Global crime, power and enforcement
Explain why crime can operate across borders, compare Marxist and feminist questions about who benefits, and assess challenges in policing and prosecution.
Exam scope and assessment notes
Original StudyForA teaching mapped to Cambridge syllabus section 8.3. It is independent study support, not Cambridge material or an awarded grade. Extended written responses are self-checked and have not received human examiner or subject-teacher marking. Use evidence and examples appropriate to learners’ age, cultural context and school policy. Avoid stereotypes and do not ask learners to disclose personal experiences. Sociology presents theories for analysis rather than endorsing political positions.
Before you begin
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
Which example is explicitly a global-crime area in the syllabus?
What you will learn
- Explain reasons for global crime, including human trafficking, corporate crime and crimes against the environment.
- Analyse who benefits using Marxist and feminist perspectives.
- Evaluate policing and prosecution across borders and the effects of globalisation and new technology.
Global connections can create opportunities and vulnerabilities for crime
Global crimes involve activity, harm, victims, perpetrators or proceeds that cross national borders. Human trafficking, corporate crime and crimes against the environment illustrate different structures and harms; analysis should use precise definitions and avoid conflating trafficking with all migration or smuggling.
Cross-border markets, complex supply chains, differences in regulation and new technology can make some activity easier to organise or harder to trace. The same connections can also help investigators share information. Technology is not a cause on its own: examine the actors, incentives and institutional conditions involved.
Power shapes who profits and who is harmed
Marxist perspectives ask how corporate and economic power can enable some actors to profit while shifting costs onto workers, communities or the environment. Feminist perspectives examine gendered vulnerability, control and the distribution of benefits and harms, including in trafficking. Neither lens should replace evidence about a specific case.
Policing and prosecution require evidence, jurisdiction and cooperation across states. Information-sharing and digital records can support investigation, while legal differences, concealment, resource limits and questions of safety or privacy can create challenges. Evaluate both enforcement capacity and protection for affected people.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
Digital records link a suspected environmental offence to several countries. What is the best next step?
Worked example
Investigators trace a company’s supply chain across several countries after evidence of environmental harm. Explain why globalisation can both complicate and support enforcement.
Show the worked solution
- The cross-border supply chain can separate decisions, operations and harms across jurisdictions.
- Different laws and records may complicate evidence gathering and accountability.
- Shared information, digital records and cooperation may help trace responsibility, subject to lawful access and verification.
Answer The supply chain may make it difficult to establish which actors controlled decisions and where legal responsibility lies. Cross-border cooperation and records can help investigators connect evidence, but legal differences, access and verification remain important. Globalisation creates both enforcement challenges and tools.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
A report alleges human trafficking along a cross-border route. Explain why the allegation should be investigated without stereotyping migrants.
Give me a hint
Distinguish possible victims, perpetrators and migration status, and require evidence of exploitation and control.
Compare my reasoning
- Use a precise definition and examine evidence of exploitation, coercion or control relevant to the alleged offence.
- Do not infer criminality from movement or nationality; distinguish potential victims from suspects.
- Consider safety, consent, privacy and specialist support while agencies verify information across jurisdictions.
Cross-border movement alone does not establish trafficking or criminality. Investigators should verify evidence of exploitation and control, distinguish potential victims from perpetrators and protect people while gathering information across jurisdictions. Careful definitions and safeguards reduce harm and improve the reliability of evidence.
Look for these in your work
- Distinguishes migration from trafficking
- Requires evidence about the alleged offence
- Recognises safety and non-stereotyping safeguards
Compare Marxist and feminist perspectives on who benefits from global crime.
Give me a hint
Consider economic power and shifted costs alongside gendered vulnerability and control.
Compare my reasoning
- A Marxist perspective may examine how powerful economic actors profit and externalise harm.
- A feminist perspective may analyse gendered exploitation, vulnerability and the distribution of control or benefit.
- Apply both to a specific offence and identify evidence about actors, proceeds and affected groups.
Marxist analysis highlights how economic power can enable profit and shift costs to less powerful groups. Feminist analysis examines gendered exploitation and control. These perspectives may illuminate different parts of a case; evidence about who organised the activity, received proceeds and experienced harm is needed to judge their explanatory value.
Look for these in your work
- Distinguishes the analytical focus
- Applies both to power and benefit
- Names relevant case evidence
Evaluate whether new technology makes global crime easier to police and prosecute.
Give me a hint
Balance tracing and information-sharing against concealment, legal differences, evidence standards and safeguards.
Compare my reasoning
- Explain how digital records or communication can help connect actors and transactions across borders.
- Consider concealment, jurisdiction, verification, privacy and unequal investigative resources.
- Judge the effect in relation to a specific offence and institutional cooperation.
Technology can help investigators trace communications or transactions and share evidence, but it can also be used to conceal activity or create large volumes of uncertain information. Different jurisdictions, evidence standards and safeguards complicate prosecution. Its effect depends on the offence, lawful access and cooperation rather than technology alone.
Look for these in your work
- Explains an enforcement benefit
- Evaluates practical and legal challenges
- Reaches a case-specific judgement
Common mistakes
- Equating trafficking with migration or assuming migrants are offenders
- Assuming a corporate or environmental harm is transnational without evidence of cross-border links
- Treating technology as either an automatic solution or the sole cause of global crime
What can you explain now?
Why can policing global crime require cross-border cooperation?
Compare with the explanation
Evidence, actors and harms may span jurisdictions with different laws and investigative powers.
Cooperation can help connect cases, but it does not remove differences in law, resources or safeguards.
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Make it stick
Name three global crime examples in the syllabus; distinguish the Marxist and feminist lenses; give two enforcement benefits and two challenges of cross-border technology.
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.