A Proposal for the Political Economy of Green Criminology: Capitalism and the Case of the Alberta Tar Sands

Michael Lynch, Paul Stretesky, Michael Long

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
48 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Green criminology was proposed in 1990 to broaden the discipline and illustrate how environmental crime, deviance, and inequality can be interpreted through a critical lens influenced by political economic theory. Green criminology has yet to fulfill that theoretical promise. Instead, the political economic perspective on green criminology remains underdeveloped. The purpose of this work is to contribute to further development of a political economic green criminology by laying out the connection between ecological Marxism and green criminology. To carry out this task we describe five propositions that criminologists must consider when developing a green criminology from a political economic perspective. Importantly, these propositions suggest that the environmentally destructive forces of capitalism are opposed to nature. That is, we argue that green criminologists must come to recognize that capitalism and nature cannot both survive over the long run, and in criminological terms, capitalism is therefore a crime against nature.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)137-160
JournalCanadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Volume58
Issue number2
Early online date12 Jan 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2016

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