Criminal Business Relationships Between Commodity Regions and Industrialized Countries: The Hard Road From Raw Material to New Technology

Abstract

Extractive industries often cause serious environmental harm, and even social harm, to the local populations of the commodity regions, especially in the Global South. The increasing demand and extraction of raw materials needed for the production of new technologies in the Global North is a specific case of this, which emphasizes asymmetrical global economic conditions. This article describes these harmful commodity relationships and presents the meaning behind the increase in the demand for and production of raw materials. The case of lithium is offered as an example of this development. Further, in the article, it is suggested that the lack of regulation and control promotes a series of deviant and criminal practices which can be systematically organized for criminological analysis. The harm caused by this industry, by its part, is presented as well, as well as a first categorization of its impact on the local population even in terms of human rights violations. Instead of a conclusion, an invitation to the study of these renewed forms of exploitation and victimization is made to criminologists, and especially, to criminologists from the particular regions that benefit from the development of new, innovative “clean” technologies.