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RAYAT COLLEGE OF LAW, ROPAR

PROJECT: - CRIMINOLOGY AND PENOLOGY

TOPIC: GREEN CRIMINOLOGY

SUBMITTED TO:
MISS.DISHA MAM

SUBMITTEDBY:
AMAN KUMAR
10TH SEMESTER
ROLL NO. 13306
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of

gratitude to my teacher Miss.Disha, who gave me

the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project

on the topic “GREEN CRIMINOLOGY” which

also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I

came to know about so many new things I am really

thankful to her.
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DECALARATION

I hereby declare that the project work entitled “

GREEN CRIMINOLOGY” submitted to the Rayat College of, is

a record of an original work done by me under the guidance of

Miss.Disha, this project work is submitted in the partial

fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of law.

The results embodied in this thesis have not been submitted to

any other University or Institute for the award of any degree or

diploma.

(SIGNATURE)

AMAN KUMAR

Date:
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Table of Contents

Green Criminology 5

Green Crime 5

Types of Green Crime 6

Environmental Crime 8

Definition 8

Legal Dimension of the Definitions 8

International Environmental Crime 9

Trans-boundary Nature of Environmental Crime 9

Major environmental crimes 10

Criminal law or administrative law 12

Environmental Crime: An Over Criminalization 12

Environmental Crimes and the Major Indian Laws 14

Conclusion 17
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Webliography 17
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GREEN CRIMINOLOGY

INTRODCUTION:-

Green Criminology as a field operates as a tool for studying, analysing, and

dealing with environmental crimes and wider environmental harms that are
often ignored by mainstream criminology. It provides for an inter-disciplinary,
and multi-disciplinary, engagement and approach, which redefines criminology
as not just being concerned with crime or social harm falling within the remit
of criminal justice systems. Green crime is a fast-moving and somewhat
contested area in which academics, policymakers and practitioners frequently
disagree not only on how green crimes should be defined but also on: the
nature of the criminality involved; potential solutions to problems of green
crime; and the content and priorities of policy. Within ecological justice
discourse, for example, there may be agreement that harms to the environment
and non-human animals must be addressed .But debates continue over whether
green crimes are best addressed through criminal justice systems or via civil or
administrative mechanisms. Indeed, a central discussion within green
criminology is that of whether environmental harm rather than environmental
crime should be its focus, with the environmental harm perspective currently
dominating green criminological discourse. In essence, there is on-going
fundamental debate over whether green crimes should be seen as the focus of
mainstream criminal justice and dealt with by core criminal justice agencies
such as the police, or whether they should be considered as being beyond the
mainstream.1

Green Crime – A simple definition of Green Crime is ‘crimes committed

against the environment’.

Origins:-2

The term "green criminology" was introduced by Michael J. Lynch in 1990,

and expanded upon in Nancy Frank and Michael J. Lynch's 1992 book,
Corporate Crime, Corporate Violence, which examined the political economic
origins of green crime and injustice, and the scope of environmental law. The
1
www.nature.com
2
www.revisesociology.com
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term became more widely used following publication of a special issue on

green criminology in the journal Theoretical Criminology edited by Piers
Beirne and Nigel South in 1998.Green criminology has recently started to
feature in university-level curriculum and textbooks in criminology and other
disciplinary fields.

The study of green criminology has expanded significantly over time, and is
supported by groups such as the International Green Criminology Working
Group. There are increasing interfaces and hybrid empirical and theoretical
influences between the study of green criminology, which focuses on
environmental harms and crimes, and mainstream criminology and criminal
justice, with criminologists studying the 'greening' of criminal justice
institutions and practices in efforts to become more environmentally
sustainable and the involvement of people in prison or on probation in
ecological justice initiatives.

Types of Green Crime:-3

Nigel South (2008) classifies green crimes into two distinct types, primary
and secondary.

Primary green crimes are those crimes which constitute harm inflicted on the
environment (and, by extension, those that inflict harm on people because of
damage to the environment – our classic ‘environmental victims’ who suffer
health or other problems when the land, water or air they interact with is
polluted, damaged or destroyed).

There are four main categories of primary green crimes – Crimes of air
pollution, Crimes of deforestation, Crimes of species decline and animal rights,
Crimes of water pollution.

Secondary, or “symbiotic green crime is crime that grows out of the flouting
of rules that seek to regulate environmental disasters”; South provides two
examples of secondary crime: State violence against oppositional groups’,
‘hazardous waste and organised crime’.

Green criminology, on the other hand, argues that criminologists should study
environmental harms whether or not there is legislation in place and whether or
not criminal or other laws are actually broken. Green Criminology takes an

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ecocentric (environment centred) approach to crime, and criticises traditional

criminology for being too anthropocentric (human- centred).

White’s (2008) three important principles of green criminology – based on

environmental rights and environmental justice; it’s ecocentric – rather than
based on human domination over nature; it should include Animal rights and
species justice.

Green Criminology is thus a type of ‘transgressive criminology’ – it breaks

the boundaries of traditional criminology and focuses on the concept of ‘harm’
rather than the concept of ‘crime’.

Key Term – ‘Zemiology’ – the study of social harms. Green Criminology is

Zemiological.

A broadly Green Criminological/ Marxist Perspective on Green Crime4

According to Marxists, the single biggest cause of Environmental Crimes

according to Marxists (and most of the Green Movement) is Industrial
Capitalism.

Given that the primary aim of most governments is achieving economic

growth, and the means whereby we achieve this is through producing and
consuming stuff, Marxists would not expect any significant global agreement
safeguarding the environment until Capitalism is either eradicated or severely
controlled. As it stands, companies are all too often given the green light by
governments to extract and pollute.

Marxists offer an alternative analysis of the consequences of Green Crime to

that of Ulrich Beck. Marxists argue that current social divisions are actually
reinforced in the face of environmental harms, with poor people bearing the
brunt of harms.

An important part of a Marxist analysis of green crime is to explore who the

victims of green crime are, and the victims of pollution tend to be the poorest
in society. We have already explored things like the Bhopal Tragedy and the
many victims in the developing world of corporate extraction, but another
interesting line of analysis here is that of ‘eco-racism’.

4
www.nacdl.org
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Environmental Crime:-

The concept Environmental Crime has been defined variously from different
perspectives. The term has been used ―almost indiscriminately and without
any universally accepted definition. It has been classified as a sub-set of white-
collar Crime. Environmental crime is an act of violation of an environmental
protection statute that applies to the area in which the act occurred and that has
clearly identified criminal sanctions for purposes of police enforcement.

Definitions:-

Mary Clifford and Terry D. Edwards5 offer a few definitions of

environmental crime from different perspectives:

“An environmental crime is an act committed with the intent to harm or with a
potential to cause harm to ecological and/or biological systems and for the
purpose of securing business or personal advantage”.

Y. Situ and D. Emmons, “an environmental crime is an unauthorised act or

omission that violates the law and is therefore subject to criminal prosecution
and criminal sanction. This offence harms or endangers people‘s physical
safety or health as well as the environment itself. It serves the interests of
either organizations – typically corporations – or individuals”.6

Another definition of environmental crime includes “activities such as

littering, abandoned vehicles, graffiti, fly-posting, dog fouling, fly-tipping,
dumped business waste, vandalism, abandoned shopping trolleys and noise
nuisance”.

The Legal Dimension of the Definitions:-

The legal dimension includes ―only those actions or omissions that directly or
indirectly damage the environment and which are prohibited by law this
approach is advantageous because it is value-free and objective. However, this
legalistic and positivist approach has a number of problems.

5
M. Clifford and Terry D. Edwards, ―Defining Environmental Crime, in Mary Clifford (ed.), Environmental
Crime: Enforcement, Policy and Social Responsibility 6 (Aspen Publishers Inc., Gaithersburg, 1998).
6
Y. Situ and D. Emmons, Environmental Crime: The Criminal Justice System’s Role in Protecting the
Environment 3 (Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2000).
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 First, there exists a problem and uncertainty in the definition of

environmental law; therefore, it raises the question of ‘where the outer
boundaries of environmental crime are located.
 ‘Secondly, a legal definition is uncertain because ‘there is such a wide
range of activities and offenders to which the phrase could be applied.
‘Thirdly, a legalistic approach to the definition ‘has jurisdictional and
geographical limitations.

International Environmental Crime:-7

The Environmental Investigation Agency, London, for the purpose of its report
defines International Environmental across five broad areas of offences, which
have been recognised by bodies such as the G8, Interpol, EU, UN Environment
programme and the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.
These are:

1. Illegal trade in wildlife in contravention to the 1973 Washington

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of fauna and
Flora (CITES);
2. Illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances (ODS) in contravention to
the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone
Layer;
3. Dumping and illegal transport of various kinds of hazardous waste in
contravention of the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Trans
boundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Other Wastes and their
Disposal;
4. Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in contravention to
controls imposed by various regional fisheries management
organisations (RMFOs);
5. Illegal logging and trade in timber when timber is harvested, transported,
bought or sold in violation of national laws (There are currently no
binding international controls on the international timber trade with the
exception of an endangered species, which is covered by CITES).

Trans-boundary Nature of Environmental Crime:-8

Environmental crimes by their very nature are trans-boundary and involve

cross-border criminal syndicates. In this age of globalization and free trade, the
7
Debbie Banks, Charlotte Davies, Mary Rice, et.al., ―Environmental Crime:
8
http://ec.europa.eu/environment
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easy mode of communication and flow of goods and money facilitate the
illegal business group involved in environmental crimes. For instance, a tiger
skin or an ivory tusk passes through many hands from the poaching site to the
final buyer; a tree that has been illegally cut down can pass through around the
world from the forest via the factory to be sold on the market as a finished
wood product.

Other environmental offences having similar features of the above

category include:

A. Bio-piracy and transport of controlled biological or genetically modified

material (a possible offence under the 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Bio-
safety to the Biodiversity Convention);
B. Illegal dumping of oil and other wastes in oceans [i.e. offences under the
1973 International Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from
Ships (MARPOL) and the 1972 London Convention on Dumping];
C. Violations of potential trade restrictions under the 1998 Rotterdam
Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain
Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
D. Trade in chemicals in contravention to the 2001 Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
E. Fuel smuggling to avoid taxes or future controls on carbon emissions.

Major environmental crimes:-9

Wild animal traffic:-

Regarded by the Interpol as the third largest illegal business in the world –after
drug and arms trafficking –wild animal traffic raises a serious threat for the
world´s biodiversity survival. We can find several actors involved in this
crime, but consumers are among the most important ones as this crime would
disappear if supply and the high prices that people get to pay for them on the
black market ceased to exist. As a creepy side-note, the more endangered the
species is, the higher the price is for it. The most requested species are tropical
birds (parrots, macaws, etc.), reptiles (serpents, crocodiles, etc.), arachnids
(some types of tarantulas), monkeys (capuchins, chimpanzees, lemurs), and so
forth. But animal trafficking does not only intend to sell them as company
animals; we also find such serious cases like the sale of elephants´ or

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rhinoceroses´ ivory on the black market, used to make decoration items and/or
in traditional Chinese medicine.

Indiscriminate logging:-

The Amazon destruction –the largest rainforest in the world –speeded up in

2013 at a 29% rise in deforestation, according to the Brazilian government.
The uncontrolled logging to get wood for furniture or other goods –or even for
farm lands –is the most serious cause of this environmental crime. Other lands
–like the Indonesian forests –disappear because of excessive palm oil
cultivations.

Electronic waste mismanagement:-

In the so-called developed countries there are up to 50 million tonnes of

electronic waste every year (computers, TV sets, mobile phones, appliances,
etc.). And up to 75% of all these is estimated to leave the official circuit and a
good deal of them to be illegally exported to Africa, China or India. It is the
case of Ghana´s rubbish dump, a large electronic waste dump coming from the
West. Even though the export of this dangerous waste, including the electronic
one, is banned in some places, like for example in the EU since 1992, a very
good deal of this rubbish, which should be treated, ends up in these remote
places polluting it all. We can thus work by demanding governments that they
should take recycling measures adjusted to our production and consumption
rate, so that they will not end up as polluting rubbish dumps anywhere in the
world.

Finning:

A hundred million sharks are captured every year by specialised ships and up
to 70 million of them are captured to only have their fins cut off alive on the
ship and then be thrown back into the sea. This practice involves a slow and
painful death, and it has been banned in the EU since 2003. Knowing that a
kilogramme of a shark fin is worth 600 euros in the Asian market, the finning
trade is patently obvious. Think about where the shark fin soup comes from
when you next see it on the Asian restaurants´ menus, and think twice. Besides
from being beautiful and strong creatures, sharks are essential animals for the
trophic chain in oceans and therefore essential for their survival.
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Dumping in rivers and aquifers:-

This kind of environmental crime is most often caused by companies, factories

and Public Administrations. Faecal and toxic waste coming from factories is
usually dumped in a controlled way, but this is not always the case. In these
cases waste is uncontrollably released into the environment, while at the same
time polluting rivers, lakes aquifers, etc. This is a very serious crime because
not only does it cause the local wildlife to die or get ill but also, as a result of
the water leaking into the soil, it finds its way to pollute the surrounding flora
as well, affecting the food chain. There are many ways to avoid this waste-
dumping problem, such as using sewage collectors or sewage plants, among
others.

Criminal law or administrative law:-10

Faure highlights a few points, from the economic perspective, in favour of

public regulation rather than criminal law enforcement in cases of
environmental pollution. One argument is that private law remedies will not
adequately deter potential offenders. The arguments are familiar:

Environmental pollution often has no individual victim that could file a

liability suit; causation may be difficult to prove and the long time lapse may
make it impossible to recognize that, for example, health damage has been
caused through environmental pollution, let alone that a tort claim could still
successfully be brought.

The main argument (again from the economic point of view) in favour of
public regulation is from the viewpoint of low probability of detecting
environmental crime. However, this problem could well be compensated by
imposition of heavy fine on the polluter. Fines would add to public budget as
well.

Enforcement through criminal law is preferred when the harm to society, or

benefit to the offender, is large; the probability of detection is low, and when
criminal law can provide additional stigma and/or an educative role
(expressive function). In these circumstances, administrative law might not
suffice. In addition, enforcement through administrative law could give rise to
problems of capture (collusion between the regulator and the regulated) and to
high error costs (as the standard of proof is much lower than under criminal
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law). Most importantly, administrative sanctions might be too low to provide

sufficient deterrence.

Environmental Crime: An Over Criminalization?

Over-criminalization generally presents the following characteristics:

a. Enacting criminal statutes lacking meaningful mens rea requirements;

b. Imposing vicarious liability with insufficient evidence of personal
awareness or neglect;
c. Expanding criminal law into economic activity and regulatory and civil
enforcement areas;
d. Creating mandatory minimum sentences un-related to the wrongfulness
or harm of the underlying crime;
e. Federalizing crimes traditionally reserved for state jurisdiction; and 6.
Adopting duplicative and overlapping statutes.

The criminalization of environmental violations poses at least two

theoretical problems:

 One, -the moral content of the proscribed conduct is not as well

established as it is for common law crime, which has prompted concerns
about over- criminalization;
 Two, -the complexity of environmental law raises issues about whether
it can be integrated effectively with traditional approaches to criminal
liability.

As regards the first issue, it has been argued that criminalization of

environmental violation presents the danger of over criminalisation or over-
deterrence; criminal law may have been dragged beyond its proper role. But
considering the seriousness of the harm caused by environmental offenders and
where environmental protection has become a pressing national and
international concern, the issue of over criminalization in environmental
violation should not come into the picture.

India is one country that takes environmental offences seriously by departing

from the strict liability model to develop the absolute liability model that suits
its context. However, a clear framework is needed to categorise various
environmental offences and to prescribe penalties according to the degree of
their seriousness. Further, ―the sanctioning mechanisms have to aim at
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preventing the harm from the sources causing the occurrence of such tragedies
rather than emphasizing on mitigation of injuries after the occurrence of the
harm.

Environmental Crimes and the Major Indian Laws:-11

 The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986:-The Environment

(Protection) Act, 1986 authorizes the central government to protect and
improve environmental quality, control and reduce pollution from all
sources, and prohibits or restrict the setting and /or operation of any
industrial facility on environmental grounds. The Environment
(Protection) Act was enacted in 1986 with the objective of providing for
the protection and improvement of the environment. It empowers the
Central Government to establish authorities charged with the mandate of
preventing environmental pollution in all its forms and to tackle specific
environmental problems that are peculiar to different parts of the
country. The Act was last amended in 1991.
 The Environment (Protection) Rules lay down procedures for setting
standards of emission or discharge of environmental pollutants.
 The objective of Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling)
Rules, 1989 is to control the generation, collection, treatment, import,
storage, and handling of hazardous waste.
 The Manufacture, Storage, and Import of Hazardous Rules define
the terms used in this context, and sets up an authority to inspect, once a
year, the industrial activity connected with hazardous chemicals and
isolated storage facilities.
 The Manufacture, Use, Import, Export, and Storage of hazardous
Micro-organisms/ Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells
Rules,1989 were introduced with a view to protect the environment,
nature, and health, in connection with the application of gene technology
and micro-organisms.

The Biological Diversity Act 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules:-

The Biological Diversity Act 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules provide for
the conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and

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fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological
resources and knowledge associated with it.

The Public Liability Insurance Act and Rules 1991 and Amendment, 1992

The Public Liability Insurance Act and Rules 1991 and Amendment, 1992
were drawn up to provide for public liability insurance for the purpose of
providing immediate relief to the persons affected by accident while handling
any hazardous substance. For more information visit Public Liability Insurance
Act.

The National Environmental Tribunal Act, 1995, Amendment 2010

The Act has been created to award compensation for damages to persons,
property, and the environment arising from any activity involving hazardous
substances. The three major objectives of the Green Tribunal are:

 The effective and speedy disposal of the cases relating to environment

protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources. All
the previous pending cases will also be heard by the Tribunal.
 It aims at enforcing all the legal rights relating to the environment
 It also accounts for providing compensation and relief to effected people
for damage of property.

The salient features of amendment are as follows:

 Amendment provides an equal opportunity to any citizen of India to

approach the National Green Tribunal.
 It ensures that the tribunal takes into consideration principles of
Sustainable Development, Precautionary principles, Polluter Pays
Principles and Inter-generational Equity while hearing any appeal and
giving judgements.

National Green Tribunal Act, 2010:-

Under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 for effective and expeditious
disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of
forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right
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relating to environment and giving relief and compensation for damages to

persons and property and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
It is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle
environmental disputes involving multidisciplinary issues. The Tribunal shall
not be bound by the procedure laid down under the Code of Civil Procedure,
1908, but shall be guided by principles of natural justice.

The National Environment Appellate Authority Act, 1997

The National Environment Appellate Authority Act has been created to hear
appeals with respect to restrictions of areas in which classes of industries etc.
are carried out or prescribed subject to certain safeguards under the EPA.

The Biomedical waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998

The Biomedical waste (Management and Handling) Rules,1998 is a legal

binding on the health care institutions to streamline the process of proper
handling of hospital waste such as segregation, disposal, collection, and
treatment.

The Environment (Siting for Industrial Projects) Rules, 1999

The Environment (Siting for Industrial Projects) Rules, 1999 lay down detailed
provisions relating to areas to be avoided for siting of industries, precautionary
measures to be taken for site selecting as also the aspects of environmental
protection which should have been incorporated during the implementation of
the industrial development projects.

The Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000

The Rules apply to every municipal authority responsible for the collection,
segregation, storage, transportation, processing, and disposal of municipal
solid wastes.

The Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000

The Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 have
been laid down for the regulation of production and consumption of ozone
depleting substances.

The Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001

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These rules shall apply to every manufacturer, importer, re-conditioner,

assembler, dealer, auctioneer, consumer, and bulk consumer involved in the
manufacture, processing, sale, purchase, and use of batteries or components so
as to regulate and ensure the environmentally safe disposal of used batteries.

The Noise Pollution (Regulation and control) (Amendment) Rules, 2010

These rules lay down such terms and conditions as are necessary to reduce
noise pollution, permit use of loud speakers or public address systems during
night hours (between 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight) on or during any cultural
or religious festive occasion.

Conclusion:-

Green Criminology also examines mechanisms for disrupting and preventing

environmental crime and reducing harms to non-human animals and the
environment Traditional reactive policing models of detection, apprehension
and punishment risk being inadequate in the case of environmental harm where
irreparable environmental damage or loss of animal life may have already been
caused. Likewise, traditional justice systems are also often inadequate to
redress the impact of environmental harm. Such consideration of alternatives is
integral to green criminology’s critical approach, which also seeks to promote
preventive or disruptive enforcement activity aimed at preventing
environmental harm before it occurs. As a form of critical criminological
discourse, green criminology arguably shines a light on the failure of
mainstream and traditional justice approaches to deal with such complex crime
and in their discussion of multi-agency collaboration in this collection, White
and Barrett (2017) argue for innovative means to combat the multi-
dimensional nature of environmental crimes.

Webliography

www.nature.com
www.revisesociology.com
www.nacdl.org
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www.activesustainability.com
www.vikaspedia.in
www.nature.com