green crime

Question 1

what is green crime?

Answer 1

• crimes against the environment
• high up on political agenda
• e.g. accident at Chernobyl - spread of radioactive material over thousands of miles

Question 2

the effects of global warming on the world

Answer 2

RUSSIA
- global warming caused a hot summer
- wildfires destroyed crops
- led to a ban on exporting grain
- this pushed up world price of grain

MOZAMBIQUE
- country dependent on food imports
- 30% increase in price of bread
- caused riots and looting

KNOCK ON EFFECT…

Question 3

‘global risk society’ - BECK

Answer 3

• argues most threats to human well-being/eco system are human made
• increase in productivity and technology have created new manufactured risks in late modern society
• serious consequences for the environment - climate change
• risks are on a global scale - not local

Question 4

what are the two ways to look at green crime

Answer 4

1. traditional criminology
2. green criminology

Question 5

traditional criminology positives and negatives

Answer 5

POSITIVIES
- concerned about law breaking activities
- approach is the national/international laws and regulations concerning the environment
- has clearly defined subject matter (written laws)

NEGATIVES
- tends to favour large powerful companies
- laws change from country to country

Question 6

green criminology

Answer 6

• notion of harm to the environment/humans/animals even if no law has been broken
• radical/transgressive - includes new issues
• similar to a marxist approach - looks at how powerful groups can shape the law to suit their own interests
• more effective - different countries have different laws, can develop a global perspective on environmental harm

Question 7

what are the two types of green crime that SOUTH identifies?

Answer 7

1. primary green crime
2. secondary green crime

Question 8

SOUTH - primary green crime

Answer 8

• directly harms the environment and its members
• crimes of air pollution
• crimes of deforestation
• crimes of species decline and animal rights
• crimes of water pollution e.g. deepwater horizon oil rig

Question 9

SOUTH - secondary green crime

Answer 9

• arises out of disobeying rules that seek to regulate environmental disasters
• state violence against oppositional groups i.e. french secret service blew up green peace ship (who were against nuclear weapons testing)
• disposal of toxic waste is expensive due to safety regulations, so a lot is dumped illegally at sea
• 28,500 rusting barrels of radioactive waste lie on the seabed off the channel islands

Question 10

SOUTH - environmental racism

Answer 10

• environmental discrimination
• the people suffering the worst effects of environmental damage are usually poor people
• developing world faces far greater risks
• receive little help from the west and big companies

Question 11

effects of the 2004 tsunami

Answer 11

• hundreds of barrels of radioactive waste dumped illegally by european companies washed up in somalia
• in the usa costs $2,500 a ton to dispose of toxic waste, compared to $3 in developing world
• transnational companies often offload banned products on to third world markets
• developing world countries often lack legislation to prevent these crimes

Question 12

problems researching green crime

Answer 12

• different laws - makes official statistics hard to compare
• different definitions - what counts as harm? this makes it hard to measure, monitor or report
• hard to prosecute large, wealthy corporations

Question 13

bhopal disaster 1984

Answer 13

• the union carbide pesticide plant - 25,000 deaths and 120,000 still suffering
• traditional criminology - broke health and safety
• green criminology - deliberately located factories in countries with weak health and safety laws