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Ecocentrism is a perspective that views nature as having value in and of itself and for its own sake. This translates into specific kinds of legal approach and decision-making. This article explores how broad ecocentric principles are put into practice in criminal proceedings dealing with environmental crime. The focus of the article is the ways in which courts undertake ecocentric approaches to criminal breaches of law. Of special interest is how notions of 'harm' and 'morality' pertaining to non-human environmental entities such as rivers, trees and specific ecosystems are interpreted by judicial officers during criminal proceedings. From an ecocentric perspective, this process requires specialist expertise so that the ecological dimensions of harm and morality pertaining to criminal breaches of law can be fully assessed and appropriate sanctions applied.

AbstractThe focus of criminology on crimes and harms committed by and against humans has broadened over time. Only since the 1990s, however, has the discipline recognized the significance of crimes and harms concerning the environment and nonhuman animals. A variety of approaches and bodies of work now contribute to what can be described as "green criminology." This article summarizes research on types of environmental crime and harm, as well as different eco‐philosophical orientations and related justice‐based approaches. It concludes with an example illustrating the ways in which these approaches may overlap.

Why does Latin America struggle to implement even its increasingly strong and broadly supported environmental polices? To answer that question, this article examines the primary tool of enforcement, environmental prosecution, one of the region's newest and most‐innovative developments in policy and institutional reform. It creates an analytical framework that explains how the two pillars of prosecution, the state and the law, are also its two main weaknesses. Within the state, it examines deficiencies in investigation and resources. Within the law, it focuses on the lack of clarity in laws and in policy regulations that support them. Together, these common and inherent policy challenges make it difficult for governments throughout Latin America to halt crimes such as illegal deforestation, mining, and road building. The article develops a way to understand comparatively how ably policies are supported in practice. Empirically, it draws on five years of fieldwork in the region's two main tropical areas, Central America and the Amazon Basin. In addition to its concrete policy assessments and recommendations, the article brings a new dimension to the study of the state in Latin America and to the field of criminology.

"Environmental Crime in the United States provides an introduction to the laws that govern environmental crime, how these laws are implemented and enforced, and the impact they have had since their passing in the twentieth century laws and their continued applications. Environmental crimes such as wildlife trafficking, over-fishing, artisanal mining and deforestation are lucrative contributors to a global illicit trade market and sources of cheap resources for corporations to exploit. This book presents a review of US based laws and regulations regarding such environmental crimes at the state and federal level, combined with examples of international convention or trade agreements which can be prosecuted within the United States. It examines attempts to modify these laws, the exceptions granted to prevent enforcement and the ability of political and social groups to address inefficiencies of the laws or their implementations. Both criminal and administrative laws are reviewed to assess how laws governing the environment compare to other areas of law that seek to protect and improve social well- being and public health. This includes a review of how environmental crimes overlap with general crimes, and how these crimes fuel illicit commerce while strengthening international crime syndicates. Trends such as the actions taken by non-governmental organizations and other entities other than law enforcement to stop environmental crimes such as poaching will be explained with a discussion of how environmental crimes spurn illicit markets and provide lucrative schemes for international crime rings as well as corporations. This book will be of great interest to students of environmental crime and justice, green criminology, environmental conservation, natural resource management and environmental law"--

AbstractOne of the more neglected areas of research in the field of criminology are the crimes committed by 'white collar' offenders. An even more understudied area is the corporate crimes that are committed against the environment for profit. Despite this dearth of research, there have been several sociologically significant examinations into some of the more serious environmental crimes committed over the last three decades. While some of this research is theoretically underdeveloped, more recent studies have attempted to develop a coherent framework to study environmental crime. By linking and synthesizing two literatures in both white‐collar criminology and environmental justice, sociologists have begun to develop a framework for examining 'green crimes', the motivations, opportunity context, victimology, and enforcement issues. This article will be a survey of these studies and development literature along with some typological and definitional issues relevant to the subfield. This aims to map where criminology has been in the sub‐field of environmental crime and provides directions for where future research should be headed.

ObjectivesThe following study contributes to the bridging green criminology's quantitative research gap by analyzing the spatial distribution of environmental crimes throughout the United States. In doing so, we consider the possibility of green crime havens; areas with elevated health risks associated with dense concentrations of green criminal behavior.MethodsUsing data obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ECHO database, we conduct a spatial cluster analysis to identify counties bearing a disproportionate number of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations.ResultsFindings affirm the existence of numerous green crime havens with violations occurring both within and across different types of pollution cases.ConclusionsThe study concludes with a theoretical reflection of the treadmill of crime and corresponding series of policy recommendations.