Abstract
This study examines a commonly overlooked form of criminal activity in the countryside – the act of illegally dumping piles of waste materials onto public lands. After a visual examination of the various types of debris that are commonly dumped in these areas, consideration is given to the attitudes, motives and rationalizations that lead to the act of dumping. This study attempts to contextualize this activity within the framework of environmental sociology, emphasizing how attitudes about the natural environment, but also how the physical environment itself, can affect the propensity to dump. This study employs the more specific and quantifiable activity of illegal dumping piles of debris onto public lands in order to more clearly distinguish this activity from similar or related criminal enterprises that occur in rural America; however, it is important to note that the deviant element of this activity is central to the investigation. More specifically, the extent to which this criminal activity is viewed (by either the perpetrator or the community) as deviant has bearing on whether the activity is discouraged, whether penalties or alternatives are provided, the extent and frequency of this activity and, arguably, whether or not illegal dumping occurs in the first place. Finally, solutions to the problems posed by illegal dumping are considered in terms of wiser public policy informed by these social scientific findings. The Dump: A Visual Exploration of Illegal Dumping on Public Lands in Rural America Vol. 6, Issue 2 (2011)
Highlights
“What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them.” -Lynn White
What is “rural” and what is “deviance”? When we think of rural America, are we referring to towns with a population of less than 50,000 or 10,000? Are we including sparsely populated areas, such as suburbs, that are surrounded by larger, more urban environments? Or are we restricting our considerations to the more strictly defined and isolated hinterlands? With respect to the notion of deviance, are we employing an objective criterion, such as law-breaking behavior, or are we casting our conceptual net more widely to include any action that is considered undesirable by the mainstream audience that is privy to it? Ostensibly, taking a cow to slaughter for the purpose of consumption is quite different than killing a stray cat for the entertainment value of it
It is assumed that visual sociology—a subjective and ethnographic approach—provides the best means by which we can deduce the reasons for illegal dumping, and offers a more direct and profound look at exactly what is being abandoned as trash on our public lands
Summary
Recommended Citation Style (MLA): Laundra, Kenneth H. “The Dump: A Visual Exploration of Illegal Dumping on Public Lands in Rural America.”. The Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy 6.2 (2011): 1-34.
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