Environmental Crime

An emerging field of research

Due to the global scarcity of natural resources, transnational criminal organisations are increasingly turning to environmental crime. As a result, it has become one of the largest criminal markets in the world.

This development raises important criminological and legal questions. Despite the major impact of environmental crime, the relationship between humans and nature has long been neglected in criminological research.

However, green criminology is developing rapidly and is important for further empirical and theoretical developments in the field. It is therefore important to further deepen and strengthen this approach within the theme group.

Objectives theme group Environmental Crime

The theme group has three main objectives:

• To promote empirical research;
• To further develop green criminology theoretically;
• And to set up a centre of expertise.

Collaborations

To achieve these objectives, it is essential to bring together criminologists, ecologists and lawyers who work together in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner. The resulting insights will be crucial for policymakers, law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organisations to develop inventive solutions to prevent and tackle environmental crime.

Within this thematic group, the chair in environmental crime has been established in collaboration with the Open Universiteit, in which other knowledge institutions can also participate.