Crime Control and Penology (Book Review Sample)

Topic: Crime Control and Penology
Student’s Name:
Professor’s Name:
Task: Book Review
Date Due:
Article Review: Daniel Silverstone (2010). The Policing of Vietnamese Organized Crime within the UK
Introduction
For the previous period of years, starting 2007 up to 2008, there have been studies on the topic of policing concerning the Vietnamese organized crimes. Daniel Silverstone’s article gives a comprehensive study on the impact of such organized crimes in the UK. The article suggests that issues of conventional policing approaches to solve this problem are flawed, since there are many issues blocking the real strategies being put in place. The author in his work then went ahead to suggest some strategies of which the community might engage themselves in to help rescue the Vietnamese victims, who are mostly affected by such policies. In this book, the author is really trying to point out how the policies and law enforcements are being biased to the Vietnamese community, and yet they might not be the real perpetrators of such crimes. The crimes talked about are cannabis cultivation, of which are practiced in Canada and UK, which is basically done by a collaboration of many cartels, and yet the poor and minority (Vietnamese) are the victims of law enforcement orders. These victims languish in prison at the expense of the real perpetrators, who continue enjoying their freedom in the outside world. This therefore forms the basis of the author’s argument, as he tries to qualitatively give out some reasons behind his argument.
Body
According to Silverstone’s research on the Vietnamese community, he was able to figure out that it is indeed true the problem of cannabis cultivation was growing rapidly starting from 2002 (Silverstone, 2010). The goes ahead to state that a major Metropolitan Police crackdown was implemented in 2006, title ‘Operation Keymer’, which targeted at rooting out these criminal gangs that practiced cannabis farming (ACPO, 2006). The key issue that the author tries to bring out is that long period that the legal authority, in conjunction with Metropolitan Police took to respond to this issue, even after such cases were reported starting from 2002. Silverstone goes ahead to indicate that these enforcements continued actively, and that around ‘2000’ cannabis planting firms were raided in England and Wales, in the year 2007 (ACPD, 2008a). The figure of these firms are so alarming that calls for question of what the police were really doing on the ground up to when such firms rose to these levels.
The author goes ahead to point out that the Serious Organized Crime Agency of 2009, stated that cannabis factories are majorly run and governed by the Vietnamese gangs’ (Daly, 2007). This is caused form the perspective that most Vietnamese had no good background on education, and the only activity they could majorly engage themselves in is drug business. It is also stated that most of these groups came from Canada, thus bringing the ideas of farming such drugs in very skilled patterns. However, there is no real evidence to point to such evidence. Daniel, in his work also stated that this business is very much profitable, since each house might b turned to cannabis producing factory, and thus the annual profits obtained from it could amount to hundreds of millions of pounds (Robinson, 2007). The author in this section has tried to use some case study based on available source data to clarify the benefits behind such business. The idea of which only the poor Vietnamese farmers are convicted and sent to prisons, on charges of drug trafficking is not justified, since it does not really solve the problem. The reason behind this is that there might be some sources from within that are really promoting such activities. The authors in his article states that the activities of smuggling people into the foreign coutries are predominant, hence the majority of the population smuggled to UK work within such firms as means of repaying the fee incurred while smuggling them in. the transaction fees are estimated to be between 12,500 pounds and 15,000 pounds (IOM,2006). If truth has to be told, these secret players should be the ones to be sent to prisons.
Looking at these aspects being suggested by the author (Silverstone), his arguments are valid. One can really get the reason as to why he wrote this article, since he is really precise to the point. He wrote this article basing on the facts, such as the profits obtained by the transactions of such businesses did involve the legal banks accounts, and in particularly, the accounts held by the students (Silverstone, 2010). The author is able to clarify that the Vietnamese community is being biased upon, since they are assisted to come into the UK by Special Forces in the UK system, and yet these forces are not touched. The author is however biased to some extent on his stand, since this community (Vietenamese) has a lot to be blamed for. The reason for this is that this generation completely have no clean records of their background, and hence, this makes it hard for them to be deported back to their country to be tried legally there (Bellett, 2008). Due to lack of such background roots of the criminals, the UK is thus justified in judging them accordingly without being questioned by the external international forces.
The author states that the Vietnamese community that is being involved in cultivating cannabis in Canada is basically concentrated in British Colombia and that this figure is approximately 30,000, which is the legal Vietnamese community in UK (Coss-Hernadez, 2005). This figure can be interpreted to be more valid and reliable; as compared to other authors who might just provide such figures without have the base evidence. To add more weight on its reliability, the author further states that this industry has grown tremendously, and generates an approximate of 2 billion dollars per annum (Easton, 2004). The author has achieved in stating some reasons as to why such annum incomes continues rising up. For instance, the cartels running such activities are protected by some company policies. There is a policy of secrecy, of which, the company has the right to completely deny any legal firm access to its transaction (FACT, 2009). According to the author, such firms, like the one supplying electricity to these firms should help the legal framework in identifying the areas where such illegal activities are held, but instead these companies protect these drug dealers. This therefore justifies the author’s argument and hence making his work more reliable to be used for further research (NPIA, 2009).
The author’s work also reflects the real aspects of economy and general GDP of the country involved. Transactions of drug businesses such as cannabis farming involves a lot of cash, hence there is a lot of circulation of foreign currencies in the market. The action that might be taken by the respective law enforcing agencies, such as freezing the accounts of the drug loads might require a lot of cash, whereby the final impact might be sent to the tax payer. This forms the main stumbling blocks in the way of justice, hence making it hard to reach the big dealers in this illegal business. The rewards from this business are quite convincing, and can lead to more need of increasing its roots. For instance, the authors states in the article that starting from 2000/2001, the number of previous illegal migrants to the UK through smuggling have been increasing throughout (IOM, 2006). This contributes to the reason as to why there are slow rates of reducing such activities in UK and yet there is an increase on the number of reported cases, despite the tough condition on the land (Gilmour, 2008).
Basing on the author’s work, the analytical framework over which these cases are solved is based on the complexion and color of the suspects. It is understood that racism plays a role here, since by the fact of one being a Vietnamese doest justify one as a criminal, not unless proven so. Majority of kingpins in this business are people from the UK, themselves, and they are also protected by their own legal firms through corruption. In as much as they might be known they are not sent to prisons, but instead the Vietnamese are subjected to such sentences, since it is believed that they have literally less to offer in their lives (Sims, 2007). The author also goes a head to state that the general history of emerging crime threats are littered with exaggerations, which are also tinged with various racial prejudices (Woodiwis, 2009). This justifies why majority of people languishing in UK prisons are Vietnamese, and yet they are not the only people involved in such illegal activities. Some of them might be arrested without committing ant crimes, and since they have no one to help them get out of these situations, they languish in prisons, paying for the crimes committed by someone else.
In relation to the field, an individual would most likely do what he or she can deliver in order to earn a living. Daniel in his article goes a head to state that from his research, there is enough evidence that those involved in the art of cultivating cannabis are ‘mono-ethnic’ (Ruggerio, 2006). In relation to the history, education levels in Vietnam are not up to great standards, hence this makes it really heard for a Vietnamese international to be employed in a legal UK firm. The only options these migrants can involved themselves in are the ones stated above, hence justifies the reason as to why a majority of them are sent to prisons. This therefore brings out the message of having practical knowledge, of which the author has successfully communicated to its audience. To be competitive in market enough, there is need to have at least some training of some kind, ...