Money laundering is the process that criminals use to “clean” their money to mask its illegal origin. It allows them to enjoy profits of unlawful sources without risking the detection of the criminal activities that fund their livelihoods ("Money Laundering," 2019). Since 1986, money laundering has been a crime in America according to sections 1956 and 1957 of the country’s constitution (Leff, 2013). Also, a global drug report that was published in 2018 showed rising rates of the use of prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, a factor that threatens public health. The use of opioids causes the most harm accounting for 76% of the deaths resulting from illegal drug use ("World Drug Report 2018", 2018). Moreover, the view on prostitution varies globally, a factor that results in the difference in the prostitution laws that are implemented in different countries. In some parts of the world, prostitution is legal, whereas in others it is illegal and punishable by death. Regardless, even in nations where it is legalized, illegal prostitution remains an issue of concern (Jakobsson & Kotsadam, 2013). Therefore, the controversies that surround money laundering, the illicit use of drugs and prostitution, necessitate the analysis of the role that global law enforcement plays in the establishment of the prevailing trends.
Money Laundering
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in 2009, criminal activities contributed to 3.6% of the global GDP, 2.7% ($1.6 trillion) of which was laundered ("Money Laundering," 2019). UNODC estimates that the worldwide tally of the money that is laundered annually ranges between 2-5% of the global GDP, which is about $800 billion to $2 trillion . These statistics depict the seriousness of the money laundering issue that affects countries across the globe because even the lower range of its rate of occurrence shows the involvement of large financial margins ("Money-Laundering and Globalization," 2019). The high prevalence rates of money laundering are attributed to the advancements in telecommunication, which facilitates the creation of global financial infrastructures that depend on “megabyte” money transactions (Gulled & Hossain, 2018). Thus, because of the ease and speed of money transfer worldwide, the operation of criminal enterprises has become less demanding, resulting in the high prevalence rates of money laundering.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The need to mitigate money laundering activities across the globe has existed since the 1970s, and it continues to rise. The reason behind the mentioned interest is to increase the ability of law enforcement to monitor the criminal money trail, find the perpetrators of unlawful activities, or use the information as prosecution evidence. Additionally, if law enforcers can track money laundering activities within their jurisdictions, they can confiscate the gains that are acquired illegally. Thus, the criminals’ reactive measures to the pursuit of the discussed goal seek to disguise crime proceeds as well as their ownership. Nonetheless, the associated law enforcement pursuits continue because theoretically, taking preventative measures to mitigate the success of criminals reduces their crime benefit margins (Gordon, 2011). Hence, as long as money laundering continues to affect the global economy, law enforcement pursuits to mitigate its prevalence will remain steady.
The threat that money laundering poses currently has a global magnitude. It continues to undermine the efforts that policymakers have made to reduce its ubiquity, resulting in the rising rates of organized crime and the sabotage of financial system integrity (Sittlington & Harvey, 2018). Over the past four decades, law enforcement has refined efforts to curb money laundering. Most countries have now adopted the propositions of the Financial Action Task Force's Forty (FATF) global standards, which necessitate the monitoring of customer transactions within financial institutions. Any anomalies are reported to financial intelligence units which analyze the suspicious reports and recommend investigations of clients or sales to law enforcers (Gordon, 2011). For instance, in many European countries, money laundering offenses have been included in the penal code for more than 25 years. These nations apply compliance initiatives and the provisions of the anti-money laundering (AML) initiative, which has made financial institutions crucial components of the war against money laundering (Verhage, 2017). With such systems in place, the threat of money laundering on the global economy is minimized, but not to a satisfactory extent as evidenced by the statistics of its prevalence presented above.
The measures that are taken to reduce the threat that money laundering poses are acknowledged globally. However, the effectiveness of their implementation determines their efficiency in serving the purpose they are intended for. Research shows that in most cases, the recordkeeping requirements are appropriately implemented, but the same does not apply for customer identification and profiling. Compliance assessments show that it has been challenging to determine the effectiveness of the profiling and identification of customers within financial institutions, especially in cases that involve beneficial ownership. Some scholars feel that the preventive measures that have been implemented to deal with money laundering have had minimal effects, especially considering the reporting of suspicious transactions and the monitoring of account activities (Gordon, 2011). For instance, in the United States, few reports of suspicious transactions have led to investigations, and the financial intelligence agency in the country has no records of the number of such reports that have been reviewed by law enforcement (Gordon, 2011). Similar trends also apply in other countries across the globe, evidencing that the measures that are taken against money laundering remain to be mostly ineffective.
Therefore, for the results of the efforts that law enforcement makes to minimize money laundering to be highly effective, both policymakers and law enforcers must seek to understand the profit formula that criminals use to establish why it maintains its efficacy. The neoclassical approach to economics provides that self-interest is the primary motivator for individuals, who act to realize maximum personal utility. Hence, in money laundering schemes, criminals are likely to commit resources to crimes whose immediate gains exceed the current execution costs and future apprehension. Thus, based on the provisions of the stated theory and the restorative justice principles requiring that criminals not benefit from the fruits of their illegal activity, the creation of an effective legislative structure to deal with money laundering should focus on the maximization of the offenders’ cost (Sittlington & Harvey, 2018). Thus, the proper understanding of the set-up of criminal enterprises is the surest way of creating solutions that will effectively curb the money laundering issue across the globe.
Illegal Drug Use
The illegal use of drugs has resulted in the degradation of public health because of its adverse effects on the well-being of users. The production of opium globally increased by 65% between 2016 and 2017, reaching the highest amount recorded by UNODC since the institution begum monitoring 21 st Century opium production. Cocaine manufacturing also peaked in 2016, after the levels of output had dropped between 2005 and 2013. Within three years, the cocaine manufacture rate increased by 56%, with the most significant rise happening between 2015 and 2016 (25%) ("Executive Summary Conclusions and Policy Implications," 2018). Additionally, statistics show that in 2014, the drug overdose rate that was recorded in the United States accounted for 47 055 deaths, depicting a doubled rate since 2000 (Rudd et al., 2016). Thus, the illegal use of drugs within America and across the globe has become a menace necessitating urgent and targeted problem resolution.
Law enforcement has implemented measures to curb the rising rates of illegal drug use. In the United States, the named agencies use about $25 billion yearly to facilitate drug control efforts. An additional $67 billion is used to cater to drug-related death, crime and medical expenses whereas as the costs that businesses incur as a result of drug use amount to about $60-100 billion (Castberg). The most pressing concern among both healthcare practitioners and law enforcers regarding the illegal use of drugs is the consumption of pharmaceutical opioids. The preferences for the types of pharmaceutical opioids varies in different regions with North American users leaning towards the utilization of a fentanyl-heroin mixture, whereas in Europe the most significant concern is heroin use. Moreover, in North and West Africa, as well as in the Middle East, the use of tramadol, which is not regulated by international control standards characterizes a rising trend ("Executive Summary Conclusions and Policy Implications," 2018). Resultantly, the need for the implementation of policies to control substance abuse emerges to facilitate the application of appropriate measures to deal with the illegal use of drugs.
The most recent global effort made to reduce the use of illegal drugs was the implementation of the 2015 sustainable development goals (SDG) by members of the United Nations, aiming at implementing drug use approaches that are based on human rights provisions. The attempts made towards enhancing the well-being and health of the global population in relation to the illegal drug use problem have been in play since 1998 when the UN General Assembly convened and launched the campaign to create a drug-free world. The control policies that were implemented sought to prohibit all production, use, and possession of illicit substances. However, the agreement failed to account for the ways that the barring of drug use would affect public health ( Csete et al., 2016) . Thus, the current state of society has rendered the zero-tolerance drug policies redundant because of their perceived effects on development, health, and human rights, necessitating the need for their revision.
Research findings on the effect that drug law enforcement has had shows that the efforts made have not contributed to the reduction of the levels of violence within the drug market. Increasing the agility of enforcing laws contributes to the heightened prevalence of violence and homicides in drug markets. The implementation of sophisticated measures to disrupt the illicit drug distribution networks within societies across the globe has led to the realization of causative factors that increase drug violence. Law enforcement’s removal of key players in the drug markets globally has been shown to result in the creation of new financial opportunities as the need to fill the market gaps arises. This phenomenon can be exemplified by the heightened gun violence homicides that followed the implementation of alcohol prohibition laws in the United States in 1999 as well as the removal of the Medellin and Cali cartels in Columbia. Furthermore, the disruption of cocaine cartels’ duopoly resulted in the emergence of smaller distribution networks, which used violence to protect their market shares (Werb et al., 2011). Thus, law enforcement efforts to reduce illicit drug use have not been effective in the realization of minimized social harm despite the disruption of illegal drug distribution networks.
Moreover, drug dealers have implemented measures to reduce their detection by law enforcers. Rising trends show the expansion of drug cryptomarkets, which allow the sellers and buyers of illicit drugs to connect in a ‘secure’ global market. The preference for cryptomarkets among dealers has resulted from the anonymity that characterizes the trade thereof, as well as the ability of the implemented structure to tally and display customer feedback on seller products. The reduction of dealer visibility by law enforcement is crucial to successfully conducting business, an aim that cryptomarkets have helped realize by allowing drug networks to run without law enforcement interference as anyone with a computer and anonymity software such as Tor can participate. Moreover, the named markets have enabled dealers to mitigate the cost of operation because of the minimization of the legal penalties resulting from lower rates of dealer arrests. Also, cryptomarket features have reduced distribution risks as suppliers do not deliver their products in person (Aldridge & Askew, 2017). Hence, such countermeasures have rendered traditional law enforcement efforts in reducing illicit drug use redundant and necessitated the development of new measures to curb drug use.
Thus, the revised policy that the UN is exploring to reduce the rate of illegal drug use seeks to realize a scientific based approach. The Johns Hopkins – Lancet Commission is investigating the public health issues that have resulted from the implementation of the 1998 drug policy to gather insights that will facilitate the establishment of a new evidence-based approach. The named commission seeks to establish the difference between drug use and abuse, which has been previously overlooked in the development of drug policies. So far, it is determined that the use of drugs is not a medical condition, and it does not always result in drug dependence. Thus, the new approach to mitigating the utilization of illegal drugs must factor in that not all drug use is dangerous, to avoid overlooking the potential harm that the drugs that are perceived not to be hazardous, such as alcohol and tobacco, have in causing harm ( Csete et al., 2016) . This will enhance the ability of both policymaker and law enforcers to create a social policy that reduces potential public harm that may result from the illicit use of drugs.
Illegal Prostitution
The laws on prostitution determine the nature of the lives of prostitutes as it impacts their safety, interaction with police, and earnings. In many European countries, prostitution in itself is not illegal, but the law restricts the organization and advertisement of related activities. Thus, there are variations in the wording that different countries use for laws concerning prostitution, making it difficult to draw a line between the legal and the illegal aspects of the practice. Similarly, law enforcement on prostitution differs and has evolved. However, emphasize remains on the need to for law enforcement to safeguard the health of sex workers, necessitating the allowance of their access to both health and social services as well as a reduced restriction on the control that prostitutes have over their working conditions (Platt et al., 2018). In the execution of their duties to uphold the law, enforcers must factor in the need to respect the rights of sex workers and protect them from adverse social effects.
One of the countries that has legalized prostitution is Netherlands with the lifting of the brothel ban. The voluntary participation in prostitution provided one has attained the legal age and brothels comply with licensing terms, is not prohibited. This was a move made by law enforcers in the country aiming at cracking down on illegal forms of prostitution. Such steps are often debated by researchers who have divergent views on the consequences that the legalization of prostitution has within societies (Huisman & Kleemans, 2014). Some researchers feel that making prostitution legal increases transparency of the activities in the prostitution sector, heightening the rate of the detection of illegal activities. In contrast, other scholars believe that legalizing prostitution magnifies the risk of the escalation of illegal activities like human trafficking owing to the need to sustain the increased demand for prostitutes (Cho, Dreher & Neumayer, 2013). Therefore, the measures that law enforcement takes in dealing with prostitution must account for both the positive and negative effects that are likely to be realized to maximize the efficiency of goal realization, which is to reduce the prevalence of illegal prostitution activities.
Hence, an analysis of the policies that have been implemented to minimize illegal prostitution activities worldwide evidences that the measures that law enforcers employ take either a prohibition or a laissez-faire approach. The enforced policies either impose sanctions on sex workers or their clients and in other cases on both parties. For example, in Sweden, prostitutes are allowed to sell their services but purchasing them is considered illegal. However, in countries like the United States, sex workers are the ones that are penalized for participation in prostitution activities (Immordino & Russo, 2015). Therefore, study publications on the effects that the approaches that law enforcement uses to deal with illegal prostitution activity show that strict crackdowns reduce the quantity of equilibrium because of the heightened participation costs.
The prohibition of prostitution generally reduces the prostitution market but increases the risk of disease infection because the sex workers that are already infected are less likely to respond to the measures taken compared to the non-infected ones, owing to their lower lifetime value. Hence, Immordino and Russo (2015) feel that the best approach to the minimization of illegal prostitution activity is the prohibition approach because it reduces the extensiveness of the prostitution market. The named method becomes even more effective when the focus is on forbidding the purchase of sex services than its sale. Nonetheless, law enforcers must understand that reducing the prostitution market by mitigating the buying of sexual services does not minimize the harm that may arise from participation in illegal sexual practices. Moreover, high stigmatization results in an increased probability of sex workers becoming victims of violence, a factor that lowers the benefits of a prohibition approach of dealing with illegal prostitution (Immordino & Russo, 2015). Without a clear picture of the effects of its efforts on the players in the prostitution sector, law enforcement cannot adequately resolve the concerns associated with illegal prostitution without violating human rights.
Conclusion
From the analysis of the issues surrounding money laundering, illegal drug use, and prostitution, it is evident that the effects thereof affect societies worldwide. The result has been the implementation of laws and regulations that seek to curb the prevalence of the associated negative impacts, which have not been effective in mitigating the mentioned practices. Thus the role that law enforcement plays in the money laundering, drug use, and prostitution sectors must be analyzed and revised to maximize the effectiveness of the measures that are implemented to curb the illegal practices.
References
Aldridge, J., & Askew, R. (2017). Delivery dilemmas: How drug cryptomarket users identify and seek to reduce their risk of detection by law enforcement. International Journal of Drug Policy , 41 , 101-109.
Castberg, A. D. ILLEGAL DRUGS: THE CHALLENGE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT. RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 56 , 421.
Cho, S. Y., Dreher, A., & Neumayer, E. (2013). Does legalized prostitution increase human trafficking?. World Development , 41 , 67-82.
Csete, J., Kamarulzaman, A., Kazatchkine, M., Altice, F., Balicki, M., Buxton, J., ... & Hart, C. (2016). Public health and international drug policy. The Lancet , 387 (10026), 1427-1480.
Executive Summary Conclusions and Policy Implications. (2018). Unodc.org. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/wdr2018/prelaunch/WDR18_Booklet_1_EXSUM.pdf
Gordon, R. K. (2011). Losing the War Against Dirty Money: Rethinking Global Standards on Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing, 21 DUKE J. COMP. & INT'L L , 503 , 506.
Gulled, A., & Hossain, J. (2018). Bitcoins challenge To The Financial Institutions.
Huisman, W., & Kleemans, E. R. (2014). The challenges of fighting sex trafficking in the legalized prostitution market of the Netherlands. Crime, Law, and Social Change , 61 (2), 215-228.
Immordino, G., & Russo, F. F. (2015). Regulating prostitution: A health risk approach. Journal of Public Economics , 121 , 14-31.
Jakobsson, N., & Kotsadam, A. (2013). The law and economics of international sex slavery: prostitution laws and trafficking for sexual exploitation. European journal of law and economics , 35 (1), 87-107.
Leff, D. A. (2013). Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture: Taking the Profit Out of Crime. US Att'ys Bull. , 61 , 4.
Money Laundering - Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Fatf-gafi.org. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.fatf-gafi.org/faq/moneylaundering/
Money-Laundering and Globalization. (2019). Unodc.org. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/money-laundering/globalization.html
Platt, L., Grenfell, P., Meiksin, R., Elmes, J., Sherman, S. G., Sanders, T., ... & Crago, A. L. (2018). Associations between sex work laws and sex workers’ health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of quantitative and qualitative studies. PLoS medicine , 15 (12), e1002680.
Rudd, R. A., Aleshire, N., Zibbell, J. E., & Matthew Gladden, R. (2016). Increases in drug and opioid overdose deaths—United States, 2000–2014. American Journal of Transplantation , 16 (4), 1323-1327.
Sittlington, S., & Harvey, J. (2018). Prevention of money laundering and the role of asset recovery. Crime, Law, and Social Change , 70 (4), 421-441.
Verhage, A. (2017). Great expectations but little evidence: policing money laundering. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy , 37 (7/8), 477-490.
Werb, D., Rowell, G., Guyatt, G., Kerr, T., Montaner, J., & Wood, E. (2011). Effect of drug law enforcement on drug market violence: A systematic review. International Journal of Drug Policy , 22 (2), 87-94.
World Drug Report 2018: opioid crisis, prescription drug abuse expands; cocaine and opium hit record highs. (2018). Unodc.org. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2018/June/world-drug-report-2018_-opioid-crisis--prescription-drug-abuse-expands-cocaine-and-opium-hit-record-highs.html
