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ABSTRACT
Much of what is known about the responses to and the sentencing of environmental or green offenders comes from a limited number of studies that primarily draw on federal data maintained by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Little, however, is known about how states respond to environmental/green offenses and offenders and even less in known about how counties treat environmental offenders. The present study uses data from Fulton County, Georgia, from 1998 to 2014 to explore the kinds of crimes and responses to those crimes at the county level. This study examines the distribution of environmental crimes in Fulton County across 14 enforced offense categories and the changes in the enforcement of environmental crimes in Fulton County over time. Analyses also explore the kinds of punishments environmental offenders receive in Fulton County, the prevalence of recidivism among offenders, and the kinds of environmental offenses state agencies in Fulton County commit. Because the results from Fulton County may not be representative of how other counties in Georgia or the US respond to environmental offending, additional studies are needed to further assess this issue because there are many local environmental crimes. As studies are absent at this level of analysis, a great deal of information about green crimes and their enforcement is missing from the literature.
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Michael J. Lynch
MICHAEL J. LYNCH is a professor of criminology and associated faculty member in the Patel School of Global Sustainability, University of South Florida. His research examines the social control and extent of green/environmental crime, environmental justice, environmental sociology, corporate crime and its control, and radical criminology. His most recent books include: Green Criminology: Crime, Justice and the Environment (Citation2017, University of California Press); Defining Crime: A Critique of the Concept and Its Implications (2015; Palgrave-MacMillan); and Corporate Crime, Corporate Violence (2015, 3rd edition, Harrow & Heston).