T8; GREEN CRIME

- GREEN CRIME DEFINITON -Global risk society + the enviroment; BECK - Green criminology; trad (SITU + EMMONS) v rad green (WHITE) - two views of harm - WHITE (eco/human-centric) - types of green crime; primary + secondary -> SOUTH, BRIDGLAND, DAY

Green or environmental crime can be defined as….

Crimes against the environment

What can green crime can be linked to?

globalisation and the increasing interconnectedness, regardless of division of nation-states, planet = one single eco-system

threats to the eco-system are increasingly global rather…

than merely local in nature e.g atmospheric pollution → acid rain or Chernobyl

Global risk society' and the environment; In today's late modern society we can now provide adequate resources for all (at least in the developed countries). However, what has the massive increase in productivity and the technology that sustains it have created new according to BECK?

• manufactured risks → involve harm to the environment and its consequences for humanity, such as global heating caused by greenhouse gas emissions from industry.

As many of these manufactured risks are global rather than local in nature, what does Beck use to describe late modern society as?

global risk society

What’s an example of how the global nature of human-made risk can produce crime and disorder of which the same time international speculators were engaging in what the World Development Movement called 'gambling on hunger in financial markets' ?

• place, year

• Started in ? → global risk→ effect → consequence → major harm→ global harm

• Knock on effect → place → local issue because global risk→ effect due to interconnectedness→ local effect

• Mozambique in 2010.

• Started in Russia → global heating → hottest heatwave of cen. → wildfires → destroyed grain belts → shortage led to intro export bans + push up world price of grain

• Knock on effect → Mozambique → own harvest = hit by drought because global heating→ plus dependent on food imports, price of bread risen by 30% → extensive rioting + looting of food stores, at least a dozen dead

Green criminology → legal ‘crime’ committed - is this a matter for criminologists? (1/2)

Two opposed answers:

• __________ criminology has _____ been concerned with such behaviour, since its subject matter is defined by the ______ _____ and ___ ____has been _______. w/ supp of SITU + EMMONS definition of environmental crime, what does it investigate?

  • advantages + disadvantages

• traditional criminology has not been concerned with such behaviour, since its subject matter is defined by the criminal law, and no law has been broken.

  • Situ and Emmons (2000) define environmental crime as 'an unauthorised act or omission that violates the law'.

  • investigates the patterns and causes of law breaking.

• Advantages? clearly defined subject matter

• Disadvantages? criticised for accepting official definitions of environmental problems and crimes → shaped by powerful groups such as big business to serve their own interests.

Green criminology → legal ‘crime’ committed - is this a matter for criminologists? (1/2)

Two opposed answers:

• What takes a more radical approach starting from the notion of harm rather than criminal law? w/ supp of WHITE

• Green criminology

• White (2008) argues that the proper subject of criminology is any action that harms the physical environment and/or the human and non-human animals within it, even if no law has been broken.

As many of the worst environmental harms are not illegal, what does green criminology takes the form of due to its wider subject matter than trad criminology? What is this approach known as?

• transgressive criminology - it oversteps (transgresses) the boundaries of traditional criminology to include new issues.

• 'zemiology - literally, the study of harms.

  
  

Why is Green criminology more advantageous than traditional in regards to different countries having different laws so criminality of harmful actions fluctuate?

• Legal definitions cannot provide a consistent standard of harm, since they are the product of individual nation-states and their political processes.

• By moving away from a legal definition, therefore, green criminology can develop a global perspective on environmental harm.

What is the Green criminology approach similar to in regards to their argument that the capitalist class are able to shape the law and define crime? What do they state?

• Marxist view of 'crimes of the powerful’

• Similarly, green criminologists argue that powerful interests, especially nation-states and transnational corporations, are able to define in their own interests what counts as unacceptable environmental harm.

What view do nation-states and transnational corporations adopt according to White (2008)? What does the view assumes that humans have a right of?

• anthropocentric or human-centred view of environmental harm.

• dominate nature for their own ends, and puts economic growth before the environment.

What view does WHITE contrast w/ human=centred view of environmental harm? What does it see humans as?

• an ecocentric view that sees humans and their environment as interdependent, therefore both liable to exploitation esp. by global cap

What view does Green criminology adopt as the basis for judging environmental harm?

the ecocentric view

Who classifies green crimes into two types? What are they?

• SOUTH

• primary and secondary

What is primary crime? 'crimes that result _______ from the destruction and degradation of the earth's resources'.

directly

South identifies what four main types of primary crime?

• Crimes of…-fossil fuels, climate change

• Crimes of…- 1/_ rainforest destroyed e.g via illegal logging, __ against war on drugs but destroyed food, contamination of water

• Crimes of …

• Crimes of …- …

• Crimes of air pollution -fossil fuels, climate change

• Crimes of deforestation - 1/5 rainforest destroyed e.g via illegal logging, pesticide against war on drugs but destroyed food, contamination of water

• Crimes of species decline and animal abuse

• Crimes of water pollution- the deepwater horizon oil spill

What is Secondary green crime?

• crime that grows out of the ____ of rules aimed at preventing or regulating environmental disasters e.g govs often break their own regulations and cause environmental harms.

flouting (intentional disregard)

What two examples of secondary crimes are given by SOUTH?

• state… ; supp w/ DAY

• hazardous…; What type of character does it have according to BRIDGLAND?

  • 3 exs highlighting that - tsunami, costs, transnational companies

• State violence against oppositional groups → condemn terrorism but take similar measures themselves; DAY ex. of nuclear power/weapons = justified w/ policies anyone who disagrees = enemies

• Hazardous waste and organised crime → disposal of chemical, nuclear + other industries = profitable, expenses → dispose waste illegally.

  • globalised - EX. OF 2004 tsunami washed up radioactive barrels of waste from EU companies on the shores of Somalia

    • Cost of disposal (incentive) = cheaper in other countries, highly unsafe → may lack necessary legislation outlawing it

    • Similarly, transnational corporation = offlad products e.g not approved FDA pharmaceuticals onto markets in poorer countries after they have been banned on safety grounds in the West.

what does illegal waste disposal illustrate the problems of?

law enforcement in a globalised world

how does South (2020) describe the fact that poorer groups are worse affected by pollution?

• via Environmental discrimination e.g Black communities USA housing → next to garbage dumps or polluting industries.

What are some evaluations of green criminology?

• Both the strengths and the weaknesses of green criminology arise ….

• Positive → it recognises the growing importance of environmental issues and the need to address the harms and risks of environmental damage, both to humans and non-human animals.

• Negative?

  • How can this be fixed? Why is this not desirable for green criminologists/critics?

• from its focus on global environmental concerns.

• However, focus → broader concept of harms rather than simply on legally defined crimes → hard to define the boundaries of its field of study

• defining these boundaries

  • involves making moral or political statements about which actions ought to be regarded as wrong. Critics argue that this is a matter of values and cannot be established objectively.