NCJ Number
83097
Journal
Deviance et societe Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: (1980) Pages: 399-412
Date Published
1977
Length
14 pages
Annotation
A literature review comments on research and theory of ecological delinquency, categorizing the approaches into two trends -- environmental criminalization or critiques of capitalist production as the cause of environmental damage.
Abstract
Environmental issues have arisen as a result of the synchronization of scientific and legislative policy, creating new research areas and a branch of the law as well as widespread public concern. Because the problems are recent, most of the responses are ambiguous. Commentators have observed that the public does not take environmental delinquency seriously, that they place industry in a quandary, and confront judges with issues of which they have little knowledge. Nevertheless, the collective interest in the protection of the air, water, and silence from polluters is coming to be viewed as a basic right of the citizenry. Due to the nature of the issue, a dominant direction taken by literature on environmental crime exhibits Marxist tendencies. Thus, on the one hand there is espousal of the belief that environmentally harmful actions can be controlled by legislation and criminal justice sanctions, while on the other, there is insistence that the foundations of the socioeconomic system must be rearranged to halt destruction of the environment. A total of 73 references are given.