{"id":37,"date":"2016-01-22T16:48:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T00:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/?page_id=37"},"modified":"2026-04-20T14:25:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:25:58","slug":"environmental-crime","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/about\/research\/environmental-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Crime Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Environmental Crime Project<\/h1>\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-row wsu-row--single\" >\r\n    \n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t\n\n<p>I have initiated, with Dr. Jennifer Schwartz, WSU sociology, a project examining the population of criminally prosecuted environmental offenses from 1983-2010. Environmental crime, virtually unheard of before 1970 when it was regularly accepted practice to dump (toxic) wastes directly into air, water and\/or unlined pits as part of routine industrial activity, is now the focus of an Environmental Crimes Section at the US Department of Justice that employs some 40 full-time prosecutors (DOJ 2012). Yet scholars know surprisingly little about environmental crimes, with sociological research in the nascent field of green criminology dominated by epistemological debates and calls for more research (e.g., White 2008; Lynch &amp; Stretsky 2003; 2012). We ask what is defined as serious environmental criminal acts, how that changes over time, and how relevant cases compare to more commonly studies administrative and civil environmental violations as well as to other types of white collar crimes that are the regular province of criminology. A Meyer Faculty seed grant is funding the collection of data necessary to complete two initial papers and prepare an extended line of inquiry in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our\u00a0research on gendered patterns of offending in environmental crime groups was presented at a regular session of the ASAs this past summer, and additional data collection will\u00a0allow for important re-analysis on a larger set of cases and submission\u00a0for peer-reviewed publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related Publications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Department of Justice.\u00a0 2012.\u00a0 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/enrd\/5472.htm\">Historical Development of Environmental Criminal Law<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Accessed 4\/30\/2013.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lynch, Michael and Paul Stretsky. 2003. The meaning of green: Contrasting criminological perspectives. <em>Theoretical Criminology<\/em> 7:217-238.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8212; 2012.\u00a0 \u201cGreen Criminology.\u201d\u00a0 <em>Oxford Handbook of Criminological Theory.<\/em>\u00a0 Francis T. Cullen and Pamela Wilcox (eds.).\u00a0 Oxford University Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>White, Rob.\u00a0 2008.\u00a0 <em>Crimes Against Nature: Environmental Criminology and Ecological Justice.<\/em>\u00a0 Cornwall, UK: Willan Publishing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Environmental Crime Project<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2082,"featured_media":0,"parent":97,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2082"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37\/revisions\/326"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/erikjohnson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}