Brisman, A., & South, N. (2013) ‘A green-cultural criminology: An exploratory out-
line’, Crime, Media and Culture, 9 (2) pp.115-135.
Definition
- Green criminology is concerned with crimes and harms affecting the natural environment, the
planet and the associated impacts on human and non-human life. Still some debate as to
whether green criminology constitutes a theory or a perspective
Other theories linkage
- Criminological lineage:
Traditions of critical criminology
Science-based, arts and culture orientated, or social science rooted approaches
Themes and topics
- Pollution regulation
- Corporate and state criminality
- Environmental impacts
- Workplace health and safety where there is environmentally damaging consequences,
- Criminal organization and official corruption in the illegal disposal of toxic wastes
Typologies
- Deepens our understanding of environmental crimes and harms -Lynch and Stretesky 2011-
Brisman 2013
- Distinction between primary and secondary green crimes, classifying some as resulting
directly
What is cultural criminology?
- Looks at how crime control is constructed, enforced and resisted
- Investigates how cultural forms and cultural expressions such as art and music, become
criminalized and the ways in which perceptions and understandings of crime and crime
control are constructed
- Cultural criminologists frequently undertake ethnographic research – researcher approaches
an empathic, appreciative understanding of the meanings and emotions associated with crime
and crime control
How green criminology is linked to several dimensions of cultural criminology
a. The contestation of space, transgression and resistance: ways in which environmental harms
are resisted on the streets and in the day to day
- Urges green criminologists to follow cultural criminology and investigate examples of late
modern resistance that challenge the systems and forms of control responsible for
environmental harm –
- An example – direct action of decentralized animal liberation/rights cells
- Green criminologists to explore those actions that rupture the normalcy of everyday life –
actions more celebratory, festive, theatrical
- RTS – reclaim the street parties – spontaneous events – held on busy streets/highways/major
intersections – often accomplished by faking a car crash in order to cut off motorized
vehicular access to a particular throughway, participants seek to turn the pavement into a
playground, regard their hijacking of roads as an expression of their shared vision of
communal ownership of public spaces
- Critical Mass – world wide bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month –
seek to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclist rights to the road – publicity minimal to prevent
police intervention
- Both RTS and CM lack an identifiable leadership
- They both represent 2 types of collective participation in social affairs
- Green criminologists should become familiar with this new orientation and new methods, and
immerse themselves in the ways that activists push back against the systems and forms of
control responsible for environmental and social harm, retard or arrest
b. Media constructions and representations of environmental crime, harm and risks
line’, Crime, Media and Culture, 9 (2) pp.115-135.
Definition
- Green criminology is concerned with crimes and harms affecting the natural environment, the
planet and the associated impacts on human and non-human life. Still some debate as to
whether green criminology constitutes a theory or a perspective
Other theories linkage
- Criminological lineage:
Traditions of critical criminology
Science-based, arts and culture orientated, or social science rooted approaches
Themes and topics
- Pollution regulation
- Corporate and state criminality
- Environmental impacts
- Workplace health and safety where there is environmentally damaging consequences,
- Criminal organization and official corruption in the illegal disposal of toxic wastes
Typologies
- Deepens our understanding of environmental crimes and harms -Lynch and Stretesky 2011-
Brisman 2013
- Distinction between primary and secondary green crimes, classifying some as resulting
directly
What is cultural criminology?
- Looks at how crime control is constructed, enforced and resisted
- Investigates how cultural forms and cultural expressions such as art and music, become
criminalized and the ways in which perceptions and understandings of crime and crime
control are constructed
- Cultural criminologists frequently undertake ethnographic research – researcher approaches
an empathic, appreciative understanding of the meanings and emotions associated with crime
and crime control
How green criminology is linked to several dimensions of cultural criminology
a. The contestation of space, transgression and resistance: ways in which environmental harms
are resisted on the streets and in the day to day
- Urges green criminologists to follow cultural criminology and investigate examples of late
modern resistance that challenge the systems and forms of control responsible for
environmental harm –
- An example – direct action of decentralized animal liberation/rights cells
- Green criminologists to explore those actions that rupture the normalcy of everyday life –
actions more celebratory, festive, theatrical
- RTS – reclaim the street parties – spontaneous events – held on busy streets/highways/major
intersections – often accomplished by faking a car crash in order to cut off motorized
vehicular access to a particular throughway, participants seek to turn the pavement into a
playground, regard their hijacking of roads as an expression of their shared vision of
communal ownership of public spaces
- Critical Mass – world wide bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month –
seek to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclist rights to the road – publicity minimal to prevent
police intervention
- Both RTS and CM lack an identifiable leadership
- They both represent 2 types of collective participation in social affairs
- Green criminologists should become familiar with this new orientation and new methods, and
immerse themselves in the ways that activists push back against the systems and forms of
control responsible for environmental and social harm, retard or arrest
b. Media constructions and representations of environmental crime, harm and risks
