Explain ways in which green criminology is different from traditional criminology [12] Green Criminology is a form of transgressive criminology. This means that it goes beyond the boundaries of traditional criminology. Whereas ‘traditional’ perspectives are anthropocentric (centred around human beings), Greenism is ecocentric (centred around the planet and its ecosystems). Within criminology, this means it takes a wider and more global view of crime. Traditional criminology focuses on crime as defined by the laws of a particular (human) society. Green criminology is focused on the concept of harm, which means that the wrongness of an act is assessed based on the potential damage it can do to the earth, its ecosystems and everything living within them, human or otherwise. Many such acts are not covered by traditional definitions of ‘crime’. For example, deforestation and species extinction are not necessarily defined as illegal within a particular society, often because it is the governments of these societies that are responsible for these things happening. But both acts have the potential to cause immeasurable damage to the planet and are therefore, from a Greenist perspective, ‘criminal’. Greenism also examines ‘secondary’ acts which can contribute indirectly to global harm. For example, governments that block or interfere with environmental groups (e.g. the French government’s sinking of a Greenpeace boat, or Donald Trump’s recent silencing of National Park workers) or the environmentally irresponsible actions of governments or corporations (e.g. the USA and UK cheaply disposing of its toxic waste and recycling by shipping it off to countries with non-existent safety standards). Despite its different approaches to criminology, Greenism does share some common ground with more traditional perspectives. For example, both Greenism and Marxism share a common ‘enemy’ – albeit for different reasons - in profit-driven government systems and corporations and both perspectives seek to highlight the ways in which these powerful groups define crime to serve their own purposes and seek to hold them to account for their immoral actions.
1 Comment
Jane
21/3/2018 20:27:59
This is horrifically great
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Crime & DevianceA2 Unit: G673 Archives
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