Environmental Crime in Transnational Context ― Global Issues in Green Enforcement and Criminology

Environmental crime is one of the most profitable and fastest growing areas of international criminal activity. The increasing cross-border scope of environmental crimes and harms is one of the reasons why governments and the enforcement community have trouble in finding the proper responses. Law enforcement cooperation between western industrialized states is often time consuming and problematic, and the problems increase exponentially when environmental criminals take advantage of situations where government and law enforcement are weak. This book provides an overview of the developments and problems in the field of transnational environmental crimes and harms, addressing these issues from perspectives such as enforcement, deterrence, compliance and emission trading schemes. Divided into four parts, the authors consider global issues in green criminology, responses to transnational environmental crimes and harms, alternative methods to combat environmental crime, and specific types of crimes and criminological research. Discussing these topics from the view of green criminology, sociology and governance, this book will be of great interest to all those concerned about the transnational dimensions of crime and the environment.

Toine Spapens is Full Professor of Criminology at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He received his PhD. in criminology in 2006. Since the early 1990s, Spapens has done extensive empirical research on (organised) crime and its containment, and on international law enforcement cooperation. His studies include illegal firearms trafficking, ecstasy production, large-scale cannabis cultivation, illegal gambling and environmental crime. His theoretical work focuses on regulation of illegal markets and network theories of crime. Rob White is Professor of Criminology at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He has written widely in the areas of criminology and youth studies, and has a particular interest in issues related to environmental harm, ecological justice and green criminology. His recent books are Transnational Environmental Crime: Toward an eco-global criminology (Routledge, 2011), Climate Change from a Criminological Perspective (Springer, 2012) and Environmental Harm: An Eco-Justice Perspective (Policy, 2013). He is the author of Crimes Against Nature (Willan, 2008). Wim Huisman is professor of Criminology and chair of the Department Criminology at VU University Amsterdam. His main research interests and expertise lie in the field of organized and corporate crime and regulatory enforcement. Huisman is also editor of the Dutch Journal of Criminology and a member of the board of the European Working Group on Organizational Crime.