Theoretical Perspectives on Wildlife Law Enforcement

Abstract

This chapter examines theoretical perspectives on wildlife law enforcement and wildlife crime, situating wildlife law enforcement primarily within green criminology’s environmental justice and ecological justice perspectives (White, 2008: 15). These two perspectives respectively argue that: environmental rights should be perceived as an extension of human or social rights and environmental justice enhances the quality of human life (which includes access to natural resources such as wildlife) and that the quality of the environment and the rights of nonhuman species should be considered within justice systems. Accordingly, the quality of law enforcement that protects the environment, including wildlife resident in and dependent on it, should be a core concern of criminal justice, although green scholars have highlighted that this is not always the case (Wellsmith, 2010, 2011; Nurse, 2012).