Southern Harm: Analyzing the Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Law in the Southern United States, 1983-2019

When violations of environmental laws involve significant harm or culpable conduct, the application of criminal enforcement tools is required. Yet, our understanding of how environmental laws have been criminally enforced historically in the Southern United States remains poor. Our goal is to analyze historical charging and sentencing patterns and show the broader themes that emerge in environmental crime prosecutions over time in the region. Through content analysis of all 2,588 criminal prosecutions resulting from U.S. EPA criminal investigations, 1983–2019, we select all 799 prosecutions occurring in the Southern United States. Results show that 44% of prosecutions focus on water pollution, 19% on hazardous waste, 17% air pollution, and about 10% state-level violations. Total penalties assessed to all defendants at sentencing exceeded $1.43 billion in monetary penalties and about 2,750 years’ probation and 866 years’ incarceration. We conclude with forward-facing solutions towards improving environmental criminal enforcement outcomes including enhanced community policing, greater public salience for enforcement activities, and enhanced resources

The Toxic Crusaders: Exploring the History of the Criminal Enforcement of the Toxic Substances Control Act

The criminal prosecution of defendants who violated federal laws governing chemical substances has been ongoing for roughly four decades. Yet we continue to have a poor understanding of how federal prosecutors use the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to charge and prosecute environmental criminals. Through content analysis of all the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) criminal prosecution case summaries from 1983 to 2019, we analyze all TSCA-focused prosecutions for two purposes. First, to gain a better historical understanding of how federal prosecutors have used TSCA as a prosecutorial tool. Second, to understand outcomes of those prosecutions. Results show that 38% of prosecutions focus on PCB-related crimes, 34% on asbestos crimes, 24% on lead-based paint crimes, and 4% on chemical crimes. Cumulatively, defendants were assessed over $170 million in penalties, 3,200 months’ probation, and 1,900 months incarceration. We conclude with forward-facing solutions for improving the criminal enforcement of TSCA including enhanced public salience, resources, and community policing

Of Sex Crimes and Fencelines: How Recognition of Environmental Justice Communities as Crime Victims Under State and Federal Law Can Help Secure Environmental Justice

Environmental justice communities throughout the United States continue to face disproportionate health burdens from living near industrial sources of pollution. Such burdens were caused by historically racist public policies and continue to be perpetuated by inadequate regulatory responses at the federal and state level. State and federal law has increasingly recognized an emerging set of rights afforded to victims of crime in court proceedings. We argue that members of environmental justice communities should be viewed as crime victims and have the same rights applied as other victims of violent crime. Using case examples under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) and exploring significant amendments to state constitutions in the last few years due to the Marsy’s Law Movement, we argue for the emerging potential to apply these rights to environmental justice communities. We contend this move will open up a new path to reduce harm for environmental justice communities left by the failures of the regulatory state and begin to give them voice and make them whole

\u3cstrong\u3eDoes the Criminal Enforcement of Federal Environmental Law Deter Environmental Crime? The Case of The U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act\u3c/strong\u3e

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice are tasked with the investigation and prosecution of hazardous waste crimes occurring under the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). For criminal sanctions to be effective, the probability of detection and severity of punishment must be significant enough to raise the cost to benefit ratio to deter environmental crimes. While research examines sanctioning under RCRA, little work examines the plausibility of the deterrent effect of criminal sanctions. Through content analysis of all environmental crime prosecutions resulting from EPA criminal investigations, 1983-2019, we explore the probability of detection and prosecution under RCRA. Results show the probability of detection and prosecution to be sub-optimal. We conclude by offering three remedies for improving the plausibility of deterrence for future RCRA crimes including enhancing enforcement resources, developing a greater community policing effort, and raising the profile and salience of criminal enforcement activities

Extracellular Fibrils of Pathogenic Yeast Cryptococcus gattii Are Important for Ecological Niche, Murine Virulence and Human Neutrophil Interactions

Cryptococcus gattii, an emerging fungal pathogen of humans and animals, is found on a variety of trees in tropical and temperate regions. The ecological niche and virulence of this yeast remain poorly defined. We used Arabidopsis thaliana plants and plant-derived substrates to model C. gattii in its natural habitat. Yeast cells readily colonized scratch-wounded plant leaves and formed distinctive extracellular fibrils (40–100 nm diameter ×500–3000 nm length). Extracellular fibrils were observed on live plants and plant-derived substrates by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by high voltage- EM (HVEM). Only encapsulated yeast cells formed extracellular fibrils as a capsule-deficient C. gattii mutant completely lacked fibrils. Cells deficient in environmental sensing only formed disorganized extracellular fibrils as apparent from experiments with a C. gattii STE12α mutant. C. gattii cells with extracellular fibrils were more virulent in murine model of pulmonary and systemic cryptococcosis than cells lacking fibrils. C. gattii cells with extracellular fibrils were also significantly more resistant to killing by human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) in vitro even though these PMN produced elaborate neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). These observations suggest that extracellular fibril formation could be a structural adaptation of C. gattii for cell-to-cell, cell-to-substrate and/or cell-to- phagocyte communications. Such ecological adaptation of C. gattii could play roles in enhanced virulence in mammalian hosts at least initially via inhibition of host PMN– mediated killing

All the News That’s Fit to Print? Media Reporting of Environmental Protection Agency Penalties Assessed Against the Petroleum Refining Industry, 1997-2003

Although examination of the relationship between the media and crime has received considerable attention in the academic literature, only a few studies have examined news media coverage of environmental crimes. The present study examines print news media coverage of federal penalties assessed against the petroleum refining industry from 1997 to 2003. The Environmental Protection Agency initiated and/or settled 162 cases involving seventy-eight petroleum refining companies from 1997 to 2003. While a news search of the nation’s twenty-five largest newspapers produced seventy-four articles related to petroleum refining industry violations, only seventeen articles matched the EPA cases analyzed in the present study. The present study found that while there is a considerable amount of federal petroleum refining industry violations, only a few cases receive media attention. The greatest factor leading to news media coverage of petroleum refining industry violations is the penalty and compliance amount assessed by the EPA. Companies assessed the highest penalties appeared in news media articles, however, only the top seven penalty assessments received news coverage. Overall, the lack of news media coverage of petroleum industry violations suggests that this type of crime is considered less important despite the vast amount of harm to the environment and human health produced by petroleum refining industry violations. Lack of attention by the news media to these important issues may lead to public misunderstanding and ignorance to the causes and consequences of environmental crime

Exploring the Role of Nonhuman Animal Victims in Federal Environmental Crime Prosecutions

While nonhuman animals in the United States are often victimized directly or as a consequence of environmental crimes, little is known about them or the role their victimization plays in federal environmental crime prosecutions. Through content analysis of 2,588 of the Environmental Protection Agency\u27s criminal prosecutions from 1983-2019, we identified cases where identifiable nonhuman animal victims play a central role in the prosecution. We developed a typology of victims and the consequences of their victimization, and we explored the geography, charging statutes, and penalties. Results suggest that victimization is infrequent, acute, and clusters around toxic discharges and pesticide abuse stemming from negligent actions on the part of individuals and companies

Southern Harm: Analyzing the Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Law in the Southern United States, 1983-2019

When violations of environmental laws involve significant harm or culpable conduct, the application of criminal enforcement tools is required. Yet, our understanding of how environmental laws have been criminally enforced historically in the Southern United States remains poor. Our goal is to analyze historical charging and sentencing patterns and show the broader themes that emerge in environmental crime prosecutions over time in the region. Through content analysis of all 2,588 criminal prosecutions resulting from U.S. EPA criminal investigations, 1983–2019, we select all 799 prosecutions occurring in the Southern United States. Results show that 44% of prosecutions focus on water pollution, 19% on hazardous waste, 17% air pollution, and about 10% state-level violations. Total penalties assessed to all defendants at sentencing exceeded $1.43 billion in monetary penalties and about 2,750 years’ probation and 866 years’ incarceration. We conclude with forward-facing solutions towards improving environmental criminal enforcement outcomes including enhanced community policing, greater public salience for enforcement activities, and enhanced resources

Phosphatidylcholine-mediated inhibition of Streptococcus pneumoniae adherence to type II pneumoncytes in vitro: Microb.Pathog.

NRC publication: Ye