Overview
This lecture introduces the concept of green crime, examines its definitions, and differentiates between primary and secondary green crimes with key examples.
Defining Green Crime
- Green crimes often harm the environment but may not violate national laws.
- Green criminology focuses on environmental harm rather than just legal violations.
- The impact of green crime is often transnational, affecting multiple countries.
Types of Green Crime
- Professor Nigel South identifies two forms: primary and secondary green crime.
Primary Green Crimes
- Air pollution results from industrialization, vehicles, and fossil fuel use, especially in developing nations.
- Water pollution increases due to single-use plastics and chemical waste from manufacturing.
- Deforestation occurs for timber, livestock grazing, or manufacturing, driven by international policies (e.g., IMF in Cameroon).
- Desertification is caused by over-cultivation of land to meet demands for primary goods like coffee.
- Species extinction is accelerated by deforestation, desertification, and urbanization; includes illegal animal export and mistreatment.
Secondary Green Crimes
- Sale and illegal disposal of toxic waste by organized crime syndicates.
- Export of waste to countries with lax environmental regulations by private industries.
- Environmental discrimination involves burdening deprived areas with pollution or waste (e.g., shipping UK waste to developing countries).
- State criminalization of environmental protestors, labeling them as terrorists or charging them for activism (examples: fracking and infrastructure protests).
Key Terms & Definitions
- Green Crime — Harmful acts affecting the environment, regardless of legality within a nation.
- Green Criminology — Study of environmental harm rather than strictly legal violations.
- Primary Green Crime — Direct environmental destruction or resource degradation.
- Secondary Green Crime — Breaches of environmental protection laws, often for profit or state interest.
- Deforestation — Large-scale clearing of forests for land use.
- Desertification — Land becoming infertile due to overuse.
- Environmental Discrimination — Placing environmental burdens disproportionately on deprived or developing areas.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review definitions and examples of primary and secondary green crimes.
- Prepare for questions on the consequences and categorization of green crimes.