Illegal wildlife trade is an important branch of global environmental crime. It relies heavily on transit countries to promote the cross-border movement of illegal wildlife products by boosting markets, laundering services, processing and packaging products, and concealing routes. However, transit countries' strategic role is not well understood. We constructed a dataset of 15years of illegal wildlife seizure cases from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) air seizure database and Wildlife Trade Portal database. From the dataset, we determined transnational illegal wildlife trade routes with complete supply chain information. There were 84 transit countries, and the organisms involved in trade included mammals, birds, reptiles, marine species, amphibians, and arthropods. We identified that about 40% of illegal wildlife trade routes crossed one or multiple countries. Species being moved along these routes originated mainly from Africa and were transported through African, European, or Asian countries to East Asia or Southeast Asia. Transit countries for illegal wildlife products tended to be geographically close to and have a high trade volume of legal biological products with both the origin and destination countries and had advanced airport infrastructure. Transit countries were associated with 39.7% more individual animal products being illegally traded, particularly ivory, pangolin products, and rhinoceros horn, and served as key bridges among economically underdeveloped and geographically distant countries with weak trade links in legal biological products. These findings highlight the importance of monitoring and enforcement in transit countries and suggest that transit hubs be targeted based on location, trade in legal biological products, and transport infrastructure.

Abstract This article identifies the underlying obstacles to enforcement of laws against environmental crimes such as illegal logging, mining and ranching. With four departments (provinces) from Colombia as case studies, it assesses enforcement of the country's main environmental law, Law 2111, which is one of Latin America's strongest. The article has four sections. First is the introduction, followed by a methods section that lays out the methodology, case, sources and relevant literature. The second section is a mixed methods analysis that explains three inter‐connected obstacles to enforcement: state capacity, organized crime and economic activities. Those conditions are then used to analyse actual cases in the years that Law 2111 has been in effect. The final section is a policy‐centred discussion to show how the article's analysis can be replicated for enforcement in other countries and how it can be applied to scholarship. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Environmental pollution is a serious issue affecting ecosystem sustainability and public health. Industrial activities without proper waste management are a major cause of pollution, including water, air, and soil contamination. This condition not only causes environmental damage but also leads to social and economic losses for communities. Therefore, strict and effective law enforcement is required to create a deterrent effect and prevent similar actions. This study aims to examine the regulation of environmental crimes based on Law Number 32 of 2009 concerning Environmental Protection and Management and to analyze law enforcement against offenders from the perspective of the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP) 2023. The research method used is normative juridical with statutory and conceptual approaches through literature study. The results show that the 2023 Criminal Code provides a more comprehensive legal basis, particularly regarding corporate criminal liability. However, in practice, law enforcement still faces challenges such as weak supervision and difficulties in proving cases. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen supervision and ensure consistent law enforcement to achieve optimal environmental protection

ABSTRACT As global biodiversity faces a steep decline and transnational environmental crises intensify, calls to criminalize conservation harms have gained momentum. This Perspective argues that criminal law can indeed play a legitimate role in conservation governance, but only under limited and identifiable conditions. While criminalization can serve as a deterrent against conservation harms and signal societal condemnation, its implementation poses challenges, including the imposition of more complex rules on evidence, punitive excess, and the risk of further marginalizing (Indigenous) communities. From the legal practitioners’ perspective, we argue that conservation policy must approach criminal justice with sufficient caution. Criminalization is most defensible where harms are serious, culpability is sufficiently clear, civil and administrative remedies are inadequate, and enforcement can be implemented without disproportionately burdening marginalized communities or undermining local legitimacy. By mapping where criminal law complements or otherwise complicates conservation goals, we propose a conditional criminal justice framework for designing more just, efficient, and effective responses to environmental and conservation harms. Rather than endorsing punitive expansion in general, we provide when preventive, restorative, or community‐led approaches are preferable.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates whether income inequality is associated with unauthorized building across Italian regions over 2004–2019. While prior research has examined the socio-economic and institutional determinants of environmental crime, the role of inequality in illegal construction remains largely unexplored. Using a panel dataset for all 20 Italian regions, we estimate log-log fixed-effects models under alternative temporal specifications, including two-way fixed effects and region-specific trends. Across all models and alternative Gini measures, we find a positive and robust association between income inequality and illegal building. Estimated elasticities suggest that a 1% increase in regional inequality is associated with a 0.6% to 1.3% increase in unauthorized construction. The findings indicate that illegal building is linked not only to weaknesses in planning enforcement, but also to broader territorial disparities in economic opportunities, housing access, and institutional capacity. Overall, the paper highlights illegal building as a structural regional development issue shaped by inequality, governance, and compliance.

Purpose/Objective(s): This study examines Braskem’s strategic responses to the damages caused in Maceió (AL), identifying recurring patterns of evasion regarding its responsibility for a public and criminological issue. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative, interpretive methodology was applied to analyze Braskem’s responses to the 2018 environmental crime in Maceió. The corpus consisted of 229 pages of socio-environmental reports, corporate communications, and company documents, treated as organizational narratives and subjected to hermeneutic content analysis. Results and discussion: Braskem’s responses revealed three distinct patterns: silencing (withholding information about the damages), denial (rejecting responsibility for negative impacts), and self-correction (emphasizing internal corrective actions). Collectively, these strategies operate as defensive mechanisms that obscure public recognition of accountability and reduce the likelihood of sanctions. Contributions: This study advances the Corporate Social Irresponsibility (CSIR) literature by examining the Maceió case and demonstrating how corporations may strategically evade scrutiny and sanctions for socially harmful actions. It contributes to critical management studies on corporate accountability by systematically identifying patterns and categories of responsibility avoidance. The implications of the study are both theoretical and practical: the findings contribute to the literature on attempts to evade responsibility and to the formulation of public policies, and support civil society organizations and regulatory bodies in identifying effective ways to prevent corporate irresponsibility. Additionally, the study highlights the social and environmental consequences of irresponsible corporate behavior, enforcing the importance of accountability and justice in cases of collective harm.

The use of police intelligence has become fundamental for crime prevention, especially in modern times, where the complexity of threats requires an increasingly sophisticated approach. The evolution of technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data and digital surveillance, has allowed security forces to anticipate criminal actions, detecting patterns of suspicious behavior before crimes even happen. By integrating these technologies into traditional police operations, it is possible to obtain valuable information in real time, optimizing resource allocation and reducing response time to threats. In addition to technological tools, police intelligence also relies on cooperation between different institutions and countries, allowing information sharing and a more coordinated response to transnational crimes. This integration has been crucial to combat challenges such as terrorism, drug and human trafficking, as well as cybercrime. However, the implementation of police intelligence faces significant challenges, such as citizen privacy and the ethical use of these technologies. Furthermore, police intelligence, while promising advances in crime prevention, requires a careful balance between public safety and individual rights. With the increase in crime in digital environments and the globalization of organized crime, adapting security forces to this new reality is essential to guarantee the safety of the population and effectiveness in combating new forms of threat.

A Green Criminological Analysis of Industrial Environmental Crime in Bangladesh: The Karnaphuli River Case

Environmental damage in urban areas is not always caused by large-scale environmental crimes, but often stems from repeated and neglected minor administrative violations. Administrative reprimands are one of the strategic initial instruments in preventing the escalation of environmental damage without having to resort to a criminal approach. This study aims to analyze the role and effectiveness of administrative reprimands as a community-based environmental prevention instrument at RT 8 RW 4 Malaka Jaya, East Jakarta. A normative juridical approach combined with a light empirical approach through field observation was employed. Data were collected through library research, non-participatory observation over two months (January-February 2025), and documentation. The findings show that verbal reprimands were effective in 83.3% of cases, while written reprimands were effective in 60% of cases. The dominant violations were improper waste disposal (48.9%), open waste burning (17.0%), and neglected waterway cleanliness (14.9%). Key success factors include social closeness between RT administrators and residents, a persuasive and familial approach, consistent application, collective agreements, and community supervision. However, normative gaps were identified in legal legitimacy, documentation systems, and capacity building for RT administrators. This study confirms that administrative reprimands have significant preventive value if supported by community participation. Strengthening written guidelines, documentation systems, and legal capacity for RT administrators is recommended.

Environmental crimes pose a significant threat to ecological integrity and public welfare. However, law enforcement utilising retributive justice often fails to address the root causes of environmental damage caused by corporations. Therefore, alternative law enforcement efforts are necessary for more effective outcomes. This research aims to determine the effectiveness of current law enforcement against corporate environmental crimes in Indonesia, examine environmental crime enforcement in other countries, and identify an integrative environmental law enforcement policy model that incorporates the restorative justice approach in handling corporate environmental crimes. This study employs a normative legal research method with three approaches: statutory, conceptual, and comparative. This study finds that, first, law enforcement against corporate environmental crimes in Indonesia remains ineffective due to the difficulties in proving corporate liability, weak coordination and capacity among law enforcement agencies, and low levels of corporate compliance and transparency. Second, compared to Indonesia, Australia, specifically Victoria, has established a more comprehensive restorative justice framework through the Environment Protection Act 2017, whereas New South Wales still relies on judicial practice without an explicit restorative legal basis. Third, Indonesia needs to adopt an ecological restorative justice model that places environmental restoration, community participation, independent oversight, and stringent sanctions at the core of corporate criminal liability to truly realise ecological justice. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate law enforcement policies that incorporate ecological restorative justice principles, prioritising environmental restoration. Corporations should face sanctions and be required to restore damage in a tangible, measurable way, with independent oversight.

Wildlife poaching has increasingly become part of transnational organized crime networks that threaten biodiversity conservation and weaken environmental governance in many regions, including Aceh, Indonesia. This study aims to analyze wildlife poaching in Aceh from an environmental law perspective, with particular attention to the legal frameworks, enforcement mechanisms, and institutional challenges in addressing transnational wildlife crime. The research seeks to identify how existing legal instruments regulate wildlife protection and assess the extent to which these regulations can address organized criminal networks involved in illegal wildlife trade. This study employs a qualitative juridical approach using normative and empirical legal analysis. The research examines national environmental and wildlife protection laws, international legal instruments, and relevant enforcement practices related to wildlife crime. Data were collected through document analysis of legislation, policy reports, and scholarly literature, complemented by secondary data on wildlife crime cases in Aceh. The analytical framework integrates environmental law, transnational organized crime studies, and green criminology to understand the legal and institutional dynamics surrounding wildlife poaching. The findings reveal that wildlife poaching in Aceh is not merely a local environmental offense but is closely connected to broader transnational trafficking networks that exploit regulatory gaps, limited enforcement capacity, and coordination challenges among institutions. Although Indonesia has established several legal instruments to protect wildlife and combat environmental crimes, weaknesses remain in implementation, cross-border cooperation, and the integration of environmental law with criminal justice mechanisms. Strengthening institutional coordination, improving investigative capacity, and aligning domestic regulations with international frameworks are essential to addressing the complexity of wildlife crime networks. This study contributes to the growing discourse on environmental law and transnational environmental crime by providing a legal analysis of wildlife poaching within the context of organized criminal networks.

The paper examines the role of additional penalties in the differentiation and individualization of punishment for environmental crimes and in the formation of ecocriminological security. It identifies a paucity of scholarly research on the effectiveness of additional penalties as a means of protecting the environment from criminal threats and therefore further study of threats in this area as promising. The study demonstrates an inconsistency between the legislative model governing the imposition of additional penalties and established judicial practice. Although more than half of the sanctions contained in Chapter 26 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation permit cumulative application, courts seldom exploit the potential of additional penalties. Notably, three quarters of the sanctions that provide for additional penalties appear in qualified forms of environmental offences; nevertheless, only about 5 % of those convicted of environmental crimes receive additional penalties. This disparity indicates the limited effect of additional penalties on the individualization of criminal liability in this field. Further, there is no uniform legislative model for differentiating criminal liability for environmental crimes with respect to the amount of additional penalty prescribed by the sanctions of Chapter 26. Median values for the same additional penalty differ under alternative cumulation options, reflecting problems in assessing the public danger posed by environmental offences. The study concludes that the existing statutory variations in the cumulation of penalties are clearly insufficient to achieve consistent and proportionate sentencing in environmental criminal law.

This study examines the effectiveness of corporate punishment in environmental crime cases in Indonesia amid implementation deficits and procedural fragmentation by analyzing the harmonization between substantive environmental criminal law and corporate criminal procedure. It assesses the application of corporate criminal liability under Law Number 32 of 2009, evaluates sentencing practices, and formulates an integrated model of corporate environmental punishment following the 2025 Criminal Procedure Code. Using normative legal research with a statutory approach and supported by a systematic literature review, the study finds that although corporations are formally recognized as subjects of environmental criminal law, judicial practice is dominated by monetary fines, while additional sanctions and environmental restoration measures are rarely imposed. This indicates an implementation deficit rather than normative inconsistency, weakening deterrence and allowing sanctions to be treated as a business cost. The study argues that Chapter XVIII of the 2025 Criminal Procedure Code provides a clearer procedural framework for prosecution, sentencing, and environmental restoration, enabling structural–procedural harmonization. It proposes an integrated model aligning substantive norms with procedural enforcement and concludes that the core issue lies in procedural fragmentation and weak implementation.

Environmental crimes in Indonesia are increasingly recognized not only as violations of legal norms but also as social and ecological harms affecting communities and ecosystems. However, the existing framework of environmental criminal law remains largely formalistic, emphasizing administrative violations and statutory illegality while insufficiently addressing the broader dimension of socio-ecological harm. This research examines how a zemiological perspective can contribute to the reconstruction of environmental criminal law in Indonesia through a comparative legal study. Using a normative juridical method with statute, conceptual, and comparative approaches, this study analyzes Indonesian environmental criminal law alongside developments in Belgium, the European Union, Argentina, Scotland, and the Philippines. The findings demonstrate that Indonesian law continues to rely on formal legality and weak corporate accountability, whereas comparative jurisdictions increasingly recognize severe environmental harm, ecocide, and collective victimization as bases for criminal responsibility. The contribution of this research lies in three main aspects. First, it develops a zemiological framework as a new theoretical basis for evaluating environmental criminal law beyond formal statutory violations, emphasizing social and ecological harm as the central criterion for criminalization. Second, it provides a systematic comparative legal analysis that identifies normative gaps between Indonesian law and emerging global models of harm-based environmental criminal law. Third, it proposes a conceptual model for reconstructing environmental criminal law in Indonesia by integrating the principles of social harm, the recognition of ecocide, and strengthened corporate liability.

Introduction Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a legal and strategic priority in Norwegian higher education, yet its integration in police education remains unclear. This study explores how Norwegian police students perceive sustainability in their training and what expectations they have for future learning. We posed the following research questions: (1) What have police students learned, directly or indirectly, that may promote sustainable development? and (2) To what extent do Police students wish to learn more about sustainability, and in which areas? Methods We employed a qualitative, explorative and descriptive study design, and conducted semistructured interviews with 11 police students from the Norwegian Police University College, representing all years of the bachelor program. Interviews focused on students’ experiences with sustainability-related learning and their aspirations for future education. Results Findings reveal that sustainability is not explicitly addressed in the curriculum. Social and economic sustainability is covered indirectly through content on human rights, diversity, procedural justice, corruption and cybercrime, while environmental perspectives receive minimal attention. Students expressed strong interest in more explicit and practice-oriented ESD, particularly on environmental crime, and emphasized the need to embed sustainability early and systematically across courses, linking it to operational policing tasks. Discussion These insights highlight a discrepancy between policy ambitions and educational practice, offering improvement opportunities for professional preparedness and institutional legitimacy. Strengthening sustainability education in policing could enhance competence, support trust, and equip officers to address complex societal challenges. The study contributes to emerging research on ESD in professional education and offers recommendations for curriculum development at the Norwegian Police University College (NPUC).

This paper examines the construction of “petrotopia” in global oil extractive zones through Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit, Abdelrahman Munif’s Cities of Salt, and Helon Habila’s Oil on Water. Drawing on energy humanities and Rob Nixon’s concept of slow violence, it argues that petrofiction exposes oil territories as sacrifice zones shaped by environmental crime, racial injustice, and forced displacement. While the novels depict spectacular forms of petro-violence—murders, military repression, and militant resistance—they also foreground less visible ecological devastation such as poisoned water systems, habitat destruction, climate alteration, and psychological trauma. Across Oklahoma, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Niger Delta, oil capitalism transforms peripheral communities into disposable landscapes in the service of imperial and corporate power. The promise of oil wealth produces an illusion of prosperity, yet results in displacement, “displacement without moving,” and environmental desolation. By expanding the meaning of crime beyond individual acts to systemic ecological destruction, the paper contends that petrotopia represents not utopia but a dystopian order structured by extraction and sacrifice. Petrofiction thus makes visible the hidden violences of fossil-fuel modernity.

The growing threat to environmental human rights underscores the urgency of enhancing criminal law mechanisms for the protection of the natural environment, prompting scholars and legislators to seek more effective legal responses. The examination of foreign legislative experience and best practices emerges as a critical strategy for adapting national legal frameworks to contemporary environmental challenges. Recent developments within the European Union position its regulatory model as one of the most progressive globally, offering a benchmark for jurisdictions seeking to reform their environmental legislation. This study conducts a comparative legal analysis of current criminal law provisions on environmental offences in the EU, Kazakhstan, and the Russian Federation. The objective is to identify differences, strengths, and limitations across these jurisdictions. EU legislation has undergone significant advancement in recent years, notably through the expansion and clarification of environmental crime categories, the specification of penalties, and the broadening of the scope of liability. These reforms have been codified in newly adopted supranational legal instruments, such as Directive (EU) 2024/1203. In contrast, Kazakhstan and Russia, despite possessing foundational legal frameworks, require substantial modernization. This analysis may be of interest to policymakers, environmental NGOs, and legal practitioners working at the intersection of criminal and environmental law.

Abstract This article explores the legal and normative legitimacy of an EU-wide qualified crime of ecocide in the renewed Environmental Crime Directive (2024 ECD). Such a crime is premised on developments on both international as well as EU Member State level. It however appears that these developments are in a rather embryonic stage and that existing ecocide definitions in EU Member States show varying disparities .The 2024 ECD displays a contrived understanding of EU-wide ecocide as a qualified environmental offence. Nonetheless, in combination with its relatively autonomous nature, its criminalisation at EU level can still be considered groundbreaking, as it postulates the environment as a protected interest in the criminal law of EU Member States. This article argues that EU-wide ecocide enters the supranational realm under the guise of effectivity, although it is symbolism that reigns supreme. In addition, it conflicts with several normative principles. EU-wide ecocide is thus shaking on its legal and normative foundations. This has fundamental implications for the implementation of ecocide in the criminal law of EU Member States.

This article aims to analyze international practices in combating environmental crimes by examining the latest legal, organizational, and technological frameworks. The ultimate goal is to formulate a comprehensive, interdisciplinary strategy for effective counteraction. The research methodology integrates several approaches, including dialectical reasoning, comparative analysis, and system-functional methods. It is further supported by legal-dogmatic interpretation and logical techniques such as analysis, synthesis, and induction. The study systematically reviews international experiences in combating environmental crimes, identifying new legal standards and technological innovations that define contemporary environmental policy. A key emphasis is placed on the doctrine of ecocide, international responsibility, and joint investigation teams as essential tools for documenting and compensating for damages, especially within the context of armed conflict. Ukraine's national experience in implementing these standards serves as a central case study. The findings underscore the necessity of comprehensive interdisciplinary policies, strong international coordination, and technological modernization to effectively address transnational eco-crime. By analyzing these global trends, this paper proposes a system of practical, legal, and strategic solutions to meet the most pressing contemporary challenges in ecosystem protection. Keywords: environmental crimes, prevention, international experience, ecocide, environmental safety, legal liability, criminalization.

On 30 January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights condemned the Italian Government for failing to safeguard the right to life of residents in ninety municipalities in the Campania region, an area known as 'Terra dei Fuochi' (literally: Land of Fires). This judgment is historic for two main reasons. First and foremost, it represents the first judicial recognition of severe, decades-long environmental and health deterioration affecting a specific territory. Second, it establishes a significant precedent for environmental litigation, marking the first time the Court has unequivocally affirmed that epidemiological evidence collected within a defined area is sufficient to demonstrate a violation of the right to life of the populations living there. This stance adopted by the Court gives rise to a series of important legal implications: it strengthens the basis for prosecuting environmental crimes and encourages the development of innovative investigative projects that move beyond individual-level data; such projects can capture the collective harms suffered by affected communities and help determine whether these harms can be traced to actions or omissions by public authorities or private-sector actors.