Poaching, Social Conflict, and the Public Trust: Some Critical Observations on Wildlife Crime

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe illegal killing of wild animals is recognized as a significant social problem in modern society, yet when compared to many other types of unlawful behaviors, the study of wildlife crime has received scant attention from criminal justice researchers. With the emergence of green criminology in recent decades, however, there has been a concomitant increase in poaching research. This essay reviews the literature and provides some observations on the status of poaching research, and then offers directions for future research on wildlife crime from a critical perspective. Conflict theory provides a useful framework for analyzing wildlife crime and can be used to enhance our understanding of laws regulating the use of wild animals. Given the fact that wildlife is a public trust resource in the United States, it is argued that state wildlife agencies that offer special programs to landowners to facilitate the commercialization of wildlife may be committing a state crime.