NCJ Number
214312
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2006 Pages: 47-62
Date Published
March 2006
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examined the role of criminologists in research on "environmental justice" (the link between social demographic characteristics and environmental hazards), which has drawn the attention of academics and activists from such diverse fields as geography, public health/epidemiology, sociology, law, mathematics, statistics, economics, and philosophy.
Abstract
The study found an underrepresentation of criminology and criminal justice in the production of environmental justice literature; however, the authors argue that criminology has much to contribute to the study of environmental justice. The framework of state-corporate crime can assist criminologists in identifying and defining the problem of environmental justice. Much of what is called "environmental injustice" is also corporate-state crime, so criminologists have an important role in expanding this component of the environmental justice literature. The authors suggest that Kramer and Michalowski's (1993) framework of state-corporate crime be used as the theoretical base for case studies that examine the complicity of governments at every level in permitting and/or facilitating environmental crimes both in the United States and abroad. Criminologists could provide empirical data and analysis to indicate the need for and the purpose of legislation that can counter abusive environmental practices by corporations. Wherever environmental justice involves law breaking and requires responses of lawmaking and law enforcement, then criminologists should be involved in pertinent research. Three databases were examined for articles on environmental justice from 1970 through 2003, in order to identify the presence of criminology and criminal justice scholars in the environmental justice literature. Based on an overview of the environmental justice literature and suggestions from scholars in the field, the literature search used the following terms: environmental racism, environmental justice, environmental injustice, environmental equity, environmental inequality, green criminology, eco-criminology, environmental crime, and environmental offenses. 1 figure and 34 references