Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Griefe, M., Stretesky, P.B.,  O’Connor-Shelly, T., & Pogrebin, M. (2015). Corporate environmental crime and environmental justice. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 22.

Summary: Executive Order 12898 (42 U.S.C. § 4321 [2000]) mandates that federal agencies in the United States make it their purpose to achieve environmental justice. As a result, agencies often rely on empirical studies to provide crucial information that can be used to implement policies to combat inequality. Although numerous studies now examine the distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, there are no systematic empirical studies that examine inequality in criminal penalties. This study corrects that omission by presenting findings on the relationship between community demographics and monetary penalties against corporations for 121 criminal violations of federal environmental law that were adjudicated between the years 2005 and 2010. Our results suggest that monetary penalties are not correlated with the demographics of residents living near the crime. That is, corporations that committed their environmental crimes in minority and poor areas did not receive lower monetary penalties as a result. Thus, environmental justice concerns appear to be satisfied with respect to federal criminal prosecutions.

Questions to Consider:

1. Why is it essential to examine the role of corporations in environmental crimes?
    
2. What is the government’s role in environmental crime and how does their role influence the policing of corporate environmental offenders?
    
3. Based on the findings of this study are punishments regarding corporate environmental crime appropriate or should they be more or less harsh?
    

Simon, D. R. (2000). Corporate environmental crimes and social inequality: New directions for environmental justice research. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(4), 633-645. 

Summary: In a 1997 article, Szasz and Meuser note that environmental justice research may have “excluded” certain questions of import. Among the topics they list as neglected are (a) the place of the upper class in environmental research and (b) the lack of both a global and a historical perspective. This article represents a furtherance of suggestions concerning their proposed agenda. Specifically, the article examines patterns of environmental crime among the largest multinational corporations, both in the United States and around the world, as well as the environmental deviance committed by the federal government. This examination demonstrates that environmental crimes are part of an entire pattern of criminal activity that takes place within a political economy dominated by large corporations and upper-class stockholders. The article closes with suggestions for research into these patterns.

Questions to Consider:

1. Why is it important to study the upper classes’ role in environmental crime?
    
2. Which industries are responsible for the bulk of environmental crime?
    
3. What is meant by the phrase “environmental racism” and what are some examples of “environmental racism”?