Green Crime

What is transgressive criminology?

Looks at wider definitions of crime, considering the harm caused, not just the breaking of state laws.

What is the anthropocentric view?

• Focuses on harm to the environment from a human perspective.

• Pollution is a problem because it damages the human water supply and causes diseases, leading to expensive solutions.

• Climate change is a problem because of its impact on people and the economic costs of addressing it.

What is an ethnocentric view?

• Considers harm to any aspect of the environment as harm to all of it.

• Crimes like animal cruelty or habitat destruction are green crimes, regardless of specific human costs.

What is the link between globalisation and green crime?

Environmental crimes are global, with actions in one location having knock-on effects worldwide.

What is policing green crime?

• Difficult because an act may not be a crime in one location but affect another.

• Identifying blame can also be challenging.

What are definitions of green crime?

• Traditional criminology

• Transgressive criminology

What is traditional criminology?

• Situ and Emmons (2000) define green crime as an unauthorised act or omission that violates the law of a state or nation.

• Similar to other crime studies, it looks at patterns and causes of lawbreaking.

• This definition would not consider global warming or acid rain as crimes since they don't break laws.

What is transgressive criminology?

• Focuses more on the harm caused by certain acts to determine criminality.

• White (2008) argues that green crime is any action that harms the physical environment and/or human/non-human animals, even if no law has been broken.

What is global and manufactured risk?

• Beck (1992) argues that society now has the resources for the developing world, but technology creates new manufactured risks, harming the environment and humans.

• Greenhouse gases from manufacturing lead to global warming, which is global rather than local.

Who is the thinker for types of green crime?

Nigel South (2014)

What is primary green crime?

Crimes that are the direct result of the destruction and degradation of the Earth's resources.

What is an example of primary green crime?

Air pollution, deforestation, species decline, animal abuse, and water pollution.

What is secondary green crime?

Crimes resulting from the flouting of rules aimed at preventing or regulating environmental disasters.

What are examples of secondary green crime?

State violence against environmental groups, hazardous waste, organised crime, and environmental discrimination.

Who has a theory about victims of green crime?

Wolf

What did Wolf say about victims of green crime?

Those in the developing world, the poor, and ethnic minorities are more likely to be victims due to an inability to move from areas like toxic dumping sites.

Who are the perpetrators of green crime?

• Individuals

• Businesses

• Governments

• Organised crime

Why are individuals perpetrators of green crime?

Individuals have a cumulative effect on the environment; their acts may not have an immediate impact, but soon add up. E.g., littering or fly-tipping.

Why are businesses perpetrators of green crime?

Environmental crime is a typical form of corporate crime; large corporations are responsible for the majority of water, air, and land pollution due to waste dumping and health and safety breaches.

Why are governments perpetrators of green crime?

Santana (2002) points out that the military is the biggest institutional polluter through unexploded bombs and the lasting effects of toxic chemicals.

Why are organised crime groups perpetrators of green crime?

Organised crime has a longstanding relationship with green crime, often in collusion with governments and industry through contracts for waste disposal, for example.

What is the evaluation of green crimes?

• It is very difficult to study green crime as there is no agreed-upon definition.

• It is also difficult to assess the impact of green crime, as it can have a long-term impact.

• Much of the research is based on case studies.

• Green crime can be accompanied by greater value judgments due to a lack of agreed-upon definitions.