Green Criminals. An Investigation of Corporate Environmental Violations in the United States, 1992-2024.

• In Event: Capital, Communities, and Climate: How Local and Corporate Actors Shape Environmental Futures

Abstract

Corporations have a much greater capacity for environmental harm than individuals, however a lack of available data hampers quantitative analysis of corporations at the meso-level. Treadmill of production theory, a perspective which characterizes capitalist societies as necessarily exploitative of the natural environment, suggests that violations of environmental law are particularly harmful to society and, further, that corporations are the primary drivers of this harm. This study utilizes a comprehensive dataset of federal corporate investigations from 1992–2024 to examine what influences (1) investigations into corporate environmental violations and (2) the fine imposed upon corporations. We present preliminary results and discuss further research.

Authors

• Derek Sheehan, University of Iowa

• Ion Bogdan Vasi, University of Iowa