Corporate Environmental Crime at the Crossorads of Waste Management and Bunker Fuel Production

Session Submission Type: Author meets critics

Abstract

The movement of hazardous wastes has long been recognised as a pressing issue in the fields of both (criminal) law and criminology. This book builds on that important body of work and furthers it by considering a particularly pernicious type of movement. Wastes are not merely delivered to entities that are unable - legally and technologically - to handle them safely but they are, in fact, fraudulently represented as products in order to be blended into the fuel for large sea-faring vessels, including cargo and container ships: bunker fuel. This research investigates an often undiscussed type of environmental crime and is grounded in the integrated use of various data sources, methods, and theoretical perspectives. It includes an analysis of new data derived from the detailed investigation files of Dutch police authorities using the crime-script method. It further dissects the contextual forces at the level of industry and political economy that frame the criminal events using green and organisational criminological concepts. The case study further involves the examination of empirical data regarding criminal law responses by a special team of Dutch police agents. The insights are brought together to highlight several pinch-points for intervention at multiple levels of analysis, which can inspire future policies and practices by public and private actors alike.

Subtopic

• Topic 2: Types of Offending / Environmental/Green Criminology

Critic

• Hans Nelen, Maastricht University

Book Author

• Giulia Giardi, Maastricht University