According to Chambliss et al. (2010), the state is involved in organized crimes through collusion, evasion, corruption, and substitution. I tend to believe that through evasion, the perpetrators try to evade any legal connection. I believe through evasion, Individuals involved in state organized crimes attempt to distance themselves completely from the activities of the business and the state. For instance, I have witnessed individuals set up legitimate businesses that barely have a link to their names. The organizations then are placed in the frontline to launder money from the state. Such organizations are offered tenders to supply good or services. I believe that by placing such organizations tenders, the government weakens the competitiveness of firms and thus destroys other business. Secondly, the state colludes with individuals or groups participating in organized crimes. I have found evidence of cases where states collude with such groups to gain services or to benefit from such groups. For instance, state departments or agencies like the police may collude with drug dealers or illegal trafficking of firearms to directly or indirectly benefit from them (Civil Society and State-Corporate Crime: A Case Study of Ivory Coast 2014). During the Vietnam War, the US government colluded with Sicilian Mafia in their drug trade and turned; the drugs would be sold the US army. I believe that in doing so, the government has fueled and promoted drug usage which eventually has led to drug related crimes and eventually deaths. Involvement of the government in drug deals in my opinion frustrates efforts set out to end drugs. In my research, CIA which was directly involved in drugs, frustrated efforts to arrest drug dealers due to their common interest in communism war (Siegel et al., 2003).
Corruption is the most widespread form of organized crimes. I strongly agree with Scott (1996) who says that corruption has infiltrated in almost all government sectors in almost all levels of hierarchy in many countries. In my view, corrupt powerful individuals are involved in acts such as graft, bribery, threats and coercion, inducement and embezzlement of funds among others. For instance, I have seen many cases of voter bribery where politicians pay off people to vote for them. I have also witnessed powerful people in the government who misuse public funds and other public resources. Unfortunately, justice is never served because of the influence such people have on the judicial system. Again, such individuals threaten judges mostly on their lives and other law enforcers. In my lifetime, I have come across many cases where judges have been killed to silence the issue. Fourthly, the government replaces organized crime groups. (“State organized crime”). For instance, in a case where the government owned institutions want to privatize the company, the government may sell out their shares but to specific organized crime groups. In my judgment, the intention to transfer the shares to such companies is so that the individuals may either benefit in reduction of share price or to control such parastatals. In doing so, the government eliminates competition which is crucial for the growth of such parastatals (Crime state rankings, 2010: crime across America 2010).
Involvement of the state and organized crimes either through collusion, corruption, substitution or evasion has negative consequences on the country politically, economically and socially. First and foremost, I believe the government risks to suffer from widespread corruption. Developing countries tend to suffer more from corruption. In my judgment, corruption and other state crimes weaken governance in any particular country. Corruption weakens the formal systems that have been put in place. For instance, in elections, corruptions undermines accountability on the part of electoral commissions (Grabosky & Stohl 2010). Again, corruption undermines the decisions made by the judiciary as an institution in cases where judges have been bribed. Therefore, judgments arrived at are compromised and unfair. Corruption in public offices undermines the quality of service that is offered to the public. For instance, the public must bribe to be given services which they should freely get. I also believe that corruption also undermines transparency of government institutions. Organized crimes, such as coercion and threats, affect the financial sectors and also compromise security system (Green & Ward, 2004). As the ties continue to strengthen with the organized crime groups, they undermine the rule of law, law making agencies, governance, democracy and judicial systems among others.
Secondly, state organized crimes threatens the economy of the country in both private and public sector (Rothe 2009). I believe that organized crimes have affected the financial sector mainly because of misuse of funds, exploitation, and undermining of free markets. For instance, corruption and organized crime undermine free markets where tenders are awarded on corruption basis. In my exploration, corruption has severely wounded the private sector mainly by increasing the cost of business production especially in many developing countries. For instance, increased taxes have been imposed on business so that the government can recover stolen funds. Also, the private sector, such as banks are also affected through constant borrowing of government institutions with no accountability. The public sector is also affected where the government loses trillions of money in corruption instead of being injected into the economy (Jupp et al. 2010). Therefore, the public suffers from poor infrastructures, such as road, schools and hospitals among others. Besides, foreign investors are discouraged from investing where corruption is high and therefore, the economy loses from injections of investments. According to Siegel (2003), organized crimes and corruption undermine the competitiveness of products in the economy eventually affecting prices of state-owned commodities, such as oil, gas, and precious metals. In general, corruption and organized crimes directly influence economy degradation, which is evidently portrayed by the poor economies in Africa as compared to US or Europe.
Socially, less developed countries are affected by corruption and organized crimes mainly through poor living standards (Klein & Lavery 2010). Due to the negative effects of organized crimes and corruption on the financial sector of the government, the government has to rely on foreign aid for funds to finance projects, health services, food and military aid among others. Developed countries are socially affected where organized crimes undermine professional ethics and moral values (“State organized crime”). Such may be characterized by promoting human trafficking and illegal firearms, promoting the use of drugs, and the list is endless. I feel that these negative social behavior promote vices like cybercrimes, selling humans as slaves, evading insurance and taxes, and theft of property among others.
I feel that state and organized crimes cannot completely fade off, but they can be reduced to insignificant levels to reduce economic, social, and political impact (Philip & Berruecos 2012). In light of the consequences, I strongly feel everyone has a duty to play to prevent state organized crimes. The government must put in place policies that allow accountability to the public. Judicial system as an arm of the government should be transparent and independent of the government. Besides, the government should set up special independent bodies that deal independently on issues related to corruption and organized crimes (Rothe, 2009). Most importantly, perpetrators of organized criminal activities should not freely escape and should be charged and prosecuted.
As citizens, we have a duty to learn about organized crimes and their consequences. Again, we should raise awareness on the topic so that legislatures put a priority on laws that regard to organized crimes (Rotberg 2010). Every sector, such as health sector, banking, trade organizations, and others have a role in raising awareness on organized crimes. As citizens, we should be morally upright and avoid engaging in organized crimes. Also as consumers, we should be able to identify counterfeit goods as we consume goods and raise the issues to authorities. Again, it is our duty not to support counterfeit goods by avoiding to buy them.
Unfortunately, policies that control such criminal activities focus more on crimes done by low-class individuals and overlook crimes committed by upper-class individuals. Therefore, crimes across social classes should be recognized in equal measures and; hence, measures focused on all classes (“Crimes and Underclass”). For instance, a person who snatches a bag may be subjected to severe punishment, such as mob attack and several years of imprisonment whereas a government official who embezzles public funds may go unpunished.
Theoretical Framework of State and Organized Crime.
Reference List
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Crime and the Underclass. Lecture Notes
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