Green criminology encompasses environmental crime as well as a broader range of environmental hazards that provide opportunities for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary engagement. Green criminology studies environmental hazards, ecological justice, environmental law, and criminal behavior, including environmental crimes and crimes of a non-human nature, from a broad “green” perspective. Within the eco-justice and species justice perspectives of green criminology, there is a school of thought that argues that justice systems must consider more than just anthropocentric concepts of criminal justice; they must consider how justice systems can provide protection and remedies for the environment as well as other species.
Green criminology is defined as the study, analysis, and treatment of environmental crime and is a broader tool for describing environmental hazards that are frequently overlooked by traditional criminology. It offers additional interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary engagement and approaches, once again redefining criminology as a discipline that is concerned with more than just the criminal justice system or the harm that crime causes to society.
Green criminology is not easy to classify because it brings together many different viewpoints as well as different theories and ideological concepts (Nurse, 2017).
In general, green criminology focuses on issues related to the environment and hazards. Much of this work is aimed at exposing different practical examples of social and ecological injustice. It also involves criticism of nation-states and transnational capital for contributing to specific types of harm and failing to adequately address or regulate harmful activities.
In September 2015, the world agreed on a new set of development goals, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and 169 targets (White, 2014).
In most countries, the number of people in prison, whether on remand or behind bars, has risen steadily over the past 20 years, placing a huge financial burden on governments and at great cost to social cohesion. In many countries, the criminal justice system is unfair and discriminatory. Instead of protecting society from crime or guaranteeing the rights of those accused or convicted, they create obstacles to social and economic progress that promote and deepen poverty.
Today’s message of peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice, and accountable institutions must recognize the value of the rule of law in achieving sustainable development. However, justice and criminal policy reform are also linked to the achievement of several other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and related targets, such as those on poverty, gender equality, and reducing inequality and discrimination (PRI, 2016).
Given the nature of “green criminology” as a broad field that encompasses the discourse of many environmental hazards, this collection of articles provides a discussion of a variety of issues that can help advance the discussion of “green criminology” (Nurse, 2017).
References
Nurse, A. (2017). Green criminology: shining a critical lens on environmental harm. Palgrave Communications, [online] 3(1). doi:10.1057/s41599-017-0007-2.[Accessed 3 January 2023].
White, R. (2014). Green Criminology. Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, [online] 1984(1976), pp.1976–1984. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_314. [Accessed 5 January 2023].
PRI (2016). Why criminal justice reform is essential to the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs). [online] Penal Reform International. Available at: https://www.penalreform.org/resource/criminal-justice-reform-essential-un-agenda-sustainable-development/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2023].
