green crime

Question 1

Beck - global risk society

Answer 1

• contrasts the contemporary scale of risk with that of the past.
• Natural disasters such as drought or famine would threaten many and be largely outside of human control.
• However, through technology we now have ‘manufactured risks’ such as greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
• modern society is a ‘global risk society’ - emphasises the scale of threat

Question 2

Evaluation of Beck

Answer 2

Criticised by Green criminology for not focusing on the harm caused but rather just the crimes that have been created

Question 3

South - causes

Answer 3

• Green crimes are classified into 2 types primary and secondary
• South identifies 4 primary causes - direct degradation or destruction of the earths resources:
  Air pollution
  Deforestation
  Species decline and animal rights
  Water pollution

Secondary crimes are a result of primary causes eg state violence against oppositional groups and hazardous waste and organised crime

Question 4

Evaluation of south

Answer 4

Evidence through the Chernobyl disaster which could of been avoidable through not breaching health and safety rules

Question 5

White - victims of Green crime

Answer 5

• Illustrates the globalised character of environmental harm, transnational corporations move manufactured operations to the Global South to avoid pollution laws in more developed countries
• dump European waste/send it for processing in developing countries where costs, health and safety standards are lower and enforcement actions is less effective

Question 6

Evaluation of white

Answer 6

Shows that countries cannot agree on what should constitute a Green crime, international law is weakly enforced as there is not global agency

Question 7

Wolf - Green criminology

Answer 7

• there is a debate on what should constitute Green crime - crime or a broader definition of deviance based on concept of harm
• Green crime was first used in traditional criminology- transgressions of established law protecting the environment
• taking this as a starting point for investigation has the advantage of a defined subject matter

Question 8

Evaluation of wolf

Answer 8

Accused of being both anti-progress and anti-capitalist

Question 9

White - transgressive criminology

Answer 9

• transgressive criminology oversteps the confines of law.
• considers any actions that harm the environment, even if they are not illegal to be environmental ’crime’.
• this overcomes the problems that different states have different laws and therefore do not provide consistent standards of harm - laws are defined by the state and therefore are a construction of that power system and it’s interests

Question 10

Evaluation of white

Answer 10

Recognising the growing importance of environmental issues and manufactured global risks