Impact of Transnational Crime

The characteristic of transnational crime that defines its impact is its capacity to articulate the local with the global by making use of the comparative advantages that the blend of globalization and illegality offer. Taking stock of the exponential speed in the flow of people, goods, information, capital, and services in an increasingly interconnected and borderless world, transnational crime networks have come to act as powerful brokers that bridge local, impoverished areas of the globe and regions where there are lucrative global markets. This process of globalizing the illicit has the capacity to disrupt the state and civil society in unprecedented ways that impact local, national, and international spheres, albeit in different manners.

At the global level, transnational crime impacts the breadth and scope of international ...