13. Environmental Or Green Crime

Question 1

Green criminologists

Answer 1

-Take a transgressive approach
-Crimes they look at aren’t criminal but do cause harm
-Acts have become more criminal in recent decades

Question 2

What is Environmental crime

Answer 2

-Any human action that causes environmental harm
-Explores causes and consequences of harm to the environment
-Just as concerned about harm to animals and plants as it is about humans.

Question 3

What are the 2 forms of green crime according to South?

Answer 3

1. Primary Crimes - directly cause harm to environment eg deforestation
2. Secondary Crimes - harms caused by flouting environmental regulations eg state violence against oppositional groups & hazardous waste and organised crime

Question 4

Hazardous waste and organised crime

Answer 4

-Disposal of hazardous waste is an extremely lucrative business
-Due to lax controls this has attracted organised crime groups
-In Italy the Mafia control significant parts of the Gulf which is polluted by illegal dumping.

Question 5

Why is Globalisation and important consideration in green crime?

Answer 5

-Planet is one unified eco-system therefore all green crime transcends political & national borders

Question 6

Beck and ‘Global risk society’

Answer 6

-Environmental disasters from the past were of natural origin, disasters today are created from human action.
-Global warming is a manufactured risk as it wouldn’t have happened without human action
-‘Global risk society’ as environmental harm cannot be confined to one local area but spreads worldwide.

Question 7

What do Marxists argue about green crime?

Answer 7

-Green crimes simply reflect crimes of the powerful and selective law enforcement
-This issue is down to anthropocentric views of the world held by governments and transnational corporations
-Abusing the environment is justified to ensure humans have the goods they want through biopiracy and corporate engineering of nature.

Question 8

Evaluation of green crimes

Answer 8

-Green criminology has not progressed much
-The socially constructed nature of green crimes makes it hard to research as there are differences in opinions amongst nations whether anthropocentric harm are more criminal than ecocentric harms

Question 9

Problems with researching green crimes

Answer 9

-Different laws in different countries means stats cant be compared
-Different definitions of what green crime is
-Difficulties of measurements and the power to conceal crimes or avoid punishment.