Discuss political economy of crime. First define it and present how and what actual economy is created?

Question

Discuss political economy of crime. First define it and present how and what actual economy is created?

Answer 1

In the United States: If you're poor, and especially if you are from a minority race and you commit crimes, even petty crimes, then you will likely first be manhandled by the police, booked, and eventually find yourself in prison. As the old saying goes; "Crime does not pay."

If on the other hand, if you are wealthy, and especially if you are White, then you will probably not be arrested for the first several offenses of petty crime, will not be booked, and if you are tried,  you will be given probation.  If you have committed a "white collar" crime which does not involve the actual theft of large sums of money from an individual,  AND you hold a prestigious office or celebrity, it is likely that it will be deemed that you have "suffered enough" by falling from such a high place, and you will suffer no actual punishment.  Examples of this include Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Ted Kennedy, and Eliot Spitzer.

Only those who foolishly announce that they "got away with it" by speaking disrespectfully in the press will find themselves actually facing real jail or restitution, along with those who do not possess adequate status or money to avoid prosecution and/or punishment.  Arrest (for which a crime will be invented if none exists) or even assassination is a possibility for those who flaunt their privileged status too much, or too publicly.  Examples of this are O.J. Simpson, Ken Lay, Mike Tyson, and L'il Kim.

There is much to be said in answer to your question about the infrastructure of crime -- profit, money laundering, the construction of schemes, creating dependency, and  intimidation as a tactic for collection.  But analyzing these things is like studying the idiosyncrasies of antique porcelain.   Today in the USA and in much of Western society, such traditional forms of social abuse are archaic as a transistor radio.  Today's crime: see the difference between a prostitute walking the streets and a sophisticated girl -- an office manager perhaps or housewife, who leads a double life as an "escort" and has an agency that works for her, complete with advertising.

The REAL money today is not made by BREAKING laws, but rather by ENACTING laws which allow you to do your skulduggery under the cloak of legality, or at least by hiring lawyers who can obfuscate your activities to the extent that they cannot be understood -- even as to the ownership and operation of your businesses.  These men should also be expert at stopping or detouring investigation of your activities, preferably with the support of one or more government officials.   For easy reference, take the time to actually read the back of your credit -card "agreement", and consider why the plain usury it allows is perfectly legal, and also how it suffices as legal to have this 1000 word document scroll down your TV screen in three seconds.  

It only  follows naturally in this evolution that the ultimate goal should not be the obfuscation or legalization of crime, but rather making crime (that is anti-social behavior), an institution in itself.  This modern approach to crime can be studied in examining the activities over the last five years of, for example,  the Halliburton Corporation and its ex-CEO d**k Cheney, and also in examining the history over the last ten years of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, as well as the activities of the last two Episcopal Bishops of New York.

Modern perpetrators then, in reaching the summit of sophistication, now threaten not only their victims with impunity, but also those who might make an attempt to investigate or question them. A political economy of crime, then, just as phrased in your question -- but one never dreamed of by the average and traditional criminal.