International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 24

International Journal on Criminology - Volume 2 Issue 1 - Spring 2014
Criminal State and Illicit Economy: a Game Changer for
the Twenty-First Century: Crime, Illicit Trades, Economy,
and state
Mickaël Roudaut A
Introduction
Taking advantage of globalization,
crime, and illicit trades grew to become,
beyond public security 1 , a
question of global and national security 2 influencing
international relations, economy,
and society as a whole. Moreover, the classic
divide between state and organized crime,
the former fighting the latter, is no longer
the single rule of the game.
Nowadays, in various countries and
areas within them, organized crime and
state interests can be found hard to distinguish
to the point that the state may no
longer seek to eradicate or reduce the organized
crime pressure but may aim to control
trafficking rings for its economic, personal,
and partners benefits.
Furthermore, the millions of employees
of the illicit economy producing counterfeits,
smuggling hundreds of thousands of
migrants, harvesting coca leaves or scratching
poppy fields, poaching elephant or tiger
carcasses, and pursuing the laundering of the
proceeds in the licit economy on the one side
and the millions more buying contraband
cigarettes, smoking cannabis, paying for sex
from coerced women, or employing irregular
migrants on the other, create a vast global
market. Given its scale and profitability, this
illicit economy became a suppletive and at
times an alternative model of development,
closely intertwined with the legal sphere.
Yet, such awareness tends to remain
confined to a few academic spheres instead of
being fully acknowledged within international
relations, political economy, and geopolitics
so as to be translated at policy making level.
A
Author of Marchés criminels—Un acteur global (2010), Presses Universitaires de France, Paris. Lecturer at
the Universities of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Clermont-Ferrand and at the Gendarmerie nationale Officers
academy.
1
To public, property, and business.
2
To sovereignty, government, and economic and global stability.
3
Geocriminology (neologism from the author) studies the rivalries of power within a given territory in its political,
social, economic, geographic, and perceived dimensions (i.e., the emotional and spiritual dimension of
a territory forging the Nation and by extension what is rightfully “mine” e.g., Los Angeles gang outbursts and
Mexican cartels confrontation) through interactions between illicit flows, their actors, and the legal sphere.
It also covers the use of illicit means by legal actors. These actions, inherently illegal but considered legitimate,
are covered by the reason of state. Mickaël R. Roudaut, "Marchés criminels—un acteur global", PUF,
coll. Questions judiciaires, May 2010, 304p, "Géopolitique de l'illicite", Diplomatie no. 50, May–June 2011,
"Géopolitique de la crise, des monnaies et de la fraude", Diplomatie no. 55, March–April 2012, "Géopolitique
de l'illicite : une nouvelle grammaire", in Géographie des conflits (Dir. Béatrice Giblin), La Documentation
française, May 2012, "In Narco Veritas? Géocriminologie du Mexique et de sa région. Marchés criminels,
économie et État", Sécurité Globale no. 21, automn 2012, "Sécurité intérieure et crime organisé au XXIe siècle:
un essai de typologie" in Sécurité intérieure—Les nouveaux défis (Dir. Frédéric Debove & Olivier Renaudie),
June 2013, "La multiplication et la diversification des acteurs illicites" in Questions internationales no. 63, September–October
2013, "Kaboul–Paris: voyage d'un gramme d'héroïne—Pouvoir et puissance de l'économie
du pavot", Géoéconomie no. 68, January 2014.
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