Nigel South & Avi Brisman (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Green Criminology

Authors

Gary R. Potter, London South Bank University

Abstract

"The first articulation of a ‘green’ criminology – that is, a criminology concerned with man-made environmental harm – is usually attributed to Michael Lynch (1990) in his essay The Greening of Criminology: a perspective on the 1990s. Although not the first criminological work on environmental harm, Lynch was one of the first to argue that environmental problems in themselves, and the social harms that so often stem from them, can be seen to be legitimate criminological concerns – and that criminologists, therefore, may be well positioned to contribute to analysis and discussion of the environmental degradation that has become characteristic of late-modern, super-industrialised global society. At the time, Lynch firmly aligned this to critical and radical criminological traditions, recognising the common cause of social inequality and ecological devastation. To slightly oversimplify, those fighting social injustice and those concerned with environmental degradation share a common enemy in the unrestrained forces of global consumer capitalism, and a common cause in the resultant suffering of marginalised and powerless groups."

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Recommended Citation

Potter, Gary R. (2014) "Nigel South & Avi Brisman (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Green Criminology," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 9.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol2/iss2/9