The Formation of Global Crime Governance

  • Jakobi, Anja (CoI)

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

Since the 1990s, global crime governance has emerged as an important component of world politics. It is manifested in national and international agendas, the proliferation of global regulations, growing international budgets, and the enlarged mandates of international organizations. Moreover, related crime policies have been diffused widely across countries and with accelerating speed. This research project examines the conditions under which global crime governance emerges, the institutional design it takes and the impact it has.

One main outcome of this project so far has been a monograph published by Oxford University Press (2013). Based on sociological institutionalism, the book explains the rise of global crime governance as a process of rationalization in world society. Global crime governance leads to an increasingly homogenous definition and prosecution of crime, but it also shows variance: Some crime policies are institutionalized coherently or attached to strong international organizations, while others are only weak or dispersed across different forums. The book shows that the interplay of strong actors and rationalization principles lead to more coherent forms of global crime governance, while normative arguments related to crime are more likely to result in fragmented forms. In consequence – and contrary to many scholars' assumptions – global crime governance is strongest in those areas that are least attached to moral statements. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods, the book analyzes the origins of global regulations, how they are disseminated, and why differences exist.

Further results have been published in journals and book chapters, and are in preparation.

The project continues, in particular in connection with the inquiry of illegal markets and their governance.
StatusActive
Effective start/end date1/09/09 → …