Green Crimes and Climate Change Overview

Green Crimes and Climate Change

• Green crimes are a significant business, causing environmental harm.
• Two main categories of green crime are illegal exploitation of natural resources and pollution of air, water, and soil.
• Secondary problems include climate change, migration, and violence.
• Perpetrators of green crimes include criminal organizations, legal entities, states, and individuals.

Criminological Perspectives

• Mainstream perspective
• Corporate criminal perspective
• State-crime perspective
• State-corporate crime perspective
• Cultural criminological perspective
• Feminist criminological perspective
• Global southern perspective

Tackling Environmental Crime

• Criminal law enforcement
• Regulation and administrative enforcement
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
• Basel Convention/EU Waste Shipment Regulation
• MARPOL convention
• Prevention
• Situational crime prevention methods

Theoretical Approaches

• All criminological concepts and theories are relevant
• Individual level explanations
• Social structure and social process theories
• Systemic level approaches
• Diane Vaughan's framework of analysis combines theories:
• Individual level (management)
• Organisational level (corporate culture, compliance mechanisms, functioning of the organisation)
• Systemic level (e.g., competition, regulation, enforcement)

Example: Mobile Organised Crime Groups

• Mobile criminal groups originate from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, involved in organized property crime in EU member states.
• Individual level: Background and motivations of leading individuals and vulnerabilities of victims
• Organisational level: Mapping the criminal business processes (recruiting members, transporting goods, storing stolen goods)
• Systemic level: Looking at structural economic differences within the EU.

The "Dieselgate" Scandal

• Fraud to circumvent stricter vehicle emission regulations
• Availability of digital engine control systems since the 1990s: Allowed for cheating
• Defeat devices to conceal excessive emissions during testing
• Road emission testing equipment for passenger cars was not available until 2008

Framework of Analysis

• Individual level: CEO personal characteristics and management style
• Organisational level: Internal complexity of organizations, internal compliance mechanisms, corporate culture
• Systemic level: Market characteristics and competition, lack of regulations and enforcement

Analysis: The CEO's

• High pressure on middle management
• CEOs as nightmares for underlings
• Risk-taking and rule-bending
• Huge egos

Analysis: Company Characteristics

• Centralised structure and "engineering culture"
• Lack of diversity
• Command and control management style
• Outsiders who tried to change corporate culture were not accepted
• Growth as the sole option: peculiar composition of supervisory board
• Lack or failure of internal compliance mechanisms

Analysis: Systemic Factors

• VW struggled to keep cars affordable under tighter environmental regulations
• Relatively low profit per car sold
• Automotive industry is a huge economic power
• Lack of effective regulations
• Lenient enforcement

Exam Information

• Exam scheduled for December 20th (resit January 24th)
• Time: 13:00 - 15:00 (120 minutes)
• No reading material, notes, slides, etc. allowed (paper or digital)
• No access to the Internet
• Only one correct answer per question
• Questions and answers randomized

Exam Preparation

• Thorough understanding of:
• Criminological perspectives (e.g., mainstream, white-collar, state-corporate crime)
• Criminological theories (e.g., individual, social structure, and systemic)
• Key thinkers (e.g., Beccaria, Hobbes, Durkheim, Foucault)
• Practice exams to familiarize yourself with question formulation
• Carefully read questions and answers