2015/10/01 by Wesley Tourangeau · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses #Geographies of human-animal interactions #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Green criminology #Harm #Sociology #Criminology #Perspective (graphical) #State (computer science) #Environmental crime #Environmental ethics #Criminal justice #Political science #Law #Computer science
paper · doi:10.3138/cjccj.2014.e11
openalex publication_date 2015/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Green criminology has been developing for more than 20 years as a field of criminological inquiry that grapples with defining and exploring environmental harms. This perspective includes approaches that look beyond legally defined environmental crimes, highlighting permissible activities that cause environmental deterioration, such as clear-cutting of forests, and prohibited activities that benefit the environment, such as pedicabs. Extending the criminological gaze helps green criminology identify unacknowledged environmental harms. The article draws from postmodernist/poststructuralist concepts to work past merely defining actions as either harmful or harmless, highlighting the complexity of socio-ecological effects and the importance of extending the conceptual boundaries of harm. Canada’s experiences with industrial hemp provide a fitting example. The heavily regulated Canadian hemp industry offers an important case for investigating the impacts of social constraints that limit the industry’s capacity to benefit the environment. Qualitative interviews reveal negative public perceptions, over-restrictive regulatory requirements, and insufficient technological capabilities as important obstacles to a fuller realization of hemp’s environmental benefits. Informed by constitutive criminology, chaos criminology, and Halsey’s important critique, the article adds to postmodernist/poststructuralist developments in green criminology.