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Green Criminology: Reflections, Connections, Horizons
Abstract and Figures
This paper traces aspects of the development of a ‘green’ criminology. It starts with personal
reflections and then describes the emergence of explicit statements of a green criminological
perspective. Initially these statements were independently voiced, in different parts of the
world but they reflected shared concerns. These works have found unification as a ‘green’,
‘eco‐global’ or ‘conservation’ criminology. The paper reviews the classifications available
when talking about not only legally‐defined crimes but also legally perpetrated harms, as
well as typologies of such harms and crimes. It then looks at the integration of ‘green’ and
‘traditional’ criminological thinking before briefly exploring four dimensions of concern for
today and the future.
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... White (2009) stated that insufficient environmental pollution regulations and concealment or systematic denial of environmental damage are widely exercised by state agencies operated or funded by business elites. According to South (2014b), air polluters aim to exploit the conditions that follow environmental damage (e.g., convenient removal of crop residue towards open burning) or to violate environmental laws and regulations for gains. Banzhaf et al. (2019) reported that there is a relationship between air pollution and corruption, the misuse of power for personal gains. ...
Since PM2.5 pollution is often considered an environmental crime, this study proposes a green criminological framework for PM2.5 pollution prevention in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region based on the problem-solving approach for crime prevention. Three data collection methods were applied in this study: documentary research, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. There were 26 participants in total. Qualitative content analysis was employed to identify the significant patterns embedded in the collected data. According to the research findings, challenges to PM2.5 pollution mitigation were classified into three regulatory voids: political voids, institutional voids, and knowledge voids. Combining the possible solutions to the regulatory voids and suggestions from all three data sources, alternative solutions to the PM2.5 crisis were conceptualized into a green criminological framework for PM2.5 pollution prevention. The solutions are based on environmental crime prevention approaches, including socio-legal, regulatory, and social action strategies. These approaches emphasize the enhancement of environmental laws and law enforcement, investments in public infrastructure, land use planning, application of economic incentives and technological solutions, and public participation in pollution monitoring.
... Whyte argues that even if it would be possible to estimate these costs, there are cases in which the damages are so great that they could and should not be reduced to a financial number, such as ecocide, the global climate crisis, or genocide. As green criminologists point out, the costs of socioenvironmental harms are frequently known only many years after the economic activity has stopped (South, 2014). Sometimes, the corporation has already moved to another region or country. ...
This article highlights the relevance, the potential, and the limitations of environmental restorative justice in addressing the harms experienced by asbestos victims. Starting from case studies related to three different subsidiaries of Eternit in Belgium, Italy, and Brazil, the article identifies some of the main challenges to understand the harms caused by asbestos from the perspective of the victims, the problem with their identification, and to identify whom the perpetrators are. The last section is dedicated to pondering how the demands for justice by the people affected to asbestos-related diseases meets strong difficulties, but they also offer some perspective of restorative responses. Resumen Este artículo destaca la relevancia, el potencial y las limitaciones de la justicia res-taurativa ambiental para abordar los daños experimentados por las víctimas del amianto. Partiendo de estudios de casos relacionados con tres filiales diferentes de Eternit en Bélgica, Italia y Brasil, el artículo aborda algunos de los principales retos para entender los daños causados por el amianto desde la perspectiva de las víctimas, el problema de su identificación y la individualización de quiénes son los culpables. La última parte está dedicada a reflexionar sobre cómo las demandas de justicia por parte de las personas afectadas por las enfermedades relacionadas con el amianto encuentran fuertes dificultades, pero también ofrecen algunas perspectivas de respuestas reparadoras. Palabras clave Amianto; justicia restaurativa medioambiental; delitos medioambientales; daños medioambientales, victimización.
... Although green criminology finds it origins in the social justice perspectives articulated by Lynch (1990) and South (1998South ( , 2014, it remains the case that procedural justice often dominates the conceptual landscape of the criminological imagination. James Heydon, in his article "Procedural Environmental Justice," expertly captures and describes the ways in which environmental justice perspectives might find in procedural systems the opportunity to democratize human-environment interactions. ...
April 22, 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day [...]
... Atendiendo a lo ya descrito en el presente apartado nos centraremos en analizar cómo el impacto derivado de un incremento en los niveles de acidificación del manto azul del planeta puede afectar al equilibrio existente. Los estudios eco criminológicos abordan no únicamente los hechos tipificados en las normas penales, sino que, además, analizan aquellas conductas que, inclusive se encuentren legalmente autorizadas, siempre que generen daños ambientales que puedan suponer un riesgo para los ecosistemas en los que se encuentren (Brisman & South, 2019, 2020South, 2014). De esta forma observamos cómo el concepto de víctima también se contextualiza en un sentido amplio, donde atendiendo al enfoque ecosistémico, cualquier especie que se encuentre en el ecosistema afectado puede ser víctima del daño producido, bien sea directa como indirectamente (Hall & Varona, 2018). ...
las amenazas globales que afectan a la salud planetaria han sido analizadas por la comunidad científica poniendo de relevancia la configuración de los límites planetarios. Algunos de estos no han sido tenidos en cuenta en la elaboración de mecanismos de protección, en especial, aquellos que afectan al medio marino. Las prioridades en las últimas décadas se han centrado sobre el cambio climático pero otro límite puede tener efectos similares a éste, la acidificación de océanos y mares. Las actividades humanas han incrementado la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero, en especial, el dióxido de carbono, éste interacciona directamente sobre la composición química del manto azul del planeta ocasionando un cambio que puede tener consecuencias de alcance global. Los ecosistemas acuáticos que mayor daño ecológico pueden sufrir son de un valor incalculable por la importancia que tienen para la salud del planeta, al ser hábitats prioritarios por los recursos que en ellos se pueden encontrar. La Posidonia oceanica es una de las especies que se configuran como un aliado para garantizar la seguridad planetaria, al ser un sumidero natural de dióxido de carbono, conocida como el
“pulmón azul” del Mediterráneo; las consecuencias de un incremento de la acidez de mares y océanos pueden afectar tanto directa como indirectamente a esta especie que, a su vez, contiene otras especies. Las interrelaciones existentes entre los ecosistemas acuáticos y terrestres pueden permitir que los daños ecológicos generados por la acidificación marina y oceánica se evidencien a gran escala, al ser un problema global. Serán necesarias medidas e instrumentos que, desde una perspectiva ecocéntrica, permitan una protección basada en la eficacia y eficiencia, para ello, serán prioritarios instrumentos de mitigación y adaptación frente a este límite para garantizar la supervivencia del planeta.
... illegal phenomena. South (2014) describes green criminology as "the study of crime, harm and injustice related to the environment and to species other than humans" (p. 8). ...
Particulate matter (PM) in air pollution causes illness, injury and premature death by infiltrating essential organs. Wood burning stoves are a primary source of PM in the United Kingdom, where domestic wood burning emissions have tripled over the last decade. This article adopts a construc-tivist lens to examine the regulatory regime controlling these pollutants. Combining analysis of 'expert' interviews, responses to Freedom of Information requests and government records exempting appliances from Smoke Control Area rules, it illustrates how efforts at controlling 'smoke' in the past have become instrumental in encouraging the production of PM from stoves in the present. In doing so, this article demonstrates the utility of research sensitive to processes underpinning the (non)construction of environmental issues as deviant and suggests a lens through which ordinary harms can be better understood.
Corruption is a serious problem in the rule of law development and sustainable development efforts. Law enforcement for weak environmental destroyers. On the other hand, the corruption process that is conducted involves a very strong power network and has impunity. This paper used a socio-legal based legal research method. Corruption in the forestry sector in Indonesia not only harms the state financially, but also creates environmental degradation that has an impact on human rights violations for the Laman Kinipan indigenous people. The Laman Kinipan indigenous people as victims of environmental damage have the right to get a solution from the perspective of being victims of environmental damage, both in the context of criminology, access to responsibility and accountability for environmental damage, then the impact of community sociology recovery, ensuring for perpetrators of environmental damage receive appropriate sanctions, as well as recovery in a collective sense. An effective anti-corruption mechanism with programs and compliance intended for business people and the government in preventing bribery corruption in the licensing sector, especially for PT.SML and the concession management circle at Laman Kinipan. Strengthening the concept of strict liability is a very strategic option in this era of industrialization to prevent environmental damage from corruption in the forestry sector.
Positioned at the periphery of green and urban criminology, this article focuses on the heuristic value of the edge. Examining the urban physical edges-the continued horizontal (outwards) and the vertical (upwards and downwards) sprawl of our cities-exposes serious harm. I employ the concept of atmosphere to explore both phenomenological and ontological atmospheres. This leads me to interrogate the edge between ordinary (slow) and extraordinary (more immediate) environmental harms, highlighting the need to move beyond binary conceptions of human and more-than-human concerns. I develop the concept of 'the city beyond the city', which transcends the material urban edges to further untangle green and urban criminological boundaries.
This short piece stems from personal experience about the environmental harm caused by one of the biggest former asbestos facilities, Eternit, located in the small Belgian rural village of Kapelle-op-den-Bos. Combined with an academic perspective, this piece highlights the relevance of environmental restorative justice in addressing the violations and harms experienced by asbestos victims. It brings to light the struggles of victim associations to challenge the power, and complete lack of accountability of (former) asbestos producing companies worldwide and offers an understanding of strategies used to promote immunity to the powerful.
This is the first article to propose the need for, and to discuss the scope of green criminology.
This book provides a comprehensive, global exploration of the scale, scope, threats, and drivers of wildlife trafficking from a criminological perspective. Building on the first edition, it takes into account the significant changes in the international context surrounding these issues since 2013. It provides new examples, updated statistics, and discusses the potential changes arising as a result of COVID-19 and the IPBES 2019 report. It also discusses the shift in trafficking ‘hotspots’ and the recent projects that have challenged responses to wildlife trafficking. It undertakes a distinctive exploration of who the victims and offenders of wildlife trafficking are as well as analysing the stakeholders who are involved in collaborative efforts to end this devastating green crime. It unpacks the security implications of wildlife trade and trafficking and possible responses and ways to combat it. It provides useful and timely information for social and environmental/life scientists, law enforcement, NGOs, and policy makers.
Tanya Wyatt is Professor of Criminology at Northumbria University, UK. Her research focuses on green crimes, such as wildlife trafficking and animal welfare, and these crimes' intersection with organized crime, corporate crime, and corruption.
Building on the success of the second edition, Criminology: A Sociological Introduction offers a comprehensive overview of the study of criminology, from early theoretical perspectives to pressing contemporary issues such as the globalization of crime, crimes against the environment and state crime. Authored by an internationally renowned and experienced group of authors in the Sociology department at Essex University, this is a truly international criminology text that delves into areas that other texts may only reference. This new edition will have increased coverage of psychosocial theory, as well as more consideration of the social, political and economic contexts of crime in the post-financial-crisis world. Focusing on emerging areas in global criminology, such as green crime, state crime and cyber crime, this book is essential reading for criminology students looking to expand their understanding of crime and the world in which they live. © 2014 Eamonn Carrabine, Pam Cox, Pete Fussey, Dick Hobbs, Nigel South, Darren Thiel and Jackie Turton. All rights reserved.
The global flow of capital and competitive trading across borders has been accompanied by the weakening of the ability of regulators and sovereign countries to monitor and restrict harmful activities of multinational corporations. Multinationals often exert a disproportionately large amount of influence over the regulatory agencies that are charged with regulating them - a condition referred to as ‘regulatory capture’ (see Stigler, 1971 in Borak, 2011) - and they have increasingly taken advantage of these globalising circumstances to lower environmental standards and to collude in violation of the rights of inhabitants of threatened locations (human and nonhuman) and of activists seeking to protect the environment (see, for example, Boelens et al., 2011; Clark, 2009; Global Witness, 2012; Newell, 2001; Williams, 1996).
Green criminology remains something of a niche area within criminology. Green criminologists are accused of ignoring the criminological remit by focusing also on legal harmful behaviours, of prioritising ideological concerns over the real social problem of crime, and of ’recycling’ established criminological ideas from corporate crime or organised crime. Further, green criminologists are seen to be unashamedly value-laden and political in their perspectives, prioritising concerns for the natural world over those for the social one. This chapter discusses the value positions of green criminology, arguing that although ideological influences undoubtedly exist in - and influence the work of - green criminology there is nothing inherently ideological about taking a green or ecological perspective on the social problem of ’crime’. Rather, an ecological perspective should be seen as increasingly central to any complete understanding of crime in the contemporary social world.