Green Criminological Perspective Research Articles

”You don’t have the right to steal my life”: Exploring the harms of puppy farming on ex-breeding dogs

The last decade or so has witnessed a growing body of work within green criminology exploring forms of non-human animal abuse and harms involving companion animals. To date, however, comparably less attention has been paid to the puppy trade and the phenomena of commercial dog breeding facilities (or puppy mills/puppy farms). The aim of this article is to add to this literature by exploring the multiple harms of puppy farming, focusing on its impact on the breeding dogs themselves; specifically breeding bitches. Adopting a green criminological perspective and drawing on interviews with animal rescue staff, foster carers and those who have adopted ex-breeding dogs within the UK, the article explores the harms of puppy farming on their bodies and behaviours. Interviewees describe how ex-breeding dogs are physically worn out after a life of constant breeding and often suffer from a range of often serious medical issues. In addition, they were invariably emotionally shut down, exhibiting anxiety and phobic responses when confronted with new situations, people and sounds, as well as ones that recalled the conditions in which they were kept while in the puppy farm.

The Political Economy of the Mobuoy Illegal Dump in Northern Ireland: A Green Criminology Perspective

In 2012, the discovery of the Mobuoy illegal dump in Northern Ireland came to the attention of society as a shocking scandal. This was not only because the dump (516,000 tonnes of waste) was possibly one of the largest illegal dumps in Europe, but also because it exposed how the waste-management system in Northern Ireland was vulnerable to criminality and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency incapable of crime prevention and enforcement. However, it would be too narrow to focus criticisms solely on a particular governmental agency. From a green criminology perspective, this article provides a political economic analysis of the Mobuoy illegal dump and demonstrates the country’s environmental management system, as well as political resistance against environmental governance reforms that may create favourable conditions for criminal groups to seek financial gains through environmental crime in Northern Ireland.

Preventing marine wildlife crime: An evaluation of legal protection and enforcement perspectives

IntroductionDespite growing environmental awareness and the efforts of a variety of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to influence the wildlife protection policy agenda, wildlife laws remain outside the remit of mainstream criminal justice. Adopting a green criminological perspective, this article considers wildlife crime in respect of threats to UK marine wildlife. It examines the UK’s legal and enforcement framework and the scope and nature of both marine wildlife crime and harms to marine wildlife. Its core question is to consider the extent to which the UK’s wildlife law approach provides for effective wildlife protection and is adequate to deal with the threats facing marine wildlife.MethodsThe research is a mixed methods study that considers the relevant law, case law and reporting of wildlife crimes as well as the enforcement approach to marine wildlife crime. The article’s methodological approach is socio-legal in nature commencing with a review of the relevant literature on threats to marine wildlife and incorporating analysis of the current law and case law available via the legal databases BAILII and Westlaw. The study also conducted an analysis of licences for disturbance of marine wildlife via an examination of the open access case management database managed by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) the main enforcement body for marine wildlife incidents in the UK.ResultsThe research identifies that while in principle the UK has robust legal protection for marine wildlife, in practice, policy allows exploitation and disturbance of marine wildlife that causes harm to individual animals and is detrimental to efforts to conserve marine wildlife and marine ecosystems.DiscussionThis research concludes that in the UK, potentially strong legislation existing on paper is arguably not backed by an effective enforcement regime. The remote nature of marine wildlife incidents, competition between marine wildlife and leisure and commercial activities and the very wording of legislation all create enforcement challenges. This article argues for marine wildlife crime to be integrated into mainstream crime policy linked to other forms of offending and criminal justice policy, rather than being largely seen as a purely environmental issue and a ‘fringe’ area of policing.

Crimes against non‐human animals: Examining dog fighting in the UK and the USA through a green criminology perspective

AbstractThis article reviews the social scientific literature published between the late 1990s and 2021 on the illegal ‘sport’ of dog fighting in the UK and USA. Adopting a green criminological perspective, it argues that studying dog fighting is important for understanding the ways in which this form of animal cruelty contributes to a range of social and animal harms. The review is structured in five sections. The first situates the review theoretically by introducing key ideas within green criminology that will inform the discussion. The next section presents a typology of the different levels of dog fighting in both countries. The third section then explores both the motivations of contemporary dog fighters, as well as the justifications they deploy to defend their ‘sport’ to outsiders. The fourth section then adopts a green criminological perspective to explore the various social and animal harms associated with dog fighting. The final section then brings the threads of the discussion together and highlights some directions for future research.

Assessing the Impact of the Economic Structure and Ecological Consequences on the Distribution of Illegal Hunting against Terrestrial Species

ABSTRACT Illegal hunting threatens conservation, but little research has explored structural correlates of illegal hunting trends. The leading theoretical understanding of illegal hunting is from a situational crime perspective. These situational and individual studies provide vital information on the decision-making of a wildlife offender and help improve enforcement strategies. However, correlates explaining the concentration of illegal hunting across multiple locations has yet to be explored. There has not been any criminological development to examine the overall geographical distribution of illegal hunting across a nation, territory, or state. The current study applies a green criminological perspective to analyze how the production institutions of the economy correlates with the trends of illegal hunting of terrestrial species across Texas counties. Results indicate that the treadmill of production does relate to illegal hunting, suggesting that there is conflict between the economy and public over the use of the wilderness.

Criminal Justice in a Time of Ecological Crisis: Can the Serious Accidents Punishment Act in Korea Be Enforced to Punish ‘Ecocide’?

At the global level, voices are growing to criminalise severe environmental destruction as ecocide so that the International Criminal Court can punish. This social phenomenon suggests that international criminal law has been ineffective in protecting the environment and humanity at the time of planetary crisis. In parallel, however, only a small body of literature exists looking at how criminal justice is effective in preventing environmental damage at the domestic level. To address this research gap, this study first builds a green criminological perspective, which emphasises crimes of the powerful, and explains different types of ecocide. Then, it examines Korean environmental criminal law and demonstrates that high-level personnel in corporations have not been adequately held accountable for serious environmental destruction. As a viable option to strengthen criminal justice in the environment sector in Korea, it is argued that the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (SAPA) can be amended to hold business owners and other responsible persons accountable and liable for serious environmental crime caused by corporate activities.

Farming Intensification in Northern Ireland – A State-Corporate Environmental Harm?

Food production may involve serious harms that lie beyond traditional definitions of crime and are not statutorily proscribed. One example of a criminologically under-researched source of harms is intensive farming. Taking a case study of rising intensive pig farming in Northern Ireland, this paper innovatively applies the state-corporate crime framework to analyse the catalysts for environmental and social harm in the country, expanding the knowledge of complex relationships between political and economic actors from a green criminological perspective and further advancing the agenda of ‘greening’ of state-corporate crime (Bradshaw, 2014). It concludes that a state-corporate symbiosis supports and reinforces a market-oriented, profit-driven model of farming that prioritises efficiency and ultimately leads to ‘lawful but awful’ intensification.

Change for the Better, or More of the Same?

This article analyses the lithium-ion Battery through a green criminological lens. It explores green criminological reasoning, particularly the framework of “ecocide,” in order to frame the renewables market as an area of emergent concern for criminologists. Two case studies are analysed in pursuit of this goal: the case of coltan Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the case of lithium extraction in the “lithium triangle” nations of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. This article initially examines the issue of coltan mining through a mainstream criminological lens, before moving to explore the issues from a green criminological perspective. In doing so, the advantages of the green criminological model are highlighted, and it is demonstrated that the contemporary renewables market is an area of criminological interest.

Green criminological perspectives on dog-fighting as organised masculinities -based animal harm

Dog-fighting was historically a working-class pursuit within predominantly white, working-class subcultures, representing a distinct type of organised animal exploitation. However, contemporary dog-fighting has moved way from its organised pit-based origins to encompass varied forms of organised activity including street dog-fighting in the form of chain fighting or chain rolling, the use of dogs as status or weapon dogs. This paper examines dog-fighting from a green criminological perspective as a distinct form of organised and subcultural crime. Analysis of UK legislation identifies that the specific offence of ‘dog-fighting’ does not exist. Instead, dog-fighting is contained within the ‘animal fighting’ offence, prohibited by provisions of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. However, beyond the actual fight activities (pitting dogs against each other or attacking humans), a range of other offences are associated with dog-fighting including: illegal gambling; attending dog-fighting events; animal welfare harms; and the breeding and selling of dogs for fighting. This paper’s analysis examines contemporary legal perspectives on such activities; also discussing how illegal fieldsports (e.g. dog-fighting and cock-fighting) are dominated by organised crime elements of gambling and distinctly masculine subcultures through which a hierarchy of offending is established and developed. Commensurate with previous research that identifies different offender behaviours and offending within animal crime, this paper concludes that variation exists in the nature of dog-fighting to the extent that a single approach to offenders and offending behaviour is unlikely to be successful.

Indigenous People, Organized Crime and Natural Resources: Borders, Incentives and Relations

This article explores the relationship between the Emberá–Wounaan and Akha Indigenous people and organized crime groups vying for control over natural resources in the Darién Gap of East Panama and West Colombia and the Golden Triangle (the area where the borders of Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand meet), respectively. From a southern green criminological perspective, we consider how organized crime groups trading in natural resources value Indigenous knowledge. We also examine the continued victimization of Indigenous people in relation to environmental harm and the tension between Indigenous peoples’ ecocentric values and the economic incentives presented to them for exploiting nature. By looking at the history of the coloniality and the socioeconomic context of these Indigenous communities, this article generates a discussion about the social framing of the Indigenous people as both victims and offenders in the illegal trade in natural resources, particularly considering the types of relationships established with dominant criminal groups present in their ancestral lands.

Injustice and Environmental Harm in Extractive Industries and Solar Energy Policies in Indonesia

The rapid development of Indonesia’s economy in the recent decades has accelerated the exploitation of natural resources by the extractive industries and increased carbon emissions through higher energy consumption. Additionally, the persistent enthusiasm for coal energy and the ambitious deployment of renewable energy may have led to injustices in the energy system, short-sighted corrupt practices, and environmental harm. This article examines the challenges and risks of energy source utilization and technological developments linked to coal, geothermal, and solar energy. More specifically, I focused on the following issues: domestic market obligation for coal, geothermal exploration, solar lamp distribution, rooftop photovoltaic policy, and electricity charging stations (ECS). Investigating these issues from an energy justice and a green criminology perspective allowed us to evaluate them concerning instances where injustices (to humans and the environment) have emerged and how they should be addressed. In conclusion, the article demonstrates how the marginalization of rural communities and production of environmental harm has been perpetuated by powerful figures, reinforced since colonialism, and escalated by the demands of the Global North.

Zelena kriminologija - ponovno o refleksijama, povezanostima i horizontima

This paper traces aspects of the development of a 'green' criminology. It starts with personal reflections and then describes the emergence of explicit statements of a green criminological perspective. Initially these statements were independently voiced in different parts of the world but they reflected shared concerns. These works have found unification as a 'green', 'eco-global' or 'conservation' criminology. The paper reviews the classifications available when talking about not only legally - defined crimes but also legally perpetrated harms, as well as typologies of such harms and crimes. It then looks at the integration of 'green' and 'traditional' criminological thinking before briefly exploring four dimensions of concern for today and the future.

Water Theft Maleficence in Australia

The United Nations has repeatedly identified that freshwater security is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, and that water theft is a global problem exacerbating human conflict, denying human rights and accelerating environmental despoliation (UN 2019; UN Water 2020). Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent where water security is seriously threatened and constantly monitored by federal, state and local authorities. The devastating 2019-2020 bushfires across Australia serve as a stark reminder of the nation’s vulnerabilities to drought and the imperatives of water security and sustainability. Whilst some threats are undoubtedly climate induced, it is widely reported the ‘theft’ of water is playing an increasingly significant role in compromising Australia’s water security. This article provides a critical overview of the contemporary significance of water theft and its governance. It interrogates official documents of government inquiries, examines court proceedings, and provides a green criminological perspective on future policy, practice and prevention.

Authoritarian Environmentalism and Environmental Regulation Enforcement: A Case Study of Medical Waste Crime in Northwestern China

This chapter utilizes a green criminological perspective to examine this key issue as it pertains to waste dumping in rural northwestern China. First, we offer a brief review of green criminology’s approach to waste crime and summarize the literature on top-down environmental regulation enforcement in China. Next, we describe the development of the medical waste regulation framework and highlight the current obstacles to enforcement in China. The chapter then utilizes a case study to illustrate how institutional incentives in the job performance evaluation system of bureaucrats shaped the under-enforcement of medical waste regulations at the grassroots level of rural governance. Our chapter concludes with a discussion of how the study expands our understanding of waste crime and environmental regulation enforcement in an illiberal context.

Defaunatie en de coronapandemie

The overexploitation of nature has led to anthropogenic defaunation, which results in complex socioeconomic, political and ecological consequences Influenced by the economic growth of modernization and the interconnectedness of globalization, zoonotic diseases emerge as incalculable side effects of defaunation By rejecting anthropocentric worldviews, this article critically examines anthropogenic defaunation and the causes and consequences of the coronavirus pandemic from a green criminological perspective

Understanding environmental victimization from a green criminological perspective

Understanding environmental victimization from a green criminological perspective

Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011–2017

Recent research has highlighted numerous environmental concerns with US prisons, including that prisons are often located on undesirable land that is in close proximity to environmental hazards. We utilize an environmental justice and green criminology perspective to test this in Oklahoma using data on prison sites and toxic releases provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency for a period of seven years (2011–2017). We focus on Oklahoma because it recently became the state with the highest overall incarceration rate and has a history of elevated levels of pollution. Our results find that prison zip codes have greater TRI emissions compared to non-prison zip codes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the study and directions for future research.

Environmental Crime and Victimization: A Green Criminological Analysis of the Endosulfan Disaster, Kasargod, Kerala

AbstractPesticides are chemicals used to kill pests and other “rival” organisms which may cause damage to crops in agriculture. In some instances the vast usage of pesticides may create negative effects on the environment and its units like living and non-living organisms. Green criminology counts such harmful activities upon the environment as crimes or harms though such activities can be legal or illegal in nature. The case of the endosulfan disaster that occurred in Kasargod, Kerala can be accounted to environmental harms which detrimentally affected the environment and its units, especially humans. The pesticide endosulfan was sprayed aerially for around 25 years in cashew plantations situated in Kasargod and caused severe diseases and extensive malformations among people living in the region. In this paper the endosulfan disaster of Kasargod is approached through the green criminological perspective of environmental harms.

Perceptions and law enforcement of illegal and legal wolf killing in Norway: organized crime or folk crime?

On 20 April 2015, five men were convicted in a Norwegian court for breaching the penal law, namely for attempting to reduce the natural population of a protected endangered species on 15 February 2014. One was also charged with having killed a wolf on 14 March 2014. The sentences were the strictest ever imposed for similar crimes in Norway, with 20 months’ imprisonment for the main offender, partly because they were charged with organized crime—an aggravating circumstance. The verdict was appealed and a new conviction made on 5 April 2016, where the prison sentences for the five convicted men were considerably reduced, the strictest from 20 to 9 months, and with the law applied differently. The state appealed the decision from the Appeal Court to the Supreme Court [Høyesterett], concerning the application of law, and there four of the men were again found guilty of attempting to reduce the population of an endangered species. These verdicts invite discussion of how such crimes should be perceived-as serious organized crime or as “folk crimes”. This article argues that either way such acts should be regarded as theriocides that breach the Animal Welfare Act and its statement that animals have intrinsic value, and further that they cannot be viewed in isolation but must be seen in the context of state policy towards large predators. The crimes are thus discussed from a green criminology perspective, concentrating on seeing these theriocides as crimes, not “only” harms.

Criminalising the right to hunt: European law perspectives on anti-hunting legislation

The existence of large hunting/shooting communities across Europe is sufficiently widespread that hunters can be classed as a distinct social group or subculture. Hunters are nevertheless not legally recognized as a distinct protected group even where they are granted considerable recognition within legislative and policy discourse related to their interests. Widespread opposition to anti-hunting legislation across Europe suggests a shared resistance to legislation and public policy detrimental to their ‘sport’ among hunters and those engaged in animal harm linked to traditional fieldsports and hunting interests. Socio-legal discourse, however, suggests that states have not only a right, but sometimes an actual obligation, to introduce laws that serve a utilitarian purpose; even where these marginalize certain interest groups, e.g. hunters This article examines these conflicts through analysis of the UK’s Hunting Act 2004 and challenges to its introduction via European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) action; particularly arguments that hunting falls within Article 8 (right to a private life) Article 11 (freedom of association/assembly) and Article 14 (freedom from discrimination). The ECtHR’s jurisprudence concludes that hunting is an activity that is only protected by human rights law in specific circumstances. Accordingly, employing a green criminological perspective, this article concludes that European states are entitled to regulate or criminalize hunting where they consider there are legitimate animal protection or moral reasons to do so, even in the face of significant opposition from hunting communities. Thus states may also legitimately criminalize and prosecute illegal hunting activity even where this might be socially constructed as resistance to anti-hunting legislation.