Doing Green, Critical Criminology with an Auto-Ethnographic, Feminist Approach

Abstract

In this article, I employ an auto-ethnographic methodology as a point of departure in order to explore my path into research on the legal and illegal trade in wild animals which, over the years, has consisted of interviews with experts and enforcement agencies in Brazil, Colombia and Norway including offenders (in Norway), and analysis of verdicts, interrogation reports, and custom seizure reports from Norway. I argue that research not only may, but should be value-driven and that a researcher’s personal biography can (1) provide additional insight into a research area; (2) serve to create rapport with informants; and (3) forge an important foundation for the formulation of research questions and the analysis of empirical data. Values also provide a platform for the choice of theoretical framework that is applied and which enhance and further knowledge within the field—in this case, perspectives of harm and justice, particularly species justice and eco-justice. The article calls for a stronger interdisciplinary approach in green criminology—one that includes feminist care ethics, philosophy and compassionate conservation perspectives, and which offers a more radical critique of human exploitation of ‘wildlife’ specifically and other animals more generally.