Environmental Crime in the United States

Federal Legislation

U.S. Federal Legislation by media:

• Water : the Act is the following: Safe Drinking Water Act (1974, 1986, 1996) (about Sets drinking water standards and protection for groundwater ); the Agency is: EPA
• Water : the Act is the following: Clean Water Act (1972)/Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1948) (about National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) ); the Agency is: EPA
• Water : the Act is the following: Marine Protection Research & Sanctuaries Act (1972) (about Control the dumping of waste in the ocean, authorizes related research ); the Agency is: EPA
• Water : the Act is the following: (about ); the Agency is:
• Water : the Act is the following: (about ); the Agency is: /NOAA
• Water : the Act is the following: Coastal Zone Management Act (1972) (about Protect coastal areas from harmful development ); the Agency is: NOAA
• Water : the Act is the following: Oil Pollution Act (OPA) (1990) (about Related to the response to oil spills and polluter responsibility ); the Agency is: EPA/Coast Guard
• Air : the Act is the following: Clean Air Act (1970) (about Set standards for air quality and pollution ); the Agency is: EPA
• Toxic Substances & Waste : the Act is the following: Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (1976) (about Set standards for the management of hazardous waste disposal ); the Agency is: EPA
• Toxic Substances & Waste : the Act is the following: Toxic Substances Control Act (1976) (about Regulates the manufacturing and sale of toxic substances ); the Agency is: EPA
• Toxic Substances & Waste : the Act is the following: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA) (1980) (about The cleanup of toxic waste sites. Referred to as the “Superfund” ); the Agency is: EPA
• Toxic Substances & Waste : the Act is the following: Pollution Prevention Act (1990) (about Reduce pollution emissions at the source ); the Agency is: EPA
• Toxic Substances & Waste : the Act is the following: Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (1947) (about Regulates the production and sale of pesticides ); the Agency is: EPA
• Toxic Substances & Waste : the Act is the following: National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA 1969) (about Requires major activities to conduct environmental assessments ); the Agency is: EPA

Environmental Crime in relation to Crime and Race

Environmental Crime is included in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (1), beginning with: Environmental crime has been described as consisting of acts that cause harm to the natural environment, typically involving the handling of hazardous wastes and the contamination of the air and water. Environmental crime is important to the topic of race and crime because its occurrence affects low-income groups and people of color at a far greater rate than more-affluent White groups. However, defining environmental crime has been rather difficult because of the fluctuating nature of how environmental crimes are characterized and the fact that environmental laws are relatively recent creations that are constantly being reevalu-ated and modified. The most immediate events that come to mind when most think of environmental crime are incidents such as the Love Canal toxic waste disaster, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant radiation leak, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. [1]

Typology of Environmental Crimes

Typology of Environmental Criminals

Resources

1. Entry about Environmental Crime in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime

• Andrews, W. J., & Masoner, J. R. (2011). Changes in selected metals concentration from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s in a stream draining the Picher mining district of Oklahoma. The Open Environmental & Biological Monitoring Journal, 4, 36–44.
• Ayling, J. (2013). What sustains wildlife crime? Rhino horn trading and the resilience of criminal networks. Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy, 16, 57–80.
• Beccaria, C. (1764/1963). On crimes and punishments (Trans. H. Paolucci). New York: MacMillan Publishing Company.
• Bisschop, L. (2012). Is it all going to waste? Illegal transports of e-waste in a European trade hub. Crime, Law and Social Change, 58(3), 221–249.
• Braithwaite, J. (1985). White collar crime. Annual Review of Sociology, 11, 1–25.
• Brown, M. (1981). Laying waste: The poisoning of America by toxic chemicals. New York: Washington Square Press.
• Bullard, R. D. (1999). Dismantling environmental racism in the USA. Local Environment, 4, 5–19.
• Burns, R. G., Lynch, M. J., & Stretesky, P. (2008). Environmental law, crime and justice. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing.
• Carter, T. (1998). Policing the environment. In M. Clifford (Ed.), Environmental crime: enforcement, policy, and social responsibility (pp. 169–203). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers.
• Clarke, R. V., & Cornish, D. B. (1985). Modeling offenders’ decisions: A framework for research and policy. In M. Tonry & N. Morris (Eds.), Crime and justice: An annual review of research (pp. 147–185). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Clifford, M. (1998). Environmental crime: Enforcement, policy and social responsibility. Gaithersburg MD: Aspen Publishers.
• Clifford, M., & Edwards, T. D. (1998). Defining environmental crime. In M. Clifford (Ed.), Environmental crime: Enforcement, policy and social responsibility (pp. 5–30). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers.
• Clifford, M., & Edwards, T. D. (Eds.). (2012). Environmental crime (2d ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Clinard, M. B., & Quinney, R. (1973). Criminal behavior systems: A typology. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Cohen, M. A. (2012). Sentencing the environmental criminal. In M. Clifford & T. D. Edwards (Eds.), Environmental crime (2d ed., pp. 265–284). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Cooney, J. F., Starr, J. W., Block, J. G., Kelly, T. J., Jr., Herrup, A.R., Mann, V. K., & Braker, G. (1996). Criminal enforcement of environmental laws. Environmental crimes deskbook (pp. 5–63). Washington, DC: Environmental Law Reporter.
• Crow, M. S., O’Connor, T., Stretesky, S., & Stretesky, P. B. (2013). Camouflage-collar crime: An examination of wildlife crime and characteristics of offenders in Florida. Deviant Behavior, 34(8), 635–652.
• Delacote, P. (2009). On the sources of consumer boycotts ineffectiveness. The Journal of Environment and Development, 18(3), 306–322.
• Devaney, E. (1994). Environmental Protection Agency memorandum: The exercise of investigative discretion.
• District of West Virginia vs. Workman, Brown, Hudnall, & Tucker (2013). Summary of Criminal Prosecutions, Press Release.
• Edwards, S. (1996). Environmental criminal enforcement: Efforts by the states. In S. Edwards, T. Edwards, & C. Field (Eds.), Environmental crime and criminality: Theoretical and practical issues (pp. 205–244). New York: Garland.
• Ehrlich, P. R. (1968). The population bomb. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Eliason, S. L., & Dodder, R. A. (1999). Techniques of neutralization used by deer poachers in the western United States: A research note. Deviant Behavior, 20(3), 233–252.
• Elliott, L. (2012). Fighting transnational environmental crime. Journal of International Affairs, 66, 87–104.
• Eman, K., & Meško, G. (2013). Green issues in south-eastern Europe. In N. South & A. Brisman (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of green criminology (pp. 230–240). Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• Environmental Council of the States (2001). State agency contributions to enforcement and compliance.—Report to Congress. Report No. ECOS 01-004, Washington, DC.
• EU (2014). The EU explained: Environment, European Commission, directorate-general for communication, citizens information. Luxembourg.
• Everson, M. E. (2012). A review of federal environmental legislation and the federal environmental regulatory structure. In M. Clifford & T. D. Edwards (Eds.), Environmental Crime (2d ed., pp. 153–181). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Finckenauer, J. O. (2005). Problems of definition: What is organized crime? Trends in Organized Crime, 3, 63–83.
• Flint Water Advisory Task Force. (2016, March). Final Report.
• Gibbs, C. (2012). Corporate citizenship and corporate environmental performance. Crime, Law and Social Change, 57, 345–372.
• Gibbs, C., Cassidy, M. B., & Rivers, L., III. (2013). A routine activities analysis of white-collar crime in carbon markets. Law and Policy, 35(4), 341–374.
• Gibbs, C., Gore, M. L., McGarrell, E. F., & Rivers, L., III. (2010). Introducing conservation criminology: Towards interdisciplinary scholarship on environmental crimes and risks. British Journal of Criminology, 50, 124–144.
• Gibbs, C., McGarrell, E. F., Axelrod, M., & Rivers, L., III. (2011). Conservation criminology and the global trade in electronic waste: Applying a multi-disciplinary research framework. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 35(4), 269–291.
• Gibbs, C, McGarrell, E. F., & Sullivan, B. 2015. Intelligence-led policing and transnational environmental crime: A process evaluation. European Journal of Criminology, 12(2), 242–259.
• Gill, D. A., Picou, J. S., & Ritchie, L. A. (2011). The Exxon Valdez and BP oil spills: A comparison of initial social and psychological impacts. American Behavioral Scientist, XX, 1–21.
• Grabosky, P. N. (1994). Green markets: Environmental regulation by the private sector. Law & Policy, 16(4), 419–448.
• Gray, W., & Shadbegian, R. J. (2015). Multimedia pollution regulation and environmental performance: EPA’s cluster rule. Resources for the future.
• Gray, W., & Shimshack, J. (2011). The effectiveness of environmental monitoring and enforcement: A review of the empirical evidence. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 5(1), 3–24.
• Greenhouse, L. (2007). Justice say EPA has power to act on harmful gases. The New York Times.
• Gunningham, N. (2009). Environmental law, regulation and governance: Shifting architectures. Journal of Environmental Law, 21(2), 179–212.
• Gunningham, N., & Grabosky, P. (2004). Smart regulation: Designing environmental policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Halsey, M. (2004). Against “green” criminology. British Journal of Criminology, 44, 833–853.
• Hellman, J. (2014). The fifth crime under international criminal law: Ecocide? In D. Brodowski et al. (Eds.), Regulating corporate criminal liability (pp. 273–280). New York: Springer International.
• Herbig, F. J. W., & Joubert, S. J. (2006). Criminological semantics: Conservation criminology-vision or vagary? Acta Criminologica, 19, 88–103.
• Higgins, P., Short, D., & South, N. (2013). Protecting the planet: A proposal for a law of ecocide. Crime, Law and Social Change, 59, 251–266.
• Holley, C., Gunningham, N., & Shearing, C. (2011). The new environmental governance. New York: Earthscan Publications.
• Holley, C., & Lawson, A. (2015). Implementing environmental law and collaborative governance: water and natural resources management. In P. Martin & A. Kennedy (Eds.), Implementing environmental law (pp. 238–259). Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar.
• Holme, R. (2003). Drinking water contamination in Walkerton, Ontario: Positive resolutions from a tragic event. Water Science and Technology, 47, 1–6.
• Howes, M. (2005). The nature of risk and uncertainty. In Politics and the environment: Risk and the role of government and industry (pp. 3–24). Abington, U.K.: Earthscan Publications.
• Hunter, S., & Waterman, R. W. (1996). Enforcing the law: The case of the clean water acts. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe.
• King, A. A., & Lenox, M. J. (2000). Industry self-regulation without sanctions: The chemical industry’s Responsible Care program. The Academy of Management Journal, 43(4), 698–716.
• Klenovšek, A., & Meško, G. (2010). International waste trafficking: Preliminary explorations. In R. White (Ed.), Transnational environmental crime (pp. 275–295). Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate.
• Kramer, R. C., & Michalowski, R. (2012). Is global warming a state-corporate crime? In R. White (Ed.), Climate change from a criminological perspective (pp. 71–88). New York: Springer.
• Lane, P. (1998). Ecofeminism meets criminology, Theoretical Criminology, 2, 235–248.
• Li, F., Liu, Y., Lü, J., Liang, L., & Harmer, P. (2015). Ambient air pollution in China poses a multifaceted health threat to outdoor physical activity. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 69, 201–204.
• Lipsett, B. (1998). Rocky Flats: A plea bargain in public view. In M. Clifford (Ed.), Environmental crime: Enforcement, policy and social responsibility (pp. 397–412). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers.
• Liu, Q., Cao, J., Li, K. Q., Miao, X. H., Li, G., Fan, F. Y., & Zhao, C. (2009). Chromosomal aberrations and DNA damage in human populations exposed to the processing of electronics waste. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 16, 329–338.
• Lynch, M. J. (1990). The greening of criminology: A perspective for the 1990s. The Critical Criminologist, 2(3), 3–4, 11–12.
• Lynch, M. J., Burns, R. G., & Stretesky, P. B. (2010). Global-warming and state-corporate crime: The politicization of global warming under the Bush administration. Crime, Law and Social Change, 54(3), 213–239.
• Lynch, M. J., Long, M. A., Barrett, K. L., & Stretesky, P. B. (2013). Is it a crime to produce ecological disorganization? Why green criminology and political economy matter in the analysis of global ecological harms. British Journal of Criminology, 53(6), 997–1016.
• Lynch, M. J., & Stretesky, P. B. (2003). The meaning of green: Contrasting criminological perspectives. Theoretical Criminology, 7, 217–238.
• Mandiberg, S. F. (2011). Moral issues in environmental crime. Fordham Environmental Law Review, 7(3), 881–908.
• McKendall, M. A., & Wagner, J. A. I. (1997). Motive, opportunity, choice and corporate Illegality. Organizational Science, 8(6), 624–647.
• Meyer, R. (2016). Will a reconfigured Supreme Court help Obama’s clean-power plan survive? The Atlantic.
• Michalowski, R., & Kramer, R. (2006). State-corporate crime: Wrongdoing at the intersection of business and government. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Moore, J. N., & Luoma, S. N. (1990). Hazardous wastes from large-scale metal extraction. Environmental Science & Technology, 24, 1278–1285.
• Moreto, W., & Lemieux, A. M. (2015). Poaching in Uganda: Perspectives of law enforcement rangers. Deviant Behavior, 36, 853–873.
• Muth, R., & Bowe, J. (1998). Illegal harvest of renewable natural resources in North America: Toward a typology of the motivations for poaching. Society & Natural Resources, 11, 9–24.
• Naess, A. (1973). The shallow and the deep, long-range ecology movement. A summary. Inquiry, 16, 95–100.
• Neuberger, J. S., Hu, S. C., Drake, K. D., & Jim, R. (2009). Potential health impacts of heavy-metal exposure at the Tar Creek Superfund site, Ottawa County, Oklahoma. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 31, 47–59.
• Nielsen, V. L., & Parker, C. (2008). To what extent do third parties influence business compliance? Journal of Law & Society, 35(3), 309–340.
• Nurse, A. (2011). Policing wildlife: Perspectives on criminality in wildlife crime. Papers from the British Criminology Conference.
• Nurse, A. (2015). Policing wildlife. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Paternoster, R., & Simpson, S. (1996). Sanctions threats and appeals to morality: Testing a rational choice model of corporate crime. Law & Society, 30, 549–584.
• Peterson, C. H., Rice, S. D., Short, J. W., Esler, D., Bodkin, J. L., Ballachey, B. E. & Irons, D. B. (2003). Long-term ecosystem response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Science, 302, 2082–2086.
• Pink, G., & White, R. (2016). Environmental crime and collaborative state intervention. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Rebovich, D. J. (1998). Environmental crime prosecution at the county level. In M. Clifford (Ed.), Environmental crime: Enforcement, policy and social responsibility (pp. 205–228). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers.
• Rivers, L., Dempsey, T., Mitchell, J., & Gibbs, C. (2015). Environmental regulation and enforcement: Structures, processes and the use of data for fraud detection. Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, 17, 1–29.
• Rorie, M. (2015). An integrated theory of corporate environmental compliance and overcompliance. Crime, Law and Social Change, 64, 65–101.
• Ruggiero, V., & South, N. (2010). Green criminology and dirty collar crime. Critical Criminology, 18, 251–262.
• Schnaiberg, A. (1980). The environment: From surplus to scarcity. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Seis, M. (2012). The scope and complexity of environmental offenders. In M. Clifford & T. D. Edwards (Eds.), Environmental Crime (2d ed., pp. 307–328). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Shepard, R. (1998). Coming home to the Pleistocene. Washington, DC: Island Press.
• Shover, N. & Routhe, A. S. (2005). Environmental crime. Crime and Justice, 32, 321–371.
• Simon, D. R. (2000). Corporate environmental crimes and social inequality: New directions for environmental justice research. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(4), 633–645.
• Simpson, S. S. (2002). Corporate crime, law, and social control. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Simpson, S. S., Garner, J., & Gibbs, C. (2007). Why do corporations obey environmental law? Assessing punitive and cooperative strategies of corporate crime control. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.
• Simpson, S. S., Gibbs, C., Rorie, M., Slocum, L. A., Cohen, M. A., & Vandenbergh, M. (2013). An empirical assessment of corporate environmental crime—control strategies. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 103, 231–278.
• Situ, Y., & Emmons, D. (2000). Environmental crime: The criminal justice system’s role in protecting the environment. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
• Snider, L. (2010). Framing e-waste regulation: The obfuscating role of power. Criminology and Public Policy, 9(3), 569–578.
• South, N., & Wyatt, T. (2011). Comparing illicit trades in wildlife and drugs: An exploratory study. Deviant Behavior, 32, 538–561.
• Stretesky, P., Long, M. A., & Lynch, M. J. (2013). Does environmental enforcement slow the treadmill of production? The relationship between large monetary penalties, ecological disorganization and toxic releases within offending corporations. Journal of Crime and Justice, 36(2), 233–247.
• Stretesky, P. B. (2006). Corporate self-policing and the environment. Criminology, 44(3), 671–708.
• Stretesky, P. B., & Lynch, M. J. (2009). A cross-national study of the association between per capita carbon dioxide emissions and exports to the United States. Social Science Research, 38, 239–250.
• Sutherland, E. H. (1949). White collar crime. New York: Dryden Press.
• Tappan, P. W. (1947). Who is the criminal? American Sociological Review, 12, 96–102.
• Thornton, D., Kagan, R. A., & Gunningham, N. (2003). Sources of corporate environmental performance. California Management Review, 46, 127–141.
• Tombs, S., & Whyte, D. (2015). The corporate criminal: Why corporations must be abolished. New York: Routledge.
• Uhlmann, D. M. (2014). Prosecutorial discretion and environmental crime. Harvard Environmental Law Review, 38(1), 159–216.
• Uhlmann, D. M. (2011). After the spill is gone: The Gulf of Mexico, environmental crime, and the criminal law. Michigan Law Review, 109, 1413–1461.
• UN (2012). United Nations treaty handbook. Treaty section of the Office of Legal Affairs.
• UNEP (1992). The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, adopted 1989, into force 1992. United Nations Environment Program. Secretariate of the Basel Convention, Switzerland.
• UNEP (2004a). The Rotterdam Convention. United Nations Environment Program/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Adopted 1998, in force 2004. Rotterdam Convention Secretariat, Switzerland.
• UNEP (2004b). Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants adopted 2001, into force 2004. The Secretariate of the Stockholm Convention, United Nations Industrial Development Organization/UNEP.
• UNEP (2012). Handbook for the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer (9th ed.). United Nations Environment Program.
• United Nations Environment Program and INTERPOL (2016). The rise of environmental crime: A growing threat to natural resources, peace, development and security.
• U.S. Senate (2016). Senate history: Chapter 1, Senate’s role in treaties.
• Vandenbergh, M.P. (2003). Beyond elegance: A testable typology of social norms in corporate environmental compliance. Stanford Environmental Law Journal, 22(1), 55–144.
• Vandenbergh, M. P. (2004). From smokestack to SUV: The individual as regulated entity in the new era of environmental law. Vanderbilt Law Review, 57(2), 515–628.
• Varma, R., & Varma, D. R. (2005). The Bhopal disaster of 1984. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 25, 37–45.
• Warchol, G. (2004). The transnational illegal wildlife trade, Criminal Justice Studies, 17, 57–73.
• Wellsmith, M. (2011). Wildlife crime: The problems of enforcement. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 17(2), 125–148.
• White, R. (2008a). Crimes against nature: Environmental criminology and ecological justice. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
• White, R. (2008b). Toxic cities: Globalizing the problem of waste. Social Justice, 35(3), 107–119.
• White, R. (2009). Researching transnational environmental harm: Toward an eco‐global criminology. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 33, 229–248.
• White, R. (2011). Transnational environmental crime: Toward an eco-global criminology. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• White, R. (2013a). Introduction. In R. White (Ed.), Transnational Environmental Crime (pp. xiii–xxix). Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
• White, R. (2013b). The conceptual contours of green criminology. In R. Walters, D. Solomon Westerhuis, and T. Wyatt (Eds.), Emerging issues in green criminology: Exploring power, justice and harm (pp. 17–33). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• White, R. (2013c). Eco-global criminology and the political economy of environmental harm. In N. South & A. Brisman (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of green criminology (pp. 243–260). Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge.
• White, R. (2016). Building NESTs to combat environmental crime networks. Trends in Organized Crime, 19, 88–105.
• White, R., & Heckenberg, D. (2014). Green criminology: An introduction to the study of environmental harm. New York: Routledge.
• Wu, J. (2009). Environmental compliance: The good, bad, and the super green. Journal of Environmental Management, 90, 3363–3381.
• Wyatt, T. (2013). Wildlife trafficking: A deconstruction of the crime, the victims and the offenders. London: Palgrave Macmillan.