5.10 green crime

• term coined by Lynch, refers to crime committed against the environment

• Green criminologists are transgressive criminologists: crime is something that cases crime, not always something that breaks laws

• some argue that globalisation plays an important factor in green crime, as pollution crosses national borders

• Becks idea of global risk society, these issues are a risk to the whole world. Many of these are manufactured by contemporary society

2 different green perceptions of harm (White)

anthropocentric

• Harm from the perspective of humanity. E.g damages water supply, leads to large economic costs

Ecocentric

• does not distinguish between humans and the rest of the ecosystem, harm to any part of the environment is harm to all of it

Primary and secondary green crime (Nigel South)

primary green crime = crimes that are committed directly against the environment or acts that cause harm. E.g pollution, deforestation

Secondary green crime = crime that grows is not directly related to the environment. E.g violence against environmental groups, bribery to avoid regulations

Evaluation

• difficulty with categorisation. By focusing on ‘harm’ it’s more subjective. So cannot come to a conclusion on what is/ isnt green crime

• Secondary green crime is not a useful explanation, the links to environmental issues are incidental. So its just explaining regular crime

Links

• power and stratification - the more significant and global crime are committed by the most powerful