Environmental concerns are at the forefront of economic, political and societal agendas, as they pose a grave threat to our everyday lives and to future generations – of humans and non-humans alike. Green criminology enhances our understanding of and responses to environmental harms and crimes, by moving beyond conventional understandings of crime and illegality, and by drawing attention to “harms” and the influences of social inequalities and power imbalances.
Green criminologists study ecological damage from various disciplines, approaching the issue of environmental crime and harm predominantly from biocentric and ecocentric perspectives, regarding humans as one of the species operating within complex ecosystems.
Green Crimes and Ecojustice Conference (2023)
The conference took place on 25 and 26 May 2023 and formed the closing event of the research project 'The diversification of organized crime into the illegal trade in natural resources'. It brought together approaches from green criminology, environmental sociology, environmental law, political ecology and conservation studies, that are crucial to understand and reflect on the environmental challenges ahead.
In recent decades, environmental crime has become one of the largest criminal activities in the world with disastrous impacts on the environment, and enormous costs for future generations. Environmental crime has become a global issue, and thus needs to be anticipated in social and scientific thinking.
The conference publication is scheduled to appear in 2025.