Wildlife Crime and Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

Despite the lack of priority generally afforded to animals in criminal justice systems wildlife crime, now recognised as one of the more significant areas of global crime (Wyatt, 2013; Davies, 2014), has become integrated into criminal law. As Chapter 9 illustrates, wildlife crime is seen as ‘serious crime’ recognised as such by Interpol (2014) and attracting punitive sanctions at the upper end of the scale in both western and developing world jurisdictions. Yet given the varied nature of wildlife crime activity, the numerous species and trade routes involved and the different types of criminality and offender involved in wildlife crime (Nurse, 2011), legal and justice systems continue to face challenges and are seen as inadequate to the task of dealing with wildlife crime (Akella and Allan, 2012). Notwithstanding the inconsistencies that exist in wildlife laws over such matters as levels of protection between species and investigatory powers and sentencing provisions, the analysis of previous pages suggests that, in principle, wildlife legislation is broadly adequate to the task of wildlife protection given the scope of its punitive sanctions and protective measures. Schaffner (2011) identifies that legislative policy is dependent on the drafting entity and its function as well as the manner in which legal rules are interpreted or implemented by regulatory authorities.