AP/SOSC 4653 6.00

Transnational And Comparative Criminology

Crosslisted: AP/CRIM 4653

Crime is increasingly understood as a global phenomenon and has come to assume a number of different forms across a range of national as well as transnational contexts. These transformations have posed a series of distinct challenges to criminology with respect to the very nature of ‘globalization’ and what it means to think about crime, policing, and governance in not only a ‘global’ but also a ‘local’ context. This includes questions relating to the implications of globalization for the evolution of traditional forms of criminality (e.g. drug trafficking), the creation of new opportunity structures, and the emergence of new crime types (e.g. transnational bribery and corruption; and the trade in counterfeit goods). There are also important differences in the ways that international, national, and regional bodies respond to crime and address the challenges of policing, regulation, and governance. This course introduces students to transnational and comparative criminology as two vital strands of inquiry that are essential to understanding these shifting forms, definitions, explanations, and responses to crime in a global context. It considers a range of issues that go under the headings ‘transnational’ and ’comparative’ criminology and examines the difference between the two. It is divided into four segments. The first examines various methodological perspectives that arise from research on transnational and comparative criminology including the use of cross-national comparative study as a unique conceptual and methodological tool. In the second section criminology will be looked at from a variety of regional perspectives, those regions being Europe, the Americas, and The Antipodes. The third examines a different set of regional perspectives, those being Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The final section explores transnational crime issues and control responses including the distinct challenges associated with the policing, regulation, and governance of crime at the ‘transnational,’ ‘national,’ and ‘regional’ level.