NCJ Number
244847
Journal
Revija za Kriminalistiko in Kriminologijo Volume: 64 Issue: 4 Dated: October-December 2013 Pages: 358-370
Date Published
December 2013
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This research article examined the impact of the economic crisis on environmental crime trends in Slovenia.
Abstract
The findings from this research on the impact of the economic crisis on environmental crime trends in Slovenia include the following: an increase in individual crimes against the environment, space, and natural resources, such as poaching, cruelty to animals, and destruction of forests; an increase in the number of detected offenses against the environment including illegal dumping of waste and fishing without a license; and both a positive (decrease in the number of environmental crime acts) and a negative (increase of environmental crime acts) impact of the economic crisis on changes in environmental crime trends. Data for the research were obtained through interviews with representatives of social control agencies and hunters and from analysis of environmental crime records for the period 2000 to 2012. The study was conducted to determine whether individuals' lack of financial resources as a result of the economic crises impacted the number of individual environmental crime acts committed in Slovenia for the purpose of obtaining financial resources. The findings indicate that the economic crisis had both a negative and a positive impact on individual environmental crime trends and that the negative impacts can be minimized through increased surveillance of the country's natural resources by law enforcement agencies. 2 tables, 1 graph, and 70 references