Green Crime

Question 1

What is green criminology (White)

Answer 1

Anything that causes harm to the environment, humans or animals regardless of whether it has broken the law

Question 2

Bhopal (1984)

Answer 2

• Union carbide
• cyanide gas leak
• 25,000 people died, 120,000 still suffering from the effects
• no one has faced a criminal court
• Anderson the CEO is yet to face trial
• green criminology, companies take advantage of countries with weak health and safety regulations

Question 3

Primary crime (South)

Answer 3

Result directly from destruction and degradation of the earth’s resources.
E.g. crimes of water pollution- 25 million people die annually from drinking contaminated water

Question 4

Secondary crime (South)

Answer 4

Deliberately breaking rules aimed at preventing and regulating environmental disasters.
E.g. hazardous waste dumping- Bridgland after 2004 tsunami, hundreds of barrels of radioactive waste was illegally dumped by European companies and washed up on the shores of Somalia

Question 5

Beck’s risk society

Answer 5

• technology has created new manufactured risks we haven’t faced before
• economic growth has created new risks- more motor cars= more pollution
• humans are attempting to control the world through science and technology
• nuclear could be used to counteract climate change but creates risk of nuclear disaster (Chernobyl)

Question 6

Capitalism and corporate power

Answer 6

• Halsey and Whyte- green crime is caused by the dominance of capitalist ideology
• economic growth is prioritised over the well-being of the environment (corporate crime)
• south calls this the ‘corporate colonisation of nature’
  E.g. biopiracy- companies take control of plants and animals preventing indigenous people from using them

Question 7

Capitalist corporations

Answer 7

• BP deepwater horizon oil spill in the gulf of Mexico created immense damage to Marine environment
  x not always corporations- China built the three gorges dam which flooded over 400 square miles of land and resulted in the displacement of over one million people
  x sometimes organised crime is responsible- Sicilian mafia disposed of hazardous waste into the bay of Naples
  x car drivers also contribute to pollution

Question 8

Zemiology

Answer 8

• approach within criminology that argues national or international laws are inadequate for judging whether actions should be regarded as criminal
• something should be seen as an offense if it does harm to humans, living creatures or the environment
  x green crime is not easy to define