Flooding and Situational Harm Reduction

• In Event: Place, Political Economy, & Environmental Injustice: Studies in Green Criminology

Abstract

The application of situational crime prevention (SCP) to green issues has sought ways of preventing a wide range of predatory crimes such as wildlife crime and endangered species protection. Less attention has been given to applying this framework toward preventing the harmful effects of climate change, for example natural disasters such as flooding. Drawing on empirical qualitative data from a case study of Matlock Town, Derbyshire, UK, this presentation provides practical examples of ‘situational harm reduction’ (SHR) (Wellsmith, 2010, p. 146) techniques and strategies used by residents and businesses in attending to the various harms (physical, financial, emotional, environmental) caused by flooding. Influenced by zemiology, the findings provide a theoretical contribution to the green criminology literature by extending the techniques of SCP into new conceptual territory, as well as widening the scope of environmental harms which criminology should seek to address. The lessons from a SHR approach are not place or context specific and can be applied to a range of different disaster scenarios nationally and internationally.

Authors

• Adam Aitken, University of Salford

• Ruth McKie, De Montfort University, Leicester