The paper conceptualizes and defines environmental crime from the perspective of Aldo Leopold's land ethic: a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. Highlighted are basic conflicts between this ethic and the dominant themes that shape United States environmen tal law: human dominion over nature, nature as a source of economic opportunity, technology as a means to overcome nature and solve envi ronmental problems, and markets as a means to value nature. These con flicts produce a divergence between environmental harm in fact and envi ronmental harm as conceived in law. Drawing on Edwin Sutherland, con sideration is given to the process through which ethical learning is dif fused through society and impacts on law and compliance. A transformed system is outlined that could close the gap between our current legal approach and that informed by a land ethic.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adler, F. (1996). Offender-specific vs. offense-specific approaches to the study of environmental crime In M. Sally, T. D. Edwards, & C. B. Fields (Eds.), Environmental Crime and Criminality: Theoretical and Practical Issues (p 35-54). New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc.
2.
Ambrose, S.E. (1996). Undaunted CourageNew York : Simon & Schuster.
3.
Barnett, H.C. (1994). Toxic Debts and the Superfund DilemmaChapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
4.
___. ( 1998). Hazardous waste regulation: Legacies of the past and projections for the future In M. Clifford (Ed.), Environmental Crime: Enforcement, Policy, and Social Responsibility (p 377-396). Gaithersburg, Maryland: Aspen Publications.
5.
Brown, G.M., and Shogren, J.F. (1998). Economics of the Endangered Species ActThe Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12 (3), 3-20.
6.
Bullard, R. D. (Ed.). (1993). Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots.Boston: South End Press.
7.
Callicott, B. (Ed.). (1987). Companion to A Sand County Almanac.Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
8.
Clifford, M. (1998). Environmental Crime: Enforcement, Policy, and Social ResponsibilityGaithersburg, Maryland: Aspen Publications.
9.
Cohen, M. (1992). Environmental crime and punishment: Legal/economic theory and empirical evidence on enforcement of federal environmental statutesThe Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology , 82, 1054-1108.
10.
Commission for Racial Justice, United Church of Christ (1987). Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste SitesNew York: Public Data Access.
11.
Dowie, M. (1995). Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth CenturyCambridge, MA: MIT Press.
12.
Foster, J.B. (1993). Let them eat pollution: Capitalism and the world environmentMonthly Review, January: 10-20
13.
Hawkin, P. (1993). The Ecology of CommerceNew York: HarperBusiness.
14.
Hird, J.A. (1994). Superfund: The Political Economy of Environmental RiskBaltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.
15.
Leopold, A. (1987). A Sand County AlmanacNew York : Oxford University Press.
16.
Manes, C. (1990). Green Rage : Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of CivilizationBoston: Little, Brown and Company.
17.
McDonough, W. and Braungart, M.1998. The next industrial revolutionThe Atlantic Monthly282 (4), p 82-92.
18.
McKibben, B. (1990). The End of NatureAnchor Books .
19.
Michalowski, R. (1997). EcoRape: The intersection of accumulation, patriarchy, and ecological harmPaper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology. San Diego, November.
20.
Mueller, G.O.W. (1996). An essay on environmental criminality In M. Sally, T. D. Edwards, & C. B. Fields (Eds.), Environmental Crime and Criminality: Theoretical and Practical Issues (p 3-33). New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
21.
Powell, J.W. (1878). Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United StatesWashington, DC.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
22.
Reisner, M. (1993). Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing WaterNew York: Penguin Books.
23.
Seis, M. (1996). A native american criminology of environmental crime In M. Sally, T. D. Edwards, & C. B. Fields (Eds.), Environmental Crime and Criminality: Theoretical and Practical Issues (p 121-145). New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
24.
Stegner, W. (1992). Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the WestNew York: Penguin Books.
25.
Stone, C. (1974). Should Trees have Standing?: Toward Legal Rights for Natural ObjectsLos Altos, California: William Kaufman, Inc..
26.
___. ( 1993). The Gnat is Older Than ManPrinceton : Princeton University Press.
27.
Sutherland, E. (1983). White Collar Crime: The Uncut VersionNew Haven: Yale University Press.
28.
Szasz, A. (1994). EcoPopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental JusticeMinneapolis:: University of Minnesota Press.
29.
Udall, S.L. (1963). The Quiet CrisesNew York: Avon Books.
30.
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (1992 ). Environmental Equity: Reducing Risk for All CommunitiesWashington, DC: U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Policy Planning and Evaluation.
31.
Wallace, M.G., Cortner, H.J., Moote, M.A., & Burke, S. (1996). Moving toward ecosystem management: Examining a change in philosophy for resource managementJournal of Political Ecology3. 1-27.
32.
Weintraub, I. (1994). Fighting Environmental Racism: A Selected Annotated BibliographyElectronic Green Journal, 1. Retrieved August 18, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://drseuss.lib.uidaho.edu:70/docs/egj01/weint01.html.
33.
Wilkinson, C.F. (1992). Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the WestWashington, DC: Island Press.
34.
Wilson, N.K. (1998). Environmental ethics, criminal law, and environmental crime In M. Clifford (Ed.), Environmental Crime: Enforcement, Policy, and Social Responsibility (p 281-297). Gaithersburg, Maryland: Aspen Publications.
35.
Worster, D. (1979). Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930'sOxford: Oxford University Press.
