Glimmers of Cosmopolitan Criminology

Abstract

The sheer international variability of crime can make international criminology more interesting and revealing than national criminologies. Crime is a phenomenon that cascades from hot-spot to hot-spot, often across borders, giving it some transnational characteristics and some regional clustering. This article makes a case that sometimes international levers are more potent for national crime prevention than national ones. An inference is that criminology must savour a more cosmopolitan imaginary. Violence and corporate crime are used to discuss the methodological and policy challenges that can be cracked to open up glimmers of hope through international criminology.