Women as victims of environmental crime and the relation of their victimization to the victimization of animals: An ecofeminist perspective

Abstract

Ecofeminism, as a socio- political movement/ ideology, emphasizes the conceptual connections between oppression against woman and oppression against nature. On the other hand, environmental crime victims are the subject matter of green victimology, which defines environmental crime in the wider sense, so that it consists not only of criminal offences, but also of all the non-incriminated ecologically harmful acts. As its victims mostly appear to be women, nature/ ecosystems, animals and vulnerable groups, therefore ecofeminism serves as the fundamental theory in exposing the andocentric context of their victimization. Taking that as a starting point, an overview of the victimological patterns and roots of victimization by environmental crime, as it is defined in green victimology, is presented in the paper. This is done from an ecofeminist perspective. The focus is on the most frequent victims of environmental crime - woman and animal. The objective is to find certain common denominators of their victimological patterns and roots of victimization in order to make proposals for a more adequate response to their victimization.