Globalisation & Green Crime Flashcards
Def: zemiology
Zemiology: the study of harm
Ian Taylor (1997)
When market forces have no/limited controls, this creates more inequality and crime at both ends of the social spectrum.
- Transnational corporations swap manufacturing to poorer countries where they can exploit the workforce.
- Trickle down materialistic attitudes cause cause relative deprivation, which Left Realists argue leads to crime.
Eval:
- Not all rich/poor people commit crime.
- This cannot be accurately measured.
Manuel Castells (1998)
‘Global criminal economy’ – Globalisation has created a global criminal economy worth more than £1 trillion.
Examples of the global criminal economy:
- Arms trafficking
- Trafficking in nuclear materials
- Smuggling of illegal immigrants
- Sex tourism
- Cyber-crimes
- Trafficking in body parts
- International terrorism
- Smuggling of legal goods
- Trafficking in cultural artefacts
- Money laundering
- Drugs trading
- Trafficking in endangered species
- Green crimes
There is a demand from the West and a supply side from LEDCs. E.g. Britain wants cocaine; Columbia makes it.
Eval:
- Can’t be measured accurately.
Hobbs and Dunningham
‘Glocal’ organisation – crime is international (global) but functions in local areas.
Drug barons may operate in multiple countries but they require local dealers to distribute their products.
This has led to the rise of entrepreneurial criminals, accessing the ‘illegitimate opportunity structure (Merton)’.
Misha Glenny (2008)
McMafia — refers to the organisations that emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism, which franchised themselves.
Oligarchs purchased products at cheap USSR prices and sold them on the world stage.
Fall of the Soviet Union was a part of globalisation.
Ulrich Beck (1992)
Global risk society — the major risks we face today are of our own making.
Increases in productivity and
Def: anthropocentric
Anthropocentric: the ontology that humans have the right to control the environment for their own ends and put profit first. (White (2008))
Def: ecocentric
Ecocentric: the ontology that humans and the environment are interdependent. Harming the environment hurts everyone. (White (2008))
Def: primary green crimes
Primary green crimes — results directly from destroying the earth’s resources. (South (2008)).
Def: secondary green crimes
Secondary green crimes — flouting rules that aim to protect the environment. (South (2008)).
Case study: BP Oil Spill
BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico, 2010
Eleven workers killed
Estimated 60 million barrels leaked over 4 months
34000 birds kills
Case study: Chernobyl
Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown, Russia, 1986
50 personnel killed instantly
More than 4000 cancer deaths linked to incident
Radiation level increased in the UK after
Case study: Union Carbide
Union Carbide cyanide gas leak, India, 1984
Deadly chemical fog released, killing thousands in the immediate area (over 2000).
120,000 still suffer effects such as breathing problems, birth defects, etc.
The plant was no longer in active production.
Approach to green crime: traditional
Traditional
Nothing is a crime unless it’s against the laws where it’s committed
Recognises that there are differences between national and international rules and regulations
Situ and Emmons (2000) define environmental crime as ‘an unauthorised act or omission that violates the law’.
Eval:
- Criticised for accepting official definitions which have been shaped by big businesses.
Approach to green crime: Green Criminology
Green criminology
Starts from the notion of harm, rather than criminal law (zemiology).
Rob 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 a law has not been broken’.
Transgressive criminology
Eval: habeus corpus
