Introduction

Crimes that have potential or actual effect across national borders and they are intrastate but offend fundamental values of the global community are referred to as the transnational crimes. On the other hand, international crimes entail the act of committing a crime that violates the fundamental interest that has been protected by the international law (Langer, 2011).International crimes are those crimes which have a great concern to the communities globally with the main crimes being those that are against humanity, war crimes and genocide among others.

This paper entails the discussion of international and transnational crimes. In this regard, one international crime and one transnational crime will be discussed and then there will be an application of criminological theory to explain each of these crimes. Genocide will be discussed as the international crime in this study while the transnational crime will be human trafficking. Additionally, general strain theory will be used to explain genocide while Sheldon’s body theory will be used to explain human trafficking such as organ trafficking.

William Sheldon’s body theory and Robert Agnew’s general strain theory

Sheldon‘s body theory is going to be used in to explain transnational crime (human trafficking) in this study. It was developed by William Sheldon who was a psychologist from America and the theory was based on associating delinquency, personality and physique (Currie & Rikhof, 2013). Sheldon was influenced by the practicality of being an American psychologist and philosopher as well as being a naturalist having studied animals he was convinced that there were biological foundations that were linked to psychological makeup of humans. There were three body types that were used by Sheldon to classify people: endomorphs are people who have the tendency toward a personality that is “viscerotonic” (extroverted, relaxed and comfortable) and they are soft and rounded; mesomorphs are people who are muscular and square and their tendency is toward a personality that is “somotonic” (aggressive, assertive, dynamic and active) while those who are thin and fine boned have a “tendency toward a personality that is “cerebrotonic” (sensitive, inihibited, thoughtful and introverted) (Natarajan,2010). This system of classification was later used to explain delinquent behavior in that there was a likelihood for delinquents to be low in ectomorphy and high in mesomorphy with the argument that delinquency and criminal behavior by mesomorphy’s was caused by associated temperaments. Despite his ground breaking research, his sample was criticized in that they were not proper representatives and there was a mistake in correlation by associating it with causation.

General strain theory was developed by Robert Agnew will be used to explain international crime in this study. This theory is built on studying the way society functions when they cannot reach a common goal. This goal is called the “American dream” white picket fence, married, good job with the dog possibly. Agnew recognized that this theory was based on possible elements that can cause strain in society moreso the youth. In this regard, the society emphasizes on some of the socially desirable goals although there are no adequate opportunities for these goals to be achieved through legitimate means (Obokata, 2010). This means that when some members face financial strain and at the same time are focused on achieving material success, they end up in criminal activities in order to achieve goals which are socially desirable. This assumption is supported by Agnew although he believes that there are other factors that incite criminal behavior when dealing with the youth. He explains that there are negative experiences that result to stress and not only those which are financially related. According to Agnew, some of the characteristics that can lead to crime are: strains being associated with high magnitude, association of strains with low social control, creation of some pressure or incentive to engage in criminal coping by strains and strains being seen as unjust (Currie & Rikhof,2013).

International and transnational crime – definition and example

The crimes which will be analyzed in this study are the international and transnational crimes. International crimes are those crimes which have a great concern to the communities globally (Langer, 2011). The main crimes are crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide among others. There are a range of international agreements and conventions that have been used to define these crimes such as the first Hague Conventions during the end of 19^th century. It entailed establishing rules for military conduct in times of wartime. There was extension of criminal responsibility by these agreements not just to the direct perpetrators of a crime but also those who allowed, planned and commanded the crimes to take place. There are a range of international and national courts that have been used to prosecute international crimes. The establishment of international criminal court took place in Rome Statute in 1998 and is based in Hague has jurisdiction over all the international and national courts. The definition of genocide is having “the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. On the other hand, war crimes are “serious violations of the laws and customs applicable” in armed conflicts that are both international and non-international.

This study will evaluate genocide as one of the examples of international crime. In Rwanda, there has always been an ethnic tension as a result of disagreements between the Hutus and Tutsis with the majority being the Hutus while the minority is the Tutsis. Since colonial period, the animosity between the two communities has grown immensely (Clark, 2004). There is a lot of similarity between the two communities since they inhabit the same areas, speak the same language and follow the same traditions. However, compared to the Hutus, the Tutsis are often taller and thinner with some theories that they originate from Ethiopia. During the genocide, the Tutsis had their bodies thrown into the rivers with the killers claiming to send them back to Ethiopia. In 1916, when the Belgian colonists arrived, they classified people according to their ethnicity by producing identity cards. According to the Belgians, the Tutsis were superior to the Hutus and this idea was surprisingly welcomed by the Tutsis and they enjoyed better educational opportunities and better jobs for the next 20 years than the Hutus. Eventually, the resentment among the Hutus built up gradually which resulted in a series of riots in 1959 with at least 20,000 Tutsis being killed while others fled to the neighboring countries Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda (Langer, 2011). In 1962, Belgium relinquished power and granted Rwanda independence which led to the Hutus taking their place. In the subsequent decades, the Tutsis were seen as the scapegoats in cases where there were crises.

Transnational crimes results to involved parties violating the law and involves more than one country when they are being planned and executed. The distinction of these offenses from others is based on their multinational nature which leads to difficulties in trying to understand what causes them, coming up with strategies to prevent them and mounting effective procedures for adjudication. There are three categories that are used to group transnational crimes. The first one involves provision of illicit goods such as counterfeiting, trafficking of weapons, trafficking in stolen property and drug trafficking (Currie & Rikhof, 2013). The second group is illicit services and they involve human trafficking and commercial sex while the third group involves infiltration of government and business that affects various countries such as corruption, money laundering and fraud. There is a difference between international crimes and transnational crime since international crimes involves crimes which are against humanity and they may not necessarily involve multiple countries.

The transnational crime that will be discussed in this study is the issue of human trafficking which is in the category of illicit services. Human trafficking involves tapping people by using violence, coercion or deception and exploiting them for personal or financial gain. In most cases, human trafficking involves girls being forced into sexual exploitation, men accepting job offers which are risky and being trapped in factories, building sites and farms as well as women being trapped into private homes where they are forced to work and are abused and exploited behind closed doors without a way out. Natarajan (2010) explains that the most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation and it represents 79% of types of human trafficking with sexual exploitation victims being mostly girls and women. Forced labor is the second most common form of human trafficking. In as much as people have the notion that human trafficking involves moving people across continents, this may not be the case since most exploitation takes place within the country.  Organ trafficking is part of human trafficking and is the practice of killing an individual for their organs to be purchased by someone for use. People aren’t always killed for their organs, some are already dead, and some folks sell their own organs to foreigners. In China, there are reports of the use of organs that have been removed from executed prisoners, with most of these organs thought to be allocated to foreigners. A major reason organs are being trafficked and sold is due to the supply and demand. So many people need organs in order to live obviously, but in addition you have people that only have three months to live. These people cannot wait three months or will never get an organ from hospital before their time is up.

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Application of Strain theory to Genocide crime

In regards to the application of strain theory to genocide, Obokata (2010) explains that some of the crimes committed in the society such as suicide are influenced by the community’s characteristics and is independent of the specific individuals who live in such communities. For decades, some countries have been known to have high cases if suicide compared to others. In this case, genocide was as a result of the differences between the Hutus and the Tutsis (community characteristics). The degree of group unity in the society as well as the amount of regulation in the society can lead to cases of suicide as well as people killing each other. Deviant behavior in the society is caused by social change and social integration. This is as a result of the society undergoing rapid changes which leads to norms being unclear thus resulting to a state of lacking ethical standards in the community. It is a state where the society fails to have an effective regulation of the behaviors and expectations of its members thus resulting to a state of normlessness (Currie & Rikhof, 2013). Societies which are functioning better, have restrained ambitions and human needs with their regulations being conducted in a collective order. Strain theory is motivated by emotion which is the main element that leads to crime in a given society.  The emotions between the Hutus and the Tutsis had built up which led to the killings among themselves. The main aspect that resulted to the fights between the two communities was the fact that the Tutsis were superior to the Hutus and they ended up enjoying better life than the Hutus. In this regard, the Tutsis enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities compared to the Hutus which led to the Hutus being strained as they desired the lifestyle of the Tutsis. Therefore, the financial stain and the desire to live a desirable lifestyle among the Hutus led to the genocide whereby many Tutsis were killed.

On the other hand, Sheldon’s body theory and its application to human trafficking are based on somatotyping.  According to Sheldon, somatotypes are used to measure the physique of humans. The physical dimensions of a human can be used to influence his or her behavior. There is a relationship between physique and individual behavior in regards to criminality. Mody Mass Index has been used as the main proxy measure of the somatotype of the individuals (Langer, 2011). Sheldon’s body theory is composed of three parts and it explains that a criminal has a certain body type. Sheldon believes that the body shape and psyche go hand-in-hand. “Endomorphs have a round shape, Mesomorphs have muscular bodies and ectomorphs have a thin flat chest.” According to Sheldon the subject that is more likely to commit crime is mesomorph. This subject displays dominance, power and boldness. “Mesomorph individuals who had muscular builds tend to take more risks and have personality traits that predict criminality.”

Limitations

Despite strain theory attempting to attribute the society maintenance to the role relationships, Clark (2004) explains that the theory does not put into consideration the existence of more complex social settings especially in the case of urban life. There are no various aspects of the urban life that are considered when evaluating strain theory for instance some of the individuals not accepting any of the central values of the society and their variation in emotional commitment to the values of the society. Also, there is no explanation on how changes in their role relationships take place when changes take place in their social positions to how their relationships are during times of crisis.

One of the main limitations of Sheldon’s body theory is that it was based on the general assumption that the continuity between behavior and structure and a set of descriptive concepts in measuring behavior and physique is in a scaled manner.  It is evident that somatotype research by Sheldon is now used in criminology. However, his ways of collecting somatotypes cannot make it to the 21^st century (Langer, 2011). Additionally, there is lack of practicality in taking photographs of naked subjects while there was a high degree of subjectivity that marred the original somatotype. Moreover, the somatotype was marred by poor operationalisation, conceptualization and the resulting metrics which led to production of non-mutually exclusive measurements. This means that there is little empirical utility that exists. A couple of limitations come into play when speaking about Sheldon’s body type theory. The first is that not only mesomorph body types commit crimes. There are way too many people in this world to single out one body type. Additionally, the description for all three body types doesn’t exactly mean that all people act that way.

Policy Implication

Strain theory has indicated that there are different types of strain that may lead to delinquency with the main principle being that strain results in creation of pressures that require coping behaviors. However, there are some conditions that lead to deviant coping behaviors. There are strain conditions that may be as a result of various institutions in the society other than the economy. Therefore, what can be derived from this theory is that policy makers need to primarily focus on those with the strongest relationships to delinquency and crime as well as those that are cost effective. It is worth noting that behaviors that are strained can result to crime when high magnitude, seen as unjust, create pressure or incentive  for criminal coping and associated with low social control. As such, it is advisable for interventions to focus on these types of strains and should focus on minimizing them, thus reducing deviant adaptations. Additionally, the policy makers should pay more attention on improving the ability of the youth to cope with different types of strain (Langer, 2011).

It is worth noting that in case of crimes, such as human trafficking that relates to Sheldon’s theory, physique is not the cause of crime. Despite physique being an intervening element, criminals need to determine what it is with mesomorphy which is associated with criminology. Additionally, it is essential to have an idea of how the work of Sheldon will be continued in regards to somatotypes.

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Conclusion

International crimes are those crimes which have a great concern to the communities globally. They include crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide among others. Genocide is the main example used in the study as an international crime. It was caused by ethnic tension in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis. They had a lot of similarities as they spoke the same language, lived in the same areas and had same traditions. However, there were riots in 1959 due to the difference in social class between the Tutsis and the Hutus. Genocide is associated with strain theory and it entails a state where the society fails to have an effective regulation of the behaviors and expectations of its members thus resulting to a state of normlessness. The main aspect that resulted to the fights between the two communities was the fact that the Tutsis were superior to the Hutus and they ended up enjoying better life than the Hutus. policy makers need to primarily focus on those with the strongest relationships to delinquency and crime as well as those that are cost effective. It is worth noting that behaviors that are strained can result to crime when high magnitude, seen as unjust, create pressure or incentive  for criminal coping and associated with low social control. Therefore, it is advisable for interventions to focus on these types of strains and should focus on minimizing them, thus reducing deviant adaptations.

Transnational crimes results to involved parties violating the law and involves more than one country when they are being planned and executed. They can be grouped into three categories which are; illicit services, illicit goods and infiltration of government and business that affects various countries such as corruption, money laundering and fraud. Human trafficking was discussed and it involves tapping people by using violence, coercion or deception and exploiting them for personal or financial gain. Organ trafficking is part of human trafficking and is the practice of killing an individual for their organs to be purchased by someone for use. People aren’t always killed for their organs, some are already dead, and some folks sell their own organs to foreigners. Humman trafficking is associated with Sheldon’s body theory and according to Sheldon the subject that is more likely to commit crime is mesomorph. However, not only mesomorph body types commit crimes. There are way too many people in this world to single out one body type. Therefore, it is crucial for policy makers to note that physique is not the cause of crime.

References

Clark, R. S. (2004). The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. Wayne L. Rev., 50, 161.

Currie, R., & Rikhof, J. (2013). International & transnational criminal law.

Langer, M. (2011). The diplomacy of universal jurisdiction: The political branches and the transnational prosecution of international crimes. American Journal of International Law, 105(1), 1-49.

Natarajan, M. (Ed.). (2010). International crime and justice. Cambridge University Press.

Obokata, T. (2010). Transnational organised crime in international law. Bloomsbury Publishing.

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