Criminology & Globalization:
The Numbers Game
in Global Perspective
With the Crime Phenomenon
by Professor
Dr. Jacob van der Westhuizen
Professor Dr. Jacob van der Westhuizen is a noted criminologist and the
former director of a major South African criminology research institute; he
currently serves as a Research Consultant to the University of South Africa
where he directs the work of postgraduate students of criminal justice and the
science of asset protection and security control. Dr. van der Westhuizen
received his Bachelor of Arts degree, Bachelor of Arts with honors, Master of
Arts cum laude as well as his Ph.D. degree from the University of South Africa.
He is a member of the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association,
the International Police Association, and an Associate Member of the
International Association of Chiefs of Police.
1.0 The games we play
To begin with, the numbers game we play may be characterized as that of sampling an unknown phenomenon in order to come to grips with its nature, structure and function. With these objectives in mind efforts are made to describe, explain, predict, and control among others its occurrence, growth, and prevalence. As can be expected the road to scientific clarity in achieving these formidable goals under many methodological constraints, presents no easy access and progress. To be sure: it is not always a walk in the park, but more often than not, a walk in the dark.
2.0 Probable cause
The approach suggested for the natural (and social) sciences to solve their research dilemmas was formulated at the end of the nineteenth century by Francis Galton and Karl Pearson who considered the bell-shaped distribution of Gauss the best type of distribution to portray and form the basis of data analysis. Bronowski says the following about those scientists that explored and developed this new horizon in science:
‘…they came to formulate the notion of the chance distribution of a set of characters in a population. And from their work in turn has developed the whole theory of statistical differences, which I believe to be the basis of science for the future.’ (1
3.0 Many different playgrounds and study
objects
Basically our playgrounds can be defined as a) areas of universal or group play; and b) areas of time-space restrictive or individual play. If our study object has a bearing on, is about, or relates to human behavior, both of these kinds of play are performed and validated by means of statistical methods and techniques that enable us to express the results we obtain in terms of probabilities or probable outcomes. In the case of group play we strive to base our findings on representative and unbiased samples, while individual play tries to bring out and uncover a range of scenarios, from the worst to the best; in order to showcase probabilities of human behavior and human eccentricities.
4.0 Our current study object is crime
One cannot help noting here that the crime concept does not lend itself to an exact, precise and objective definition. It strongly relates to the idea of being anti-social behavior which has a much wider connotation and is sometimes preferred to describe and explain the ramifications and deleterious impact on its direct and indirect victims as well as on the various functional and structural aspects of the society in question, and/or the world at large. However, for now we adhere to the legal definition of crime which is formulated in countries where the rule of law is respected. Thus we define ‘crime’ as a breach of the criminal law, and therefore an offence punishable by law.
5.0 Scope of this enquiry into the numbers
game
The field of the current enquiry covers the widest range of human activity and endeavor, be it from a specific individual, family, community, society, nation, or the world at large, drawing examples for demonstration purposes from all over the world, but especially from South Africa.
A tentative classification of these discussion topics are listed below:
1. the numbers game at work in colonialism, especially in regard to the economic exploitation of weak or backward people by a stronger and larger power;
2. the way the silver bullet message(2 (a concept coined by the author in his unpublished manuscript ‘I am because you are’, as being explained below) struck home during recent revolutionary upheavals in the history of man: slave trade; industrial revolution; and information-technology movement;
3.
driving forces behind globalization: political backdrop, market forces, socio-economic
background, religious impetus, intellectual impact backed by information
technology; and current fashionable style;
4.
individual behavior, punctuated by drives, traits,
egocentric, and alter-centric (group-directed) decisions and choices, including
those of alter ego (a person’s
secondary or alternative personality), and/or characterized by once-off
peculiar or out-of-this-world’s actions
6.0 How groups of people apply the numbers
game
If one cared to adopt a dispassionate and unbiased global view of the world humankind has fashioned over many millennia, one may discover that all its efforts at establishing an idealized paradise have ultimately culminated in a game of numbers.
First and foremost one discovers that the four functions of the game are fully exercised in order to bring about imagined peace, prosperity, well-being, and wealth. But then again one finds that these functions, the addition function, the subtraction function, the multiplication function, and the division function are either applied separately or in accord with each other, dependent on the mood and focus of the driving force, or the prevailing conditions at the time slot being studied. In general it can be construed that the number games are played to achieve either egoistic goals, or to satisfy altruistic aspirations.
Secondly, it becomes apparent that the number games we play cover almost every aspect and nook and cranny of our earthly existence, such as our commissions and omissions, as well as the good or evil intent which provides the driving force behind our actions and reactions.
For now, the functions of the numbers game are showcased before an attempt is made to briefly highlight its impact over the last two or three centuries, especially as far as Western-oriented cultures are relevant or important to us in our quest to grasp the subtle underlying meaning of it all.
6.1 The Addition Function
Humankind loves to play this fascinating part of the numbers game to its fullest extent and ramifications. Primarily it serves as a run-of-the-mill addition to a leader’s, politician’s, ruler’s, or their followers’ sentiments: on the one hand to strengthen group solidarity, and on the other to bring about a desired outcome.
In this regard the addition mechanism is viewed as an efficient tool to make ends meet in record time. This becomes evident when one studies the effect of colonialism as a long-term strategy, imposed around the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries by Western-oriented countries, clamoring for a so-called ‘place-in-the-sun’.(3 Initially they zoomed in to take over a desired area of land by military force. Next they introduced in quick succession a myriad of laws and by-laws to ensure, confirm and authenticate the loyalty and submission of the natives.
They defined and enforced, for example a) influx control; b) pass law restrictions; c) work reservation; d) non-voting rights; and e) curfews (to clear the streets of vagrants and loafers at night).
Apparently the add-on sequence worked effectively, especially when the civil servants vied to come up with more and more restrictions on the mobility (both horizontally and vertically) of subdued subjects. Thus the so-called ‘democrats’ were able to rule the roost and remain in the driving seat.
6.2 The Subtraction Function
The subtraction function of the numbers game concentrates on the deduction or the reduction of the human rights of those in submissive or obedient positions in a society. Laws are promulgated to strip them effectively of any access to privileged channels that could enable them to pose a threat to the new status quo.
Perhaps it would be more correct to say that the subtraction function had come into play before the addition function was activated. This becomes apparent if one cares to study among others work reservation, influx control, and non-voting rights.
6.3 The Multiplication Function
The multiplication function enables one to obtain a huge instant increase in the number of restrictions one has to introduce.
Applied to the political numbers game in question (colonialism), it means that the authorities rolled out a number of laws and by-laws in quick succession, for example to a) curb crime; b) stop violent behavior; c) prevent strikes; and d) annihilate or destroy any opposition, rebellion, or semblance of uprising by instating harsh measures of control.
6.4 The Division Function
The aim of the division function is to divide and rule. Having had the privilege of experiencing the electrifying and deadly effective results that could be realized by means of such a simple mechanism; the authorities applied this tactical and strategic mechanism post haste in order to effectively destroy any resistance that might be planned and cooked up by minority parties.
Divide-and-rule procedures differ from time to time. One way of introducing the strategy is to secretly infiltrate the inner core of an organization with the express purpose of altering its mood, style and sentiments. More often than not this turn-about was accomplished by illegal means, bribing the person and/or using a horrible array of threats directed at his person, limbs, family members, property, and lifestyle.
This stick-and-carrot approach was also known as the silver-bullet message – once received by the subjects there was no escape: they either took the silver money or faced the silver bullet(4.
7.0 The Silver-Bullet Message Over the Ages
A. What strikes one first about the attitude of the world at large is
that the silver-bullet message reverberated in Western-oriented
parts of the world, especially where nations took part in slave trading
in circa the seventeenth to the nineteenth century (the first African
slaves arrived at the
ship)(5
(i) the slave trade gobbles up the young and not so young;
(ii) it consumes up their energy in a fast and furious way;
(iii) it brings wealth and joy to the masters, but ill health and sorrow
to the slaves who hoped against all odds for a better deal one day;
(iv) it is a silver bullet in disguise;
- What strikes one next about the attitude of the world at large
is that the silver-bullet message had also been aired far and wide by
the industrial
revolution, in
(i) the industrial giant gobbles up the young and not so young;
(ii) it consumes up their energy in a fast and furious way;
(iii) it brings wealth and joy, but also ill health and sorrow;
(iv) it is a silver bullet in disguise;
C. What strikes one today about the attitude of the world at large is
that the silver-bullet message is still being aired far and wide by the
Intelligence-Technology Revolution (ITR) which silently propagates
huge rewards to those who are connected to the cybernet and use
their intelligence to surf the cybernet space, but also implies
punishment for the rest of the crowd, where no access is being
allowed as a result of the non-availability of telephone connections
and servers; and other constraints mentioned further on:
(i) the cybernet gobbles up the young and not so young;
(ii) it consumes up their energy in a fast and furious way;
(iii) it generates wealth and joy, but also ill health and sorrow;
(iv) it is a silver bullet in disguise;
From the above assertions one can deduce that the trend established by colonialism and the slave trade is currently very much alive and well in the world at large.
Next we turn to the globalization phenomenon, being continually launched on a worldwide scale to level among others the language, political, cultural, economic, social, and religious playing fields.
8.0 Globalization
According
to Joffe, globalization made its first appearances during 1850 to 1914, the
time of the Industrial Revolution, studded with small wars, and skirmishes over
Africa and
However, first and foremost one must understand today how globalization is introduced, propagated, stimulated, and prompted to take the lead as ‘an engine of growth that accelerates investment by leveling borders and speed up consumption by driving down prices’ (6.
The author tells us that these competitive pressures also bear down on costs, with the result that money remains cheap while core inflation is safely confined.
According to the author of the essay, it boils down to a decoupling of the world economy from world politics, presenting us with a paradox: on the one hand Islamist terrorism has imposed a huge transaction tax on the global economy, for example security costs at airports, container and cargo controls, and the expansion of police and intelligence personnel; and on the other globalization has just keep on gaining momentum and strength, galloping along sprightly and with such gusto that it amazes even its sternest critics. Its greatest boost comes from the introduction of the cybernet and its bedmate, the office as well as the personal computer.
For this reason one is compelled to discover the major driving force behind humankind’s propensity to choose and decide upon any kind of norm or means in order to achieve some or other goal, end or value. As can be expected one can come up with a rationale, or a statement of reasons, to explain away one’s behavior. Among others the following reasons are advanced from time to time to tell us that the influence, effect and impact induced upon group dynamics stem mainly from a) the political backdrop; b) market forces; c) socio-economic background; d) religious impetus; e) intellectual impact backed by information technology; and (f) current fashionable style.
8.1 The Political Backdrop
Whatever
reasons are put forward as primary driving forces of man’s behavior, the fact
remains that the force majeure in the
affairs of man emanates mainly from, and gets basically boosted by politics,
especially that type of a) political selection from history that reflects the
sentiments of the majority group; and b) the business-for-private culture which
stirs the sentiments of a nation to emotional highs where no amount of logical
arguments would persuade a follower to abandon his or her adopted definition/perception
of the situation. In defining certain acts or established behavior as
‘criminal’ there is bound to be some significant reactions as a result of the
customs, beliefs, and sensitive sentiments that have been stirred up.
In Western-oriented societies democracy and capitalism are the in-vogue systems, backed by efficient judicial systems: police, prosecutors, criminal courts, prisons, and integration systems supported by the public at large with a view to accepting the rehabilitated convict back into the fold.
However, we live in fast-track times: diverse, but dynamic. We have turned from avid readers of newspapers, journals, books, and leaflets to scanners of the internet and listeners to radio programs and news flashes on television, computers and cell phones. We carry on regardless, ignoring the sorrow and pain of the less fortunate, let alone expressing our love, hate, or care for those who robbed banks, raped men and women of all ages, murdered people for cell phones or for nothing, and violated the privacy of homes and churches.
8.2 Market Forces
As
of late the
There is growing concern that the gap between the wealthy and poor nations is widening and that this phenomenon signals serious confrontations between the haves and the have-nots. This concern stems from two observations.
First, the wealthy nations dominate the marketplace in such a manner that the poor countries are out-subsidized in respect of agricultural products, standing no chance at all to compete in an economic-effective way.
Second, whereas the manufacturing activities moved from household to community, the global power of the trendsetters has gradually been shifting away from them to those non-wealthy nations (NWN), non-governmental, and ordinary members of the world community that are bound for change to a better dispensation for all.
One important reason for the underdog’s failure to make any headway is the age-old truism that ‘possession is nine points of the law’. Another reason is the NWN-leaders’ inability to mobilize and marshal the billions of people who are there out in the cold, most of whom are quite content with the status quo and are branded peace-loving people who prefer to live a life free of embarrassment, probable hounding, and insecurity. The majority of the world population thus seems to have become content with the idea that the economy, on a local or global scale, is driven by demand-and-supply forces, toned down by subsidies and other unfair practices.
A sample of demand-and-supply forces which are market related (and sadly, often criminally tuned in to the mind set of ordinary citizens), and bound to adversely stimulate and affect the numbers game, is listed forthwith:
1. demand for and supply of drugs, contraband, counterfeit money;
2. supply of ‘dirty money’ and demand for ‘laundering’ ;
3. demand for and supply of illegal immigrants, mostly as concerns young healthy females to boost the prostitution industry;
4. demand for and supply of ‘inner trading’ at the stock exchange markets;
5. demand for and supply of child labor and pornography; and the monitoring/regulation of the internet/cyberspace, and other media; and
6. demand for and supply of pornography, fraudulent schemes, mercenaries, and training and support for terrorism on the net and elsewhere.
Then again, happily, there are urgent demands for the supply of forces that could remedy some serious shortcomings in current provisions of good living conditions.
(i) demand for and supply of better architectural planning of buildings and open spaces in towns and cities;
(ii) demand for and supply of sound audit systems to stem fraud and bribery;
(iii) demand for and supply of vetting and screening of police and security officers prior to employment and periodically at intervals of three to five years;
(iv) demand for and supply of codes of ethics/behavior for all civil servant personnel in key posts and positions of trust in order to reduce corruption;
(v) demand for and supply of codes of ethics/behavior for all private sector personnel in key posts and positions of trust to eradicate corruption;
(vi) demand for the empowerment of victimized residents and small business entrepreneurs by means of grants and advice, counseling, guidance and admonitions in order to assist them in securing their homes and small business enterprises;
(vii) demand for and supply of better local government services.
One must, however, always be on the alert to expect victim-criminal interaction which sometimes verges precariously on the edge of a collusion precipice.
9.0 A Major Type of Threat Generated
Through Victim-Criminal Interaction(7
The most appropriate example of a widespread, general victimization type of the third kind (the first kind being reflected by the routes followed from the demand to supply of drugs along legal and illegal means and pathways) is given below.
9.1 Legal and Illegal Demand and Supply of
Drugs on a Micro (Personal)
Level and on a Macro
(Commercial) Level
Illegal demand for drugs Illegal supply of drugs
9.2 A
brief description of the different pathways
on the
micro level
Micro-Path One: From legal demand to legal
supply
Legal doctor’s prescriptions are used by patients to procure drugs in a legal way.
Micro-Path Two: From illegal demand to
illegal supply
Drug lords, drug peddlers, and drug mules are contacted to procure drugs in an illegal way.
Micro-Path Three: From illegal demand to
legal supply
Drug addicts (including those who became addicted by using legal prescriptions) bribe or force doctors or pharmacists at gunpoint or by other means to supply them with drugs. (Note: in fact, it is not legally supplied, because the so-called legal suppliers of drugs succumb to illegal demands, thus becoming illegal suppliers.) Alternatively, illegal demands may lead to burglary, theft, corruption, extortion, blackmail, bribery, or robbery to satisfy the craving for drugs and the avoidance of withdrawal symptoms.
Micro-Path Four: From legal demand to
illegal supply
Legal demands for drugs by desperately-ill patients can sometimes go awry when a doctor or pharmacist refuses to supply the drugs, whereupon the patient may decide to procure the drugs by a) holding up the suppliers at gunpoint; or b) buying the drugs from a drug peddler.
A brief description of two pathways on the
Macro Level:
Macro-Path One: From illegal supply to
legal demand
Recent media reports exposed a macro-path by means of which stolen medicines find their way to pharmacies (i.e. following an illegal path from a supply store to a legal demand store) from where they are distributed legally to patients, despite being long past their shelf-lifes.
Macro-Path Two: From illegal demand to
legal supply
Recent conjectures have it that illegal macro-paths had been created in the past by means of which medicines find their way from unspecified legal suppliers to the demand stores of unspecified illegal suppliers of drugs from where they were distributed legally to ‘customers’ and to retail outlets.
9.3 Illegitimate Third Level Economy
Professor
Andrė Ligthelm of the Bureau of Market Research of the
Dieter
Bruyns, who heads the Electronic Management System of the University of South
Africa, experienced this phenomenon first-hand, in a contact situation, and
discovered how this illegitimate third level economy operates and forthwith
identified it as an ‘economic ecosystem’ (9
Thus far we have briefly discussed the probable impact of two contributing causes to the force majeure in human motivation: action and reaction. These two powerful shakers and movers, known as the political backdrop and market forces, are knowingly and unknowingly grounded, generated and kick-started by some unidentified countries that may have the propensity to propagate and drive the globalization process.
Next we turn to the other factors that may have a significant impact on speeding up or slowing down the implementation of the revolution: a) socio-economic background; b) religious impetus; c) intellectual impact backed by information technology; and (d) current fashionable style.
9.4 Socio-Economic Background
The socio-economic background of a person sometimes plays a decisive role in his/her decision-making behavior, as well as in the eventual formation of groups which display definite characteristics that call for differential treatment. One way of viewing at least five different options in this regard is to see how Merton(10 succeeds in analyzing possible types of forces that drive one’s actions in a cultural structure, one which can be likened to the American dream of riches, wealth and a grand lifestyle. He brings into play two major interacting variables: the culturally-defined goals and the institutionalized means/norms by which these goals are achieved, and notes that they produce the following behavior types: (i) conformity (++) where both the ends and the means are accepted by the player; (ii) innovation (+-) where the goal is accepted, but the means to achieve it is rejected; (iii) ritual (-+) where sight is lost of the goal, but the norm is religiously pursued: (iv) rebellion (--) where both the goal and the means of achieving the goal are rejected by the player; and (v) insecurity (±±) where neither the goal nor the means of achieving it are accepted or rejected, thus sparking doubt, apprehension and misgivings about a positive adaptation.
The different adaptations give rise to at least five types of groups within the structural culture.
A. Conformity creates law-abiding citizens who act in accordance with societal values and norms.
B. Innovation, generate criminals who for example (i) discover old, and invent new means to plunder banks, ATM’s, people and net surfers; (ii) devise intelligent techniques to kidnap their rape victims, and to commit cover-up murders; and/or (iii) come up with innovative schemes to defraud and fleece unsuspecting victims.
C. Ritual fashions fanatical followers who hate dissidents, and blindly adhere to the letter of the law while losing sight of its spirit.
D. Rebellion conceives rebels without a cause, juveniles who reject both the ends and the means of reaching the goals, drifting along aimlessly in winds of change.
E. Insecurity brings into being hesitant, nervous, unreliable types of citizens, people who are basically unable to take a stand, and hovering incessantly between the simultaneous acceptance and rejection of means and ends.
9.5 Religious Impetus, toned down by
political expediency, and Law and Order
This
type of cultural structure, supra, is
made possible by an adherence to a democratic political system, backed by a
capitalistic economic system, as well as a well established, stable judicial
system. As can be expected, these basic systems do not suit the cultural
structure of all the nations of the world. In fact there is hard evidence that many
nations opt to work out their own destiny and are neither willing to share the
American dream nor any other lofty Western-oriented goal. To illustrate this
point, global crimes and punishments are put into perspective by a human rights
lawyer(11…
9.6 High-Profile Cases
An
interview was conducted and recorded by Time
magazine, September 18, 2006 by Time’s
Jessica Carsen with human rights lawyer Gareth Pearce.(11 The
following unambiguous answers to Ms. Carsen’s questions emerged in connection
with detainees at
The greatest threats to human rights today
are:
r The ease and sheer willingness of governments to couch right and wrong in their own political perspective, ignoring as they do so that human rights are entrenched and unalienable; and therefore
r The failure to comply with widely held international obligations to
which they signed some 60 years ago.
Lawyers should play an active role in this
regard, to wit:
r They should bear a heavy responsibility for this type of legal experimentation;
r The law profession should try to put such experiments in reverse and
if they see the law is being misused they should protest vehemently.
What frustrates one most in this regard is
the fact that the status quo remains the same . . .
r With regard to the gathering and use of evidence obtained through torture; and
r The lock-up of people without trial.
The way in which we balance the protection
of human rights with the need to curb terrorism . . .
r Is in fact superfluous because every mechanism is already available to the state to detect, detain, and investigate suspected terrorists; and
r No one deserves to have ‘the book’ thrown at them or to be mutilated by thumbscrew and the rack.
We should realize that there are no new
threats, no new problems; history shows us that, in general terms, there is
nothing new in the world’s contemporary problems . . .
r
Every country has faced similar problems, for example read how James Madison
and Thomas Jefferson communicated with each other in writing when they were
trying to hammer out what rights a person should have; and
r Note how these two had just fought off a formidable tyrant and fortunately in the calm of the aftermath and in hindsight they perceived their own propensity to tyranny and legislated against themselves.
Past cases offer lessons for today in that
they . . .
r Teach us object lessons in how NOT to do
things;
r Testify that the loudest message from the past is simply that (i) unless an entire national community/society understood the reasons for the conflict, and (ii) a political solution is timely devised, there could never be an end to the armed struggle; and (iii) presently, this lesson having been ignored before and during the War on Terrorism, there is a completely baffling and frightening failure to understand what motivates political Islam.
9.7 Intellectual Impact and Information Technology(12
The very first pronounced intellectual impact on information technology was launched during the Second World War when the presence of the deluding concept of man’s intellect and conscious interference with the forces of nature brought into play a series of events that changed the history of warfare and the destiny of humankind.
We are here called upon to consider man’s consciousness or interference as part and parcel of Einstein’s formula (E = M x C2 ) by means of which he explains that energy is a function of two independent variables (mass and the squared speed of light, which translates into a speed of 186,000 miles, or 300,000 kilometers, per second through space).
This formula enabled the Americans during the Second World War, guided by other scientists, such as Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) and Leo Szlizard (1896-1964) to produce an atom bomb of devastating and destructive power, by releasing the energy stored inside a small amount of an uranium hexa-fluoride compound, through a process of ‘piling’ until a critical mass is reached that sets off a spontaneous nuclear reaction.
No amount of objection can ever negate or minimize the role of the scientist in bringing about a weapon of mass destruction, especially the conscious interference in the laws of nature that sets the protons and neutrons of the atom free to wreak havoc and mayhem; but we must take care to put the rightful blame on those who managed the political system at the time, and who exercised their will and determination to release the energy.(13
On the flipside of the nuclear coin we, however, see nuclear power plants that would ultimately make conventional coal-burning plants obsolete, thus ending the rate at which the destruction of the ionic sphere is taking place, and a slowing of the subsequent warming of the earth’s atmosphere.
Humankind’s interference with the laws of nature and the subsequent success at ripping apart the fixed energy that holds the atom intact shows us that Einstein’s famous formula lacks the human element: therefore, it is added as follows in order to encapsulate the law of physics and to disentangle it completely.
E = I(MC2)
where I = the
human element, or information technology, or intelligence quotient, or the
scientist, one who is willing, capable and driven to break the Code and to set
free an energy release of maximal proportions
9.8 Current anti-social and criminal acts have
haunted past generations as well…
Part and parcel of the current information era is the continuous occurrence of corruption and fraud, to such a miserable extent that money goes down the drain at a sickening speed -- money that could have been used to bring relief to poverty-stricken and sick people all over the world.
9.8.1 A Definition of Corruption
Corruption can be defined as widespread moral deterioration, resulting in the reduction and annihilation of values and norms which guide citizens along acceptable ways and means to show respect for a) the life, limbs, honor, and property of others; b) the rights of others, especially human rights; c) the law of the land and order in the home, community, society, and in national and international domains; and d) the authority vested in parents, community and provincial leaders, the police service and its affiliates, such as the prosecution authority, the secret police, the courts, and the prisons; as well as the government, including the president and his/her cabinet ministers, directors and heads of departments.
In addition, corruption can be seen as: (i) the use of underhanded practices and modi operandi that smack of bribery and money laundering, as well as other fraudulent means to win or secure favors or monetary gain; (ii) the abuse of another’s authority and status; (iii) the violation of anyone’s rights, obligations, duties, and wellbeing, especially while those persons are in subordinate positions; and (iv) stripping workers of their honor and standing by means of discrimination, sexual harassment or molestation.
The following lists have been compiled to familiarize the reader with the prevalence and universality of fraud, people’s lay efforts to describe its impact, and the actors behind its unacceptable consequences.
r Included in a long list of recorded words that have been in use to describe the fraud phenomenon in the world at large, are the following.(14 :
deception, trickery, cheating, subterfuge, sharp practice, chicanery, deceit, swindling, double-dealing, duplicity, artifice, graft, guile, bluff, humbug, humbuggery, treachery, graft, monkey business, funny business, hanky-panky, trick, hoax, swindle, scam, deception, cheat, wile, stratagem, dodge, ruse, sham, fake, flimflam, rip-off, and gyp,
r The following names of doers are submitted for the record (15:
deceiver, trickster, cheat(er), impostor, swindler, charlatan, humbug, sharper,
quack, mountebank, fake(r), pretender, confidence man, confidence trickster,
bluffer, defrauder, flimflammer, shark, four-flusher, phony, con man, bilker.
r The following achievements of fraudulent behavior and words that characterized this behavior are noted (16: ibid. p.594
fake, counterfeit, forged, false, falsified, imitation, sham, misleading, pinchbeck, phony, deceitful, dishonest, deceptive, tricky, artful, double-dealing, duplicitous, guileful, sharp, crooked, shifty, bent, spurious, crafty, shady,
r The following descriptions of fraudulent behavior serve to illustrate that the community at large recognize a whole range of degree differences between and among certain definitions of fraud situations. The following types of fraudulent behavior are highlighted to bear this out: chicanery, trickery, deception, deceit, and fraud.(17
1. Chicanery
Chicanery suggests less serious fraudulent behavior than the rest of the acts portrayed on the list. However, it suggests disgust at the shoddy methods used by the person to gain publicity and fame.
2. Trickery
Trickery points less to verbal distortions alone than to the-by-design, deliberate giving of false appearances and false positives. Although it is a harsher term than deception, deceit, and fraud, it is milder in its disapproval of these actions.
3, Deception
Deception has the widest range of uses: at its mildest it can probably suggest a necessary or harmless deception, such as referring to a child’s medicine as ‘sweet dreams’ whereas at its most deploring when used to persuade pensioners to invest their hard-earned money into fraudulent ventures, such as pyramid schemes.
4. Deceit
Deceit is at best one hundred percent negative in its tone and in its disapproval of the act, but considerably harsher than the deception label. It is often used to describe the actions of a habitual liar or schemer who lies and cheats in order to enrich him/herself at the expense of vulnerable people, such as widows, desperate pensioners and children.
5. Fraud
Where deception or deceit more often than not describe interactions between the deceiver, trickster, or cheater on a one-to-one, face-to-face interaction level, fraud points to a more impersonal, generalized victim database, one that covers the whole community, the whole country or the whole world at large. It also suggests official dishonesty and behavior that calls for legal censure and judicial intervention.
9.8.2
Proposed Classifications
of White Collar Crime and Fraud:
The very first thing we should do about fraud and corruption is to take note that all the various crimes under this umbrella heading are driven by the economic law of demand and supply. This law states that there is interplay of market forces between these two powerful push and pull factors, an interplay that regulates the price of commodities. In general it means that a) the higher the need for a thing, the higher the efforts to provide the thing to the needy and the lower the price becomes; and b) the lower the demand for a thing, the lower the provision of the thing for sale and the higher the price becomes. However, in the case of fraudulent practices, when the price of a commodity (for example a contract to render a service) is defined by over-supply via many applicants, it follows that the price of the commodity, as fixed by the official in charge of the allocation of contracts, will rise sharply.
9.8.2.1
A Proposed Classification of White Collar Crime:
The concept white collar crime was coined by Sutherland, a renowned criminologist who discovered some 50 or more odd years ago that this type of anti-social transgression was rife in the United States of America, chiefly among businessmen of ‘good repute’ and high socio-economic standing. At first he was so embarrassed about the whole state of affairs that he defined the transgressions as mere anti-social behavior which ought to come under the ambit of crime at a later stage. Thus it had taken many years to get authorities to recognize the deleterious and harmful effects of the so-called anti-social or fraudulent behavior and to adapt the law to serve the needs of the people properly.
9.8.2.2 A Proposed Popular Definition of Fraud:
In popular science the term fraud can be defined as a) criminal deception; b) the use of false representations to gain an unjust advantage; c) a dishonest artifice or trick; and/or d) a person or thing not fulfilling what is claimed or expected of him/her/it.(18 Sarah, 594 In a more formal way Hunt(19 (1970:714) defines fraud as ‘… unlawful and intentional making of a misrepresentation which causes actual or potential prejudice to another’.
The legal elements of fraud are defined by Le Roux(20 as follows:
First Element: Unlawfulness
The perpetrator acts illegally: however, if it can be proved to the court of law that the action was made a) under authentic orders; b) under duress; and/or c) in collaboration with the presumed victim, the perpetrator can claim ‘justification’ for the behavior.
Second Element: Misrepresentation
Anything that is incompatible with the truth is defined as misrepresentation, be it words, action, silence, opinion, and/or device, tool, contrivance, appliance, apparatus, machine, instrument, implement, or utensil. Please note that a promise is not a representation because it is something that is projected into the future.
Third Element: Intent
The fraudster has the will and determination to commit fraud and the intention to persuade the other party to go along with it.
Fourth Element: Prejudice
Here prejudice is viewed as harm or injury suffered by a victim or victims as a result of the fraud, or injury and harm that may result as a consequence of the fraudulent action.
9.8.2.3 A Proposed Quantification of the Types
of Fraud:
The different
types shown here are not exhaustive, but rather illustrative of some of the
more prevalent types found in circulation from time to time; for example, see
those independent, isolated categories described by le Roux . (20
In order to present a close-knit and better comprehensible view of types of fraud, one can arrange them on a ten-point scale, reflecting values from 1 to 10, in increasing order of generalization in respect to interaction explosion or centrifugal interaction, tending to move away from the lowest value of one and setting in motion the widening of the fraudulent net being cast by the frauds to entice more and more victims.
Viewed from the value of 10 downwards towards the value of 1, we are also able to experience the opposite phenomenon of interaction, id est., an implosion or centripetal interaction – from many victims towards very few victims. We note that there are two parties involved: (i) one (or more victim) who demands an opportunity to invest their money in the bogus shares of a fraudster; and (ii) one (or more swindler) who takes in the money of the victim(s) and swiftly makes off with the booty, or tangles his books in such a way that the victims find it difficult, if not impossible, to recover their money. However, the fly-by-night modus operandi seems to be the favored fleecing technique of the fraudster.
9.8.2.4 Types of fraud
quantified Type I Type II Type III Type IV Type V … 6‘ ĽSE I%"! LMN•2 l………………………………………………..l 2 4 6 8 10 Counts 0,2.......…..0,4………..0,6………..0,8....……1,00 Probabilities Impact of fraud on the values and means of society
Type 1 fraud
The fraudster nets his victims one by one in private, exclusive settings and situations, and takes flight the moment questions are asked about his/her integrity, business acumen and/or return on investment accrued to investors. Being on the demand side for huge returns on investment (HROI), the victims, relying on pyramid schemes to net huge returns, quickly discover to their horror that the supplier has disappeared without an address, telephone number, or any other clues as to his whereabouts. Identity, proprietary, and property fraud are rife.
Type II Fraud
The fraudster nets as many victims as possible in as short a time as possible, taking care to keep some of his/her investors who have first fallen into his/her clever trap happy by paying them significant sums of money. As the months wear on, fewer and fewer checks are issued, until on one fateful day the well dries up completely. The demand for extravagant returns on investment (EROI) abruptly changes to demands for returns of basic sums invested (ROBSI). Needless to say, the heaven-sent supplier becomes a dead horse that the victims are beating to no avail.
Type III Fraud
Type III fraud differs from Type I and Type II fraud in that the two parties involved are both, simultaneously, known as applicants (demanding goods, contracts, status, or any other award, in exchange for money paid over to the suppliers); or as suppliers (supplying goods, contracts, status, or any other award in exchange for money, received from the applicants). Both of the parties demand some coveted thing and both of them supply some coveted thing. The applicants/suppliers can be defined as small fry, or run-of-the-mill citizens who venture forth to buy their way through difficult times in order to open up lines of least resistance. An example would be a police officer who issues a speeding ticket to a motorist, accepts a bribe to save the motorist the trouble of paying the authorities a somewhat higher amount fined by the courts. Another example is where an applicant for coveted CDs (compact discs), wrist watch, or any other counterfeit item, demands and buys the articles at much lower prices than the prices at legal shops. Thus it becomes possible to view this type of fraudster as an illegal street supplier whose customer is often a willing participant in the fraud.
Type IV Fraud
Type IV fraud is characterized by a high dimension of fraudulent impact, not alone in respect to the measurable time-space factors of victimized citizens (including human beings of all ages), but also in regard to their customary, traditional acceptance of acceptable definitions of vital issues, such as the definition of age-old crimes such as theft and murder.
On a worldwide scale this type of high-flying corruption takes place between one or more officials of high status and executive standing as a supplier of contracts and business managers or chief executive officers, acting as applicants for special favors and privileged treatment which could boost their business influence and profit-making capacity on a swift and significant scale. In the process huge amounts of money change hands, while the money-laundering machines are switched on to maximum output.
As can be expected, although the corrupt act is executed in private and in secret, in time the real victims can be discovered in the ranks of ordinary citizens and taxpayers who must ultimately bear the brunt, footing the bill, and enduring the chief and initial impact of the onslaught on the nation’s morals and definition of crime.
Type V Fraud
Type V fraud exceeds the limits of decency, decorum, and conformity to moral societal standards which serve as exemplars of law and order in modern civilizations and ordered societies. The fraudulent act is committed and followed by a more serious transgression of the law, such as arson, rape, murder, kidnapping, or money laundering. These horrendous consequences are resorted to by the fraudster in order to cover up his whereabouts, reprehensible deed, and/or fraudulent behavior. It comes about as a result of fear of reprisal, prosecution and punishment, the upshot of which may set in motion more and more criminal acts by his/her collaborators and their co-conspirators.
This type of fraud is committed by one or more persons, and more often than not by gangs, syndicates, or networks of mafia members. In addition, it is closely linked to drug abuse, drug smuggling, abduction of young men and women for prostitution, money laundering, and pornography, theft and heist (of containers and money-conveying vans), swindling, and counterfeiting (for example that of money, compact discs, DVD’s, cell phones, motorcar parts, personal computers, credit cards, weapons, and many, many more essential articles).
Needless to say, all the other types of fraud are dwarfed dimensionally by Type V fraud; id est., in respect to: a) the number of victims, both direct and indirect; b) the place where the transgression has occurred (in fact all over the world); c) the scope (almost all types of violations against victims are possible); and d) the timing of the fraud -- whether day or night, day, week, month, or season -- are not predictable because fraud knows no bounds and no time restrictions. There is in addition, without any doubt, a silver bullet message sent out to victims to silence them effectively.
In order to prevent these crimes, and/or to reduce their serious impact, the whole national potential and capacity of nations at large needs to be recruited and mobilized, marching as one entity, crushing as it were all criminal resistance in its wake like a giant stamping out a poisonous viper.
9.9 The intellectual games we play nowadays…
New technological demands, norms and tangible values are the new kids on the block for most of our modern-day youths who strive to neutralize and annihilate existing ideological and mystical systems at the speed of lightning. Seemingly they are no longer bound over by tradition and custom. Now the focus is on the building of tangible (not elusive, visionary, or mystic) values. People who do try to destroy such values, or who show outright tendencies to do so, are systematically sidelined and ignored by the powerful generators of these new (for them) exiting avenues where socio-economic comfort, peace, and freedom reign supreme.
These shifts in values and norms have not passed unseen and unheeded. Already moves are launched to obliterate the activities on the worldwide web and to restructure it from scratch. The idea is to let it function in accordance with the cultural structures of participant nations and societies, allowing for decency, security, and safety measures to be introduced – measures that would meet with the approval of all participants. How this change has to be made is anyone’s guess. Consider for example that The Globalist reports on their website www.theglobalist.com ‘by the year 2007 the internet will transport about 678 million gigabytes of data each day’.
9.10 Current Fashionable Style
Here it is significant to make note of present-day crime trends (ranging from non-adherence to traffic rules; to invasion of homes and land; family murders; tax evasion; petty theft; plundering of mail) and behavioral trends (whether they be disrespect for authority; obesity and declining health of tweens, teens, and adolescents; or classroom breaches of discipline and criminal law and order) for the express purpose of drawing attention to signs of the imminent collapse of old principles and standards of decency, and yesteryear’s judgment of what is valuable and important in life. The turn of the century into a new millennium marks a turn-about of weather patterns, old customs, policies, and behavior that have caught most members of humankind unawares. The youth have seemingly entered into a state of laissez-aller or unconstrained freedom, leaving behind a generation in future shock, marked by its inability to cope with rapid progress.
9.11 Leveling the playing fields by means
of globalization
The unabated efforts and goals of some groups and people that take the lead and set the tune, are to level the playing field among others, in respect to (i) language; (ii) communication; (iii) politics; (iv) religion; (v) culture; (vi) economy; (vii) education; and (viii) social relationships.
The mechanisms employed to realize this result are varied and divergent. Only a few of them are listed here: (a) the world-wide internet; (b) television/computers; (c) the radio; (d) seminars, congresses, and meetings; (e) journals, books, and pamphlets; (f) national and international wars; (g) agreements and pacts to unite different countries and regions and to do away with borders; and (h) accords, contracts, economic agreements, and treaties between nations.
Under the heading World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF highlights some of these challenges the world is facing(21, facts that scream for urgent criminal legislation to save the world.
9.1.1 Violation of Our Biosphere
The reason why we mistreat and abuse our biosphere is simply because the playing field has been leveled and we no longer feel obliged to oppose a flattened authority and a fallen leadership body. We are so apt to ‘roll with the punches’ that we find it gradually impossible to respond to calls to do our bid to stop the rot.
We allow increased levels of carbon dioxide to destroy the ionic sphere by manufacturing and operating vehicles, airplanes, trains, buses, ships, electricity plants and other machines driven by fossil fuel. In addition we burn up coal and wood to serve our household needs. In this and in other ways we emit tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere without blinking an eye, warming up the earth while we do so; causing horrendous climatic changes that spout forth tsunamis, tornadoes, rainstorms, droughts, devastating ocean swirls and destructive waves, as well as heat waves that wither away grasslands, and savannahs and kill off the old and weak members of man and beast.
9.1.2 Violation of our Natural Resources
Nowadays we experience growing water shortages, shrinking forests, and rapidly-expanding deserts, as well as depletion of other resources such as metal, wood, raw material and elements, all because of over-population and human greed. The entire world is experiencing rapid over-pollution which brings in its wake dislocation, suffering and poverty.
10.0 A New Crime Definition
With the advent of a new millennium, people all over the world clamor in concert for a new approach to the management and control of crime and punishment. Inexorably, the focus has shifted to a more relaxed and rational way of solving the vexing conundrum – one in which the emphasis is on the real basic needs and wants of individuals as opposed to the more general and diffuse demands of organized groups and parties.
Now the focus is on the preservation of values, cherished by each and every member of humankind. It follows therefore that most persons who respect these values would act in concert to reject the acts of those who deliberately destroy these values.
In essence, these values lie half hidden or embedded in the body, mind, spirit, limbs, honor, lifestyle, happiness, opportunities, security, property, and proprietary rights of a person, whether at birth, at any other age, or deathbed. No one has the right or the authority to deprive a person of these values or to deny him or her from gaining any access to them.
For example, whenever a criminal deliberately destroys another person’s body, he or she commits a murder; if the murderous attempt fails, an act of assault has been committed. Likewise, if a person’s body is sexually violated, acts of rape or indecent assault are committed. Violation of property and proprietary rights are dealt with for instance as theft, fraud, embezzlement, bribery, corruption, forging, and adulteration.
A natural extension of this line of thinking is one that probably pains some rulers of our planet. When confronted with the fact that individual rights are synonymous with human rights they tend to freeze and go into a state of total denial. For this confrontation is the very first step in a process that would call them to account and to hold them responsible and accountable for their warring actions and destruction of values. How many bodies have been slain; mutilated; incarcerated; denied food, water, freedom, and medicine; and how many homes, buildings, and communication means have been destroyed? The question remains whether these warlords should not be held accountable for all these horrendous acts.
11.0 Security Threats
In our day and age security threats are paramount concerns for everyone. We have nowhere to hide. Our homes are invaded by criminals brandishing firearms and submachine guns, acting like loose canons that are able, willing, and prepared at the slightest provocation to squeeze a trigger which propels fatal slugs through our bodies. Our shops, churches, meeting places, internet, bank accounts, and institutions are likewise penetrated and violated to a miserable extent. They seem to be in total control of the situation, intimidating everyone around, even the police, to yield to their beck and call. This sorry state of affairs calls for a fresh look at our remaining options and to do something about it before we are bowled over by fear and frustration. The problem is that global violation and transgression of international and local rule of law are rife, serving as they appear with clockwork regularity as examples which are readily followed and copied by those soldiers directly involved as well as those civilians indirectly involved at home.
Professor Dr. Jacob van der Westhuize
continues his presentation in Part II of this paper which will appear in the
September-October 2007 issue, featuring ‘The Origin of Global Conflict’ as well
as solutions to the issues brought forth thus far.
References:
- Bronowski, pp. 96-7
- A concept coined by the author in his unpublished manuscript ‘I am because you are – an introduction to the science of security’. 2006
- Sarah Tulloch: pp 1835-1836
- Jacob van der Westhuizen 2006. Excerpts from unpublished manuscript
‘I am because you are ‘ – the author’s maxim coined in the early eighties
of the last century).
- Sarah Tulloch, p.1835
- Josef Joffe in Time January 29, 2007. ‘Those gloating dismal scientists.’
Vol. 169, No 5, p. 60
- Jacob van der Westhuizen, ibid. p.136
- Ligthelm, Andrė of the Bureau of Market Research of the University of
Stellenbosch; as quoted by Johann van Tonder: ‘Onwettige derde ekonomie
floreer’ – (Illegal third economy flourishes). Rapportsake. February 12,
2006. p. 1.
9. Jacob van der Westhuizen, ibid. pp. 28-131
10.
Merton(9 (in Giallombardo, R.- editor.1966. Juvenile Delinquency – a book
of readings: Wiley & Sons:
11. Interview conducted and recorded in Time, September 18, 2006 by
Time’s Jessica Carsen with the Human Rights Lawyer, Gareth Pearce, p.19
12. Jacob van der Westhuizen, ibid.
13. Toon, Ernest R. and George L. Ellis. 1973. Foundations of chemistry. New
14. Sarah Tulloch, p. 594
15. ibid.
16. ibid.
17. Editorial Staff of the Reader’s Digest, pp. 141-2
18. Sarah Tulloch, p. 594
19. Hunt, 1970:714
20. Le Roux in Du Preez, p. 228 et seq.
21. Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF (World Economic Forum 2007) highlights some of these challenges the world is facing: World Economic Forum. Announcements made in the media and on the Internet about global issues of maximal global concern.
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