The Brownness of Green Crimes and Harms

Criminology has awoken to the plight of the environment with the growing field of green criminology. This is evident with the increase in scholarship dedicated to uncovering the green crimes and harms that injure people, other species and the planet. The crimes against the environment are varied and extensive. White (2008) proposed that these can be categorised into three groupings: white, green and brown. White issues are those pertaining to scientific concerns and the impact of new technologies, such as genetically modified organisms. Green issues are related to wilderness and conservation, for instance, hunting and logging practices. Finally, brown issues, the sole focus of this collection, centres on pollution and other consequences of urban and industrial life. White included air pollution, pollution of urban stormwater, beaches, pesticides, oil spills, water catchment and disposal of toxic and hazardous waste as the types of crimes and harms that are “brown”. This book is a unique collection focussed exclusively on the latter. Hazardous waste and pollution take on numerous forms, have various causes and impact tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people. Whilst causing a significant amount of injury and suffering, criminalisation and regulation of such actions are contentious at the same time that green efforts (grey water capture, etc.) are prohibited. This collection of chapters, which were papers presented at the Economic and Social Research Council and Northumbria University-funded conference on Brown Crime, explores the dynamics of conceptualisation, control and regulation of brown crimes and those brown harms outside the criminal justice system.