Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Economic Development into a Theoretical Framework to Describe Criminogenic Areas for Illegal Hunting

• In Event: Green Criminology I: Animal Abuse, Fishing and Hunting

Abstract

Both conservation criminology and green criminology provide different approaches to understanding illegal hunting. Conservation criminology emphasizes the physical dimension of crime, while green criminology emphasizes political economic structures engendering such behavior. In this presentation, I seek to draw out a theoretical framework to apply both aspects--the physical dimension of crime and the structure of the economy. This presentation focuses on conceptualizing and operationalizing three mechanisms of economic development that engender criminogenic areas for illegal hunting behavior. The first mechanism surrounds the monetization of hunting to preserve the environment. The second mechanism describes the physical embodiment of economic development that modifies the ecologically. The last mechanism focuses on the size of economic production threatening the use of more natural resources. All three mechanisms play into one another, creating an uneven economic structure across areas. In return, certain areas are more prone to illegal hunting behaviors.

Author

• Leo J. Genco, University of Tampa