Criminological Semantics: Conservation Criminology--Vision or Vagary?

• NCJ Number: 217077
• Journal: Acta Criminologica Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: 2006 Pages: 88-103
• Author(s): F. J. W. Herbig; S. J. Joubert
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 16 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: South Africa
• Note: Downloaded January 23, 2007. To access the full text PDF: 1) select the provided PDF link; 2) from the Acta Criminologica Web site, select "Table of Contents"; 3) select the corresponding Volume and Issue (see the NCJRS abstract record for the exact Volume and Issue); 4) scroll the Table of Contents to the exact article; and 5) click on the "full text" icon.

Annotation

This paper provides guidance for the development of a distinctive field of criminology that focuses on crimes and criminal behavior that involves the illegal exploitation and destruction of natural resources.

Abstract

In proposing a distinctive criminological field for natural resources crime, the authors recommend the term "conservation criminology." In so doing, they reject the use of the term "environmental criminology," since this term has been used to refer to an interaction between motivated individuals and the surrounding social, economic, legal, and physical environment. Stevens (1990) argues that knowledge of specific crimes is critical to their detection, control, and prevention. This involves the ordering of facts about distinctive crimes into classes based on their similarities. The failure to classify and/or recognize natural resources/conservation crimes as a distinct crime category has resulted in an indifference toward them and the treatment of them as trivial crimes that are less threatening to society than other contemporary forms of crime. This paper examines some of the customary procedures of crime classification so as to expose the mistake of failing to classify natural-resource crime as a separate crime category worthy of exhaustive criminological research. In order to promote the identification of the parameters for conservation criminology, conservation crimes must be set within existing and commonly used crime categories. Conservation crime falls within the following existing crime categories: white-collar crime, corporate crime, organized crime, invisible crime, and property (economic) crime. Within these existing crime categories, conservation criminology focuses on criminal behaviors that threaten and destroy wildlife and wild plants, as well as pollute the substances on which various species (including humans) depend for their quality of life and life itself. A 22-item bibliography