Green Crime

Green crimes can be committed by individuals, businesses and governments. Some green crimes committed by individuals are illegal dumping of waste, otherwise known as fly tipping, littering, and picking protected wild flowers. Green crimes committed by businesses include pollution and fly tipping. Some green crimes committed by governments include pollution and the transportation and dumping of waste materials. Individual green crime is different to other types of crime in that many of the people involved will not consider themselves as criminal. In the past, it wasn’t seen as deviant to dump rubbish in lay-bys or to throw rubbish from car windows. It is only relatively recent that the public have become aware of such things, partly by the actions of the Environment Agency, the UK body responsible for protecting the environment, and partly the wider environmental concerns over global warming, etc. which have made people more environmentally aware. More unusual green crimes include the shooting of birds of prey, egg collecting and badger baiting. Badger baiting has been illegal since 1835 but is still goes on today. An interesting example of the relative nature of crime and deviance is fox hunting, banned in the UK in 2005. Opponents say it often damaged the environment, whereas supporters…