In a 1997 article, Szasz and Meuser note that environmental justice research may have “excluded” certain questions of import. Among the topics they list as neglected are (a) the place of the upper class in environmental research and (b) the lack of both a global and a historical perspective. This article represents a furtherance of suggestions concerning their proposed agenda. Specifically, the article examines patterns of environmental crime among the largest multinational corporations, both in the United States and around the world, as well as the environmental deviance committed by the federal government. This examination demonstrates that environmental crimes are part of an entire pattern of criminal activity that takes place within a political economy dominated by large corporations and upper-class stockholders. The article closes with suggestions for research into these patterns.
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