Editors’ introduction to the special issue: ‘For a green criminology’—20 years and onwards
| Author | Nigel South,Ragnhild Sollund,Avi Brisman,Piers Beirne |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480618787169 |
| Date | 01 August 2018 |
| Published date | 01 August 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480618787169
Theoretical Criminology
2018, Vol. 22(3) 295 –297
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480618787169
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Editors’ introduction to the
special issue: ‘For a green
criminology’—20 years and
onwards
The first outline of a ‘green criminology’ occurred in Michael J Lynch’s (1990) essay,
‘The greening of criminology’ in The Critical Criminologist, although, as the author
himself has observed, this call had little impact (Lynch, 2013: 44). Generously, Lynch
suggests that it was later in that decade, with the publication of a special issue of
Theoretical Criminology, edited by Nigel South and Piers Beirne (1998), that interest in
green criminology was really stimulated.
The subsequent flourishing of this perspective means that no more than a brief survey
of its wide remit and coverage is required here. Importantly, green criminology has pro-
vided the broad field of criminology with a way to confront harms (whether defined as
‘crimes’ or not) that affect the planet as a whole, particular natural environments and
species other than humans. In so doing, green criminology has addressed issues such as
animal abuse (including animal sexual assault, carnism and so-called ‘wildlife’ traffick-
ing); biodiversity loss; the extraction and exploitation of ‘natural resources’; deforesta-
tion; the pollution of air, land and water by private individuals, corporations, states and
the military–industrial complex; the diverse ways in which state–corporate collusion and
weak and/or failed states contribute to a host of interconnected green crimes; and the
challenges posed by global warming and climate change to life itself on our ‘shared
planet’ (Benton, 1998). For present purposes, it should be emphasized that while its
empirical contributions are significant, green criminology has also inspired, re-visited
and generated theory.
The original special issue on green criminology was the first special issue that this
journal had supported—and the first special issue on green criminology to appear in any
journal. For this opportunity to mark its 20th anniversary, we are grateful to the current
editors, Mary Bosworth and Simon Cole. The aims of this special issue are, therefore,
both retrospective and prospective. As a whole, this issue tries to take stock of and to
advance current theoretical questions. It continues the first issue’s ‘green spirit of plural-
ity’ (South and Beirne, 1998: 147) by emphasizing multi-disciplinarity and by assem-
bling nine articles written by 15 established and emerging scholars from Australia,
Canada, Colombia, Norway, the UK and the USA. The articles address global and local
787169TCR0010.1177/1362480618787169Theoretical CriminologyEditorial
editorial2018
Editorial
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