Climate Change From A Criminological Perspective

Few would dispute the power of climate change to lead to profoundly destructive weather events. At the same time, the possibility of climate change as a consequence—or even a cause—of criminal events is far less recognized. As the earth grows warmer, issues regarding land use, water rights, bio-security, and food production and distribution will continue to have far-reaching impact, and produce more opportunity for offenses by individuals and groups as well as political and corporate entities. In Climate Change from a Criminological Perspective, a panel of pioneering green criminologists investigates an increasingly complex chain of ecological causes and effects. Illegal acts are analyzed as they contribute to environmental decline (e.g., wildlife poaching) or result from ecological distress (e.g., survival-related theft). Regulatory and other interventions are critiqued, concepts of environmental harm refined, and new research methodologies called for. And while individual events described are mainly local, the contributors keep the global picture, and substantial questions about human rights and social relationships, firmly in mind. Topics featured include: Global warming as corporate crime. Climate change and the courts: U.S. and global views. Climate change, natural disasters, and gender inequality. The roles and responsibilities of environmental enforcement networks. A sociocultural perspective on climate change denial. PLUS: instructive in-depth chapters on criminological aspects of Hurricane Katrina and the Japanese nuclear disaster. A volume of considerable timeliness and vision, Climate Change from a Criminological Perspective will be read and discussed, and will inspire action, by researchers in criminology, criminal justice, environmental studies, and related disciplines, as well as policymakers.

Few would dispute the power of climate change to lead to profoundly destructive weather events. At the same time, the possibility of climate change as a consequence—or even a cause—of criminal events is far less recognized. As the earth grows warmer, issues regarding land use, water rights, bio-security, and food production and distribution will continue to have far-reaching impact, and produce more opportunity for offenses by individuals and groups as well as political and corporate entities. In Climate Change from a Criminological Perspective, a panel of pioneering green criminologists investigates an increasingly complex chain of ecological causes and effects. Illegal acts are analyzed as they contribute to environmental decline (e.g., wildlife poaching) or result from ecological distress (e.g., survival-related theft). Regulatory and other interventions are critiqued, concepts of environmental harm refined, and new research methodologies called for. And while individual events described are mainly local, the contributors keep the global picture, and substantial questions about human rights and social relationships, firmly in mind. Topics featured include: Global warming as corporate crime. Climate change and the courts: U.S. and global views. Climate change, natural disasters, and gender inequality. The roles and responsibilities of environmental enforcement networks. A sociocultural perspective on climate change denial. PLUS: instructive in-depth chapters on criminological aspects of Hurricane Katrina and the Japanese nuclear disaster. A volume of considerable timeliness and vision, Climate Change from a Criminological Perspective will be read and discussed, and will inspire action, by researchers in criminology, criminal justice, environmental studies, and related disciplines, as well as policymakers.

Leading green criminologist Rob White asks what can be learned from the problem-solving focus of crime prevention to help face the challenges of climate change in this call to arms for criminology and criminologists. Industries such as energy, food and tourism and the systematic destruction of the environment through global capitalism are scrutinized for their contribution to global warming. Ideas of ‘state-corporate crime’ and 'ecocide’ are introduced and explored in this concise overview of criminological writings on climate change. This sound and robust application of theoretical concepts to this ‘new’ area also includes commentary on topical issues such as the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement. Part of the New Horizons in Criminology series, which draws on the inter-disciplinary nature of criminology and incorporates emerging perspectives like social harm, gender and sexuality, and green criminology.

Carbon Criminals, Climate Crimes analyzes climate change from a criminological perspective. Four state-corporate crimes are examined: continued extraction of fossil fuels and rising carbon emissions; political omission related to the mitigation of emissions; socially organized denial; and climate crimes of empire. The final chapter reviews policies to achieve climate justice.

This edited collection, the result of an international seminar held at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati, Spain in 2010, explores the potential legal and criminological consequences of climate change, both domestically and for the international community. A novel feature of the book is the consideration given to the potential synergies between the two disciplinary foci, thus to encourage among legal scholars and criminologists not only an analysis of the consequences of climate change from these perspectives but to bring these fields together to provide a unique, inter-disciplinary exploration of the ways in which climate change does, or could, impact on our societies. Such an inter-disciplinary approach is necessary given that climate change is a multifaceted phenomenon and one which is intimately linked across disciplines. To study this topic from the point of view of a single social science discipline restricts our understanding of the societal consequences of climate change. It is hoped that this edited collection will identify emerging areas of concern, illuminate areas for further research and, most of all, encourage future academic discussion on this most critical of issues.

Crime, Violence, and Global Warming introduces the many connections between climate change and criminal activity. Conflict over natural resources can escalate to state and non-state actors, resulting in wars, asymmetrical warfare, and terrorism. Crank and Jacoby apply criminological theory to each aspect of this complicated web, helping readers to evaluate conflicting claims about global warming and to analyze evidence of the current and potential impact of climate change on conflict and crime. Beginning with an overview of the science of global warming, the authors move on to the links between climate change, scarce resources, and crime. Their approach takes in the full scope of causes and consequences, present and future, in the United States and throughout the world. The book concludes by looking ahead at the problem of forecasting future security implications if global warming continues or accelerates. This fresh approach to the criminology of climate change challenges readers to examine all sides of this controversial question and to formulate their own analysis of our planet’s future.

2020 Choice​ Outstanding Academic Title Carbon Criminals, Climate Crimes analyzes the looming threats posed by climate change from a criminological perspective. It advances the field of green criminology through a examination of the criminal nature of catastrophic environmental harms resulting from the release of greenhouse gases. The book describes and explains what corporations in the fossil fuel industry, the U.S. government, and the international political community did, or failed to do, in relation to global warming. Carbon Criminals, Climate Crimes integrates research and theory from a wide variety of disciplines, to analyze four specific state-corporate climate crimes: continued extraction of fossil fuels and rising carbon emissions; political omission (failure) related to the mitigation of these emissions; socially organized climate change denial; and climate crimes of empire, which include militaristic forms of adaptation to climate disruption. The final chapter reviews policies that could mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to a warming world, and achieve climate justice.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to and overview of eco-global criminology. Eco-global criminology refers to a criminological approach that is informed by ecological considerations and by a critical analysis that is global in scale and perspective. Based upon eco-justice conceptions of harm, it focuses on transgressions against environments, non-human species and humans. At the centre of eco-global criminology is analysis of transnational environmental crime. This includes crimes related to pollution (of air, water and land) and crimes against wildlife (including illegal trade in ivory as well as live animals). It also includes those harms that pose threats to the environment more generally (such as global warming). In addressing these issues, the book deals with topics such as the conceptualization of environmental crime or harm, the researching of transnational environmental harm, climate change and social conflict, threats to biodiversity, toxic waste and the transference of harm, prosecution and sentencing of environmental crimes, and environmental victimization and transnational activism. This book argues that analysis of transnational environmental crime needs to incorporate different notions of harm, and that the overarching perspective of eco-global criminology provides the framework for this. Transnational Environmental Crime will be an essential resource for students, academics, policy-makers, environmental managers, police, magistrates and others with a general interest in environmental issues.