Crimes Against Nature: Environmental Criminology and Ecological Justice

328 Pages·2008·2.22 MB·English

by  Rob White

Crimes Against Nature

Crimes Against Nature
Environmental criminology and
ecological justice
Rob White
Published by
Willan Publishing
Culmcott House
Mill Street, Uffculme
Cullompton, Devon
EX15 3AT, UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by
Willan Publishing
c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300,
Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA
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Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.isbs.com
© Rob White 2008
The rights of Rob White to be identified as the author of this book have been asserted by
him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence
permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron
House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
First published 2008
ISBN 978-1-84392-361-9 paperback
978-1-84392-362-6 hardback
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
Printed and bound by T.J. International, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
List of boxes, case studies and figures ix
Preface xiii
Part I Green Theoretical Perspectives 1
1 Criminology and environmental harm 3
Introduction 3
Environmental/green criminology 6
Theoretical frameworks of environmental criminology 14
Tasks of environmental criminology 27
Conclusion: where to from here? 30
2 Social constructions of environmental problems 32
Introduction 32
Social construction of environmental issues 35
Media reporting on the environment 41
Human interests and environmental problems 46
Conclusion: where to from here? 52
3 Environmental risk and the precautionary principle 54
Introduction 54
Dimensions of risk 56
From risk to precaution 64
Risk assessment and risk management 71
Deliberative democracy and social participation 77
Conclusion: where to from here? 82

Crimes Against Nature
Part II Environmental Crime 85
4 Dimensions of environmental crime 87
Introduction 87
Defining environmental harm 88
Categorising environmental harm 92
Measuring crimes, measuring consequences 103
Conclusion: where to from here? 112
5 Transnational environmental crime 115
Introduction 115
The problem of waste 116
Waste as a social phenomenon 126
The problem of biodiversity 133
Conclusion: where to from here? 142
6 Explaining environmental harm 144
Introduction 144
Class and corporations 145
Capitalism, population and technology 149
Sustainable development and commodity production 153
Resource colonisation and new market creation 156
Privatisation, commodification and consumption 161
Licit and illicit markets 172
Conclusion: where to from here? 176
Part III Responding to Environmental Harm 179
7 Environmental law enforcement 181
Introduction 181
Prosecuting environmental crime 183
Limitations of criminal prosecution 191
Policing and environmental law enforcement 196
Conclusion: where to from here? 207
8 Environmental regulation 209
Introduction 209
Systems and models of regulation 210
Political context of environmental regulation 217
Social power and environmental regulation 228
Conclusion: where to from here? 232
i
Contents
9 Environmental crime prevention 234
Introduction 234
Environmental crime prevention 235
Harm associated with fishing 241
Issues for environmental crime prevention 251
Conclusion: where to from here? 255
10 Global environmental issues and socio-legal
intervention 256
Introduction 256
Global institutions and the neo-liberal agenda 257
Working with and against the corporations 265
Contesting the global commons 268
Conclusion: where to from here? 279

References 282
Index 302
ii

List of boxes, case studies and figures
Boxes
1.1 What’s in a name? 6
1.2 Environmental injustice as a social good? 16
1.3 Tasks of environmental criminology 27
2.1 The science of environmental harm 33
2.2 The contingent nature of environmental problems 38
2.3 Depleted uranium and environmental harm 48
3.1 Direct and indirect discrimination 58
4.1 Abalone theft as a significant environmental crime 95
4.2 Dioxins and the spatial dynamics of environmental
harm 103
5.1 Waste dumping in Abidjan 118
5.2 Recycle shipyards 120
5.3 International responses to waste 128
6.1 Legal fictions relating to corporations 146
6.2 Zambia rejects GM crops 159
6.3 Environmental harm, water and transnational
corporations 168
7.1 Strategic law enforcement approaches to abalone
theft 199
7.2 Social research into police work on environmental
issues 204
7.3 Determinants of the quality of enforcement 207
ix