Is Climate Change a Crime? The Legal Case

• In Event: Criminological Perspectives on Climate Change

Abstract

This paper argues that climate change caused by anthropogenic global warming is indeed a crime, and then explores some of the implications that flow from that assessment. Utilizing an expanded legal definition of crime, advanced by Sutherland in his work on white collar crime, the paper makes the case that various forms of civil, regulatory and international law can be used to define climate change as a crime. The potential of these laws to specifically prevent and control greenhouse gas emissions, and more generally contribute to the larger symbolic effort to frame climate change as the most serious social problem, most important political issue, and greatest moral challenge the world community faces today is also explored.

Author

• Ronald Kramer, Western Michigan University