisation can improve international cooperation against crime.

8. Judgement: decide whether globalisation primarily increases crime, changes its nature, or has mixed effects.

This produces an argument rather than a list.

Key Words 🔑

Key word	Student-friendly definition	How it may be used in an exam
Globalisation	Increasing interconnectedness between societies across national boundaries.	Use to explain how technology, trade, finance and movement can influence crime.
Transnational crime	Crime that involves or crosses national borders.	Use when explaining why national boundaries may be less effective barriers to offending.
Glocal crime	Crime produced through an interaction between global processes and local networks.	Apply to examples such as internationally supplied goods distributed through local contacts.
Cybercrime	Crime made possible or facilitated through digital technology.	Use when explaining how new technology creates new forms of global offending.
Organised crime	Coordinated criminal activity carried out through groups or networks.	Link to global markets, cross-border trade and local distribution.
Money laundering	Attempts to disguise the criminal origins of money.	Use when explaining the significance of internationally connected financial systems.
Relative deprivation	Feeling disadvantaged compared with others or with expected standards.	Use in inequality-based explanations of globalisation and crime.
Consumerism	A strong emphasis on acquiring and consuming material goods.	Link global culture and inequality to possible pressures towards crime.
Manufactured risk	A risk produced through human social or technological activity.	Use in risk-society explanations of global harms.
International cooperation	States or agencies working together across national boundaries.	Use to evaluate the claim that globalisation only makes crime easier.

Hints from the Examiner Reports 💡

AQA examiner reports provide unusually direct guidance for this lesson because globalisation has been assessed in both 10-mark and 30-mark Crime and Deviance questions.

Examiner hint: Make the global process relevant to the precise location in the question. In 2020, some students knew global crime well but failed to explain how it influenced crime in the UK. Examiners specifically identified this as a common weakness.

Examiner hint: Contemporary examples can strengthen globalisation essays when they are properly sociological. In 2023, examiners praised students who used developed contemporary examples and linked them to sociological arguments.

Examiner hint: Do not simply repeat an item. The 2023 globalisation essay showed a tendency for students to overuse the item without developing its ideas, producing a list-like response. Take a hook, add sociological knowledge, then explain its relevance to the question.

Examiner hint: Use sociologists to develop arguments rather than decorate them with names. AQA noted that knowing relevant sociologists helped successful students structure their global crime answers, but undeveloped phrases such as "some sociologists argue" add little.

Examiner hint: Evaluation should weigh the strength and limitations of an explanation and reach a reasoned judgement. The 2023 examiner report states that this is stronger than simply writing that two perspectives disagree.

Examiner hint: Keep evaluation focused on the exact claim. For a question about whether globalisation increases crime, useful evaluation includes whether globalisation also improves international crime control and whether global crime can be reliably defined and measured.

Common Mistakes ⚠️

Mistake: Treating globalisation as another word for cybercrime

Why this is incorrect: Cybercrime is one form of crime associated with globalisation. AQA also recognises organised crime, drugs markets, economic crime, corporate crime, human trafficking, green crime and state crime.

How to improve: Explain the broader process first:

global interconnectedness → changing opportunities for different forms of crime

Then apply it to a specific example.

Mistake: Listing global crimes without explaining globalisation

Why this is incorrect: Simply naming cybercrime, trafficking or the drugs trade does not show how globalisation influences them.

How to improve: For every example, explain the mechanism, such as technology, cross-border trade, international finance or global networks.

Mistake: Forgetting the UK when the question asks about crime in the UK

Why this is incorrect: AQA's 2020 examiner report identified this exact error.

How to improve: Complete your paragraph by explicitly explaining the effect on offending, criminal markets or law enforcement within the UK.

Mistake: Assuming global crime has no local dimension

Why this is incorrect: AQA's 2020 mark scheme stresses that internationally organised drug markets still depend on local contacts and networks.

How to improve: Use the idea of glocal crime to show how global and local processes interact.

Mistake: Assuming globalisation can only increase crime

Why this is incorrect: AQA's 2023 item explicitly identifies international cooperation as a possible consequence of globalisation that may improve responses to crime.

How to improve: Evaluate both:

new criminal opportunities and new opportunities for crime control.

Mistake: Saying new opportunities prove total crime has increased

Why this is incorrect: New opportunities or new forms of crime do not by themselves establish the overall level of all crime.

How to improve: Distinguish between changes in the nature of crime and changes in its overall amount.

Mistake: Ignoring difficulties in measuring global crime

Why this is incorrect: AQA explicitly accepts problems of defining and measuring crime in a global context as evaluation.

How to improve: Consider differences in laws, jurisdictions, detection and recording before accepting claims about the scale of global crime.

Mistake: Writing a list-like 30-mark essay

Why this is incorrect: The 2023 examiner report specifically identified overuse of the item and underdeveloped lists as a problem.

How to improve: Develop each paragraph as:

claim → sociological explanation → application → analysis → evaluation

Exam-Style Questions ✍️

Question 1

Define globalisation in relation to crime. [1 mark]

Question 2

Explain one reason why crime may become more difficult for a single national government to control as societies become more interconnected. [2 marks]

Question 3

Outline two ways in which new technology may influence crime in a globalised society. [4 marks]

Question 4

Outline three forms of crime that may be associated with a globalised society. [6 marks]

Question 5

An illegal product is manufactured in one country, transported through several others and eventually sold through local criminal contacts in a UK city.

Explain two features of this example that illustrate the relationship between global and local crime. [4 marks]

Question 6

Read Item A and answer the question that follows.

Item A

International markets increasingly involve goods and money moving between countries. Criminal groups may make use of these connections, while digital technology makes it possible to communicate and conduct transactions across very large distances.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which increasing global interconnectedness may create opportunities for crime. [10 marks]

Question 7

Read Item B and answer the question that follows.

Item B

Globalisation may weaken the ability of individual states to regulate financial and corporate activity. However, greater connections between countries also create opportunities for governments to cooperate against offences that cross national boundaries.

Applying material from Item B, analyse two reasons why the relationship between globalisation and crime is complex. [10 marks]

Question 8

Read Item C and answer the question that follows.

Item C

Global connections can create new criminal markets and new forms of offending. Technological developments and international financial networks may make some crimes easier to organise across borders. However, globalisation can also encourage cooperation between states, and some supposedly global crimes remain dependent on local networks.

Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate the view that the main effect of globalisation has been to expand opportunities for crime. [30 marks]

Answers and mark scheme

Question 1

1 mark for an accurate definition referring to increased interconnectedness across national boundaries.

Example answer: Globalisation is the process through which societies become increasingly interconnected across national boundaries, including through technology, trade and finance.

Question 2

Award up to 2 marks.

Example answer: An offence may involve activity in several countries, while individual criminal justice systems usually operate within national jurisdictions. This can make investigation and control more difficult for one state acting alone.

One mark for identifying an appropriate reason and one further mark for development.

Question 3

Award 2 marks for each of two clearly outlined ways.

Possible answers include:

• Cybercrime: digital technologies create new opportunities or types of crime that can operate across national borders.

• International connections: offenders can use communication technology to connect across large geographical distances.

• International terrorism: technology may allow ideological or organisational links to operate internationally.

• Financial crime: globally connected digital financial systems may make criminal funds more difficult to trace.

Do not credit two versions of the same basic point unless each is developed distinctly.

Question 4

Award 2 marks for each of three appropriate forms clearly outlined.

Possible answers include:

• cybercrime;

• international drugs trade;

• organised crime;

• human trafficking;

• economic crime;

• corporate crime;

• green crime;

• state or political crime;

• international terrorism.

For the development mark, the student should explain the global connection, rather than merely name the offence.

For example:

Cybercrime can operate across borders because offenders can use digital technologies to target people in different countries.

Question 5

Award 2 marks for each of two developed features.

Possible answers include:

Global dimension: The production and movement of the illegal product take place across several national borders, showing how the criminal market operates internationally.

Local dimension: The product is finally sold through local criminal contacts in a UK city, showing that global criminal markets may still depend on local networks.

A fully developed answer may identify this interaction as glocal crime.

Question 6

Students should use the two main hooks from Item A.

Hook 1: movement of goods between countries

International trade and transport networks may provide opportunities for illegal goods to move between countries. This can support transnational organised crime, including international drugs markets.

Hook 2: movement of money and digital communication

Globally connected financial and communication technologies may allow criminal networks to transfer information or money across borders. Digital banking and other financial connections may also make the tracing of criminal funds more difficult.

8 to 10 marks: Good knowledge and understanding of two ways, two developed applications of Item A and clear analysis of how globalisation creates criminal opportunities.

4 to 7 marks: Reasonable knowledge with some effective item application and analysis, although one point may be stronger.

1 to 3 marks: Limited knowledge, little effective use of Item A or mainly descriptive material.

0 marks: No relevant material.

Question 7

Students should develop both sides of Item B.

Hook 1: reduced national control

A Marxist explanation may argue that reduced control over finance and corporations contributes to inequality, insecurity or opportunities for economic and corporate crime. Criminal activity may also move between jurisdictions, making regulation more difficult.

Hook 2: international cooperation

Greater interconnectedness can allow states to cooperate when responding to transnational offences. AQA recognises cooperation against areas such as green crime and human-rights abuses as an important counterargument to the claim that globalisation only increases crime.

8 to 10 marks: Two well-developed item applications and clear analysis showing why globalisation can both facilitate crime and facilitate control.

4 to 7 marks: Some appropriate knowledge and application, with incomplete development.

1 to 3 marks: Limited understanding or little effective use of the item.

0 marks: No relevant material.

Question 8

This question requires knowledge and understanding, application, analysis and evaluation.

Indicative content may include:

New opportunities for crime

• increased international interconnectedness;

• trade across borders;

• organised crime;

• international drugs markets;

• human trafficking;

• financial and economic crime;

• money laundering.

Students should explain the process linking globalisation to the opportunity rather than simply list offences.

Technology

• cybercrime;

• new media;

• internationally connected communications;

• international terrorism;

• digital financial systems.

These can be used to argue that globalisation has expanded both the scale and variety of opportunities for crime.

Global and local crime

• glocal crime;

• local distribution networks;

• global markets combined with local contacts.

This can evaluate claims that globalisation has completely removed the importance of local social contexts.

Marxist explanations

• global capitalism;

• reduced control of finance and corporations;

• inequality;

• insecurity;

• consumerism;

• relative deprivation;

• corporate crime.

These explanations focus on power and inequality rather than opportunity alone.

Postmodern and risk approaches

• new technologies;

• diversity of crime;

• risk society;

• manufactured risks;

• global environmental or technological harms.

These may be used to argue that globalisation changes the nature of contemporary crime and harm.

Defining and measuring global crime

• different legal systems;

• crimes crossing jurisdictions;

• difficulties deciding what counts as crime;

• difficulties measuring the extent of global offending.

This can challenge confident claims that globalisation has produced a particular increase in total crime.

Counterargument: global crime control

• international cooperation;

• states working together;

• control of green crime;

• responses to human-rights abuses.

This demonstrates that globalisation may strengthen some crime-control capabilities at the same time as creating criminal opportunities.

25 to 30 marks: Sound, conceptually detailed knowledge of a range of relevant material. Item material is applied accurately. Analysis and evaluation are explicit and sustained, including examination of global opportunities, local dimensions, sociological explanations, measurement problems and international cooperation. A reasoned judgement is reached.

19 to 24 marks: Accurate and reasonably broad or deep knowledge. Application is largely focused, with some explicit evaluation, although parts may be less developed.

13 to 18 marks: Largely accurate but narrower knowledge. Application may be limited and evaluation may rely mainly on juxtaposing alternative views.

7 to 12 marks: Limited and undeveloped knowledge, with weak application and little evaluation.

1 to 6 marks: Very limited relevant material or a mainly general discussion of crime with little focus on globalisation.

0 marks: No relevant material.

A strong conclusion should distinguish between globalisation increasing opportunities for crime and globalisation necessarily increasing total crime. The evidence supported by AQA shows that interconnected markets, finance and technologies can create new offences and expand the geographical reach of existing ones. However, global crime may remain dependent on local networks, its overall extent is difficult to measure, and global interconnectedness can also improve international cooperation. The most convincing judgement is therefore likely to recognise globalisation as transforming the opportunities, organisation and control of crime rather than producing one simple effect.