Green Criminology Before ‘Green Criminology’: Amnesia and Absences

Although the first published use of the term ‘green criminology’ seems to have been made by Lynch (Green criminology. Aldershot, Hampshire, 1990/2006), elements of the analysis and critique represented by the term were established well before this date. There is much criminological engagement with, and analysis of, environmental crime and harm that occurred prior to 1990 that deserves acknowledgement. In this article, we try to illuminate some of the antecedents of green criminology. Proceeding in this way allows us to learn from ‘absences’, i.e. knowledge that existed but has been forgotten. We conclude by referring to green criminology not as an exclusionary label or barrier but as a symbol that guides and inspires the direction of research

Keynes, provincialized?

Geoff Mann makes a strong case for continuities within European thought, stretching from Keynes back to Hegel, with respect to questions of the state, economy and civil society. His reflections on their implications for radical academic practices are well-taken. His focus on deepening the temporality of Keynesian thinking does not attend, however, to the nature and limits of the spatio-temporality of this trajectory of knowledge production. Opening up these questions, provincializing Keynes (and Hegel), creates space to countenance the possibility of state and civil society imaginaries and practices that exceed the Hegel–Keynes–Mann trajectory, including those of radical geographers

Asian criminology and southern epistemologies

In Southern Theory (2007) Raewyn Connell critiques the hierarchy of global knowledge systems based on the experience of a small number of societies in the Global North (predominantly English speaking countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States). She argues that social science had succeeded in representing itself, and being widely accepted, as universal, timeless and placeless. Given the huge ethnic, social, cultural, historical, political and economic disparities across the globe this cannot possibly be the case. Yet the implied assumption is that all societies were bound to follow the lead of modern societies of the global North if they were to successfully modernize. According to this logic social phenomena in the peripheral world would be investigated from the standpoint of universal theories and laws of development generated from ‘modern’ or ‘Western’ societies of the global North. This is the kind of theory which Connell calls metropolitan thinking (Connell, 2007: 215). This chapter aims to illustrate that Connell’s argument applies with equal force to criminology, having the effect of stunting the development of criminologies from the south – including Asian criminologies, until relatively recently..

Environmental victims and climate change activists

There are powerful examples of victims of historical and ongoing directharms gathering forces to fight for justice and reparations: from nativepeoples in Canada and Australia demanding redress for harms sufferedsince colonial times (Cunneen and Tauri 2016; Jung 2009) to currentmovements against gender-based violence or racialized police brutalitysuch as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. Overcoming individual agonyand organising resistance is extremely difficult in cases such as these.Yet even more challenges appear when struggling against, allegedly,more abstract and indirect harms such as climate change.1 Ultimately, weare all affected by environmental harms, and particularly by climate change (Hall 2014; Watts 2018). Moreover, our own humane existenceis under threat (White 2019; Sanchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys 2019).However, the impact of climate change is more diffuse, immaterial andabstract than crimes, such as murder or rape, and this peculiarity is whatmight make commitment to resistance even more challenging than usual

Human trafficking and criminal proceedings in Portugal: discourses of professionals in the justice system

Author's personal copySince the adoption of the UN Trafficking Protocol in 2000, the predominant approach to combat human trafficking has been based on the criminalization of traffickers in conjunction with a concern for victims' protection. However, few empirical studies considered the effectiveness of those measures, which makes it difficult to understand why criminal cases of human trafficking generally result in few convictions. In Portugal, recent legislative changes have made the legal framework on human trafficking more comprehensive, inclusive and convergent with European directives. The effects of the implementation of those legislative changes on investigation and prosecution are still overlooked. The present study analyses the discourses of justice system professionals that concern the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking. It examines and identifies the factors that, in their perspective, block the recognition of the typifying elements of the crime of human trafficking and create obstacles to the prosecution and conviction of those crimes. Our findings suggest that legislative advances recognized by the participants need to be accompanied by other changes, some of a more systemic nature and others that are more specific. An efficient criminal procedure should include better legal phrasing of the means of evidence of human trafficking that is supported by objective instruments for this to be considered valid; the centralization of proof that the testimony of the victim has to overcome; specialized professional training of an ongoing nature; an efficient cooperation between the various law enforcement agencies at the national and international levels, with public prosecution services and magistrates; a greater clarification of the condition of the special vulnerability of victims and an informed perspective regarding the global nature of the phenomenon of human trafficking, one that is also sensitive towards the victim (e.g., in relation to the victims' vulnerability, illegal status, and their difficulties in teThis study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre, University of Minho, and supported by the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The authors also thank Eunice Seixas for technical support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio