Participatory Action Research in Green Criminology

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Green criminology focuses on crimes and harms against humans, non-human species, and the environment from human-caused environmental hazards ranging from local pollution to global environmental problems. In many such cases either no laws exist to protect environmental victims, the laws are weak, or they are not applied to their full extent to provide the chance for a just outcome for the victims -- for instance, because the perpetrators are wealth-generating industries with political clout they can “rig” the system to their favor. The study of such harms therefore mandates approaches beyond mere scholarly inquiry and analysis. In the case of this panel’s papers the researchers have engaged in “participatory action research” or “community-based participatory research,” approaches that involve the community or persons being victimized in the research efforts and also facilitate a more just outcome in terms of alerting persons to the possible cause of their harms, mitigating the environmental hazard, helping victims gain compensation for harms, and/or facilitating policy change and creation of better environmental laws, regulations, and ordinances.

Sub Unit

• Area II. Types of Offending and Victimization / 21. Environmental/Green Crime

Individual Presentations

• Green Criminology in Action: Research and Community Engagement - Melissa Jarrell, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi; Josh Ozymy, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi

• The McAllen Plume: Participatory Action Research on a Serious Environmental Hazard in South Texas - Lynn Vincentnathan, University of Texas - Pan American; Sarah Rose Marie Chavez, University of Texas - Pan American; S. George Vincentnathan, University of Texas - Pan American

• New Ways of Looking at Environmental Victimization: A Visual Perspective for Green Criminology - Lorenzo Natali, University of Milano-Bicocca (Milan, Italy)

Chair

• Lynn Vincentnathan, University of Texas - Pan American