Environmental Crime and Perspectives - 2414 Words

One of the main misunderstandings in environmental crime is the lack of consistency in the definition and classification of environmental crime. The primary problem is differing perspectives as to what constitutes as environmental crime, embedded in moral, philosophical and legalistic interpretations of harm and in what circumstances does this harm becomes a crime (White, 2008). Many criminologists have put forth perspectives which explain the reasons why individuals and corporations engage in activities that cause environmental harms. These perspectives can be linked to the original environmental or green criminology perspectives. Pollution and dumping has become an increasingly costly problem for the environment. As a results,†¦show more content†¦It is estimated that e-waste constitutes five percent of municipal solid waste and is expected to continuously rise. E-waste does not breakdown and stockpiling in landfill runs the great risk of toxic leaching into surroun ding soils and in the case of an unlined landfill, possibly also into ground water. A steady build up of toxics has potential to cause significant environmental harm. However, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology, despite Australia being one of the most highly regulated areas of environmental control in Australia, there is no actual formal analysis on the activities of waste disposal and illegal polluting (Bricknell 2010). The lack of available statistics regarding illegal dumping can be explained by the tendency to regard the problem as non criminal. Environmental criminology requires more than simply talking about the environment and what needs to be done to protect it. It requires investigating trends and issues as well as asking questions. On one hand, what happens in our natural environment effects us personally, even if they are not immediate consequences and thus matters regarding environmental harm and those that commit it raise questions of social structures (White, 2008). Quinney (1970) publicised the idea that societal power relations reflects social construction. When viewing which part of society commits the most crime we immediately think of the powerless over the powerful. However, law-making processesShow MoreRelatedUnderstanding Violence: The Virginia Tech University Shootings880 Words   |  4 Pageslogical that something so extraordinarily awful and wrong must have been caused by an equally unusual and outrageous problem or anomaly. However, explaining heinous crimes of violence is not so straight-forward; understanding violent behavior involves multiple, and sometimes conflicting, theoretical perspectives and disciplines. 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