This reading note details the corporate deconstruction and reconstruction of green crime, social construction of crime, environmental justice, green movements, as well as implications for green criminology. There are also theories for green criminology such as the corporate perspective and the envi...
Lynch, M.J. & Stretsky, P.B. (2003) ‘The meaning of green: Contrasting criminological per-
spectives’, Theoretical Criminology, 7 (2) pp.217-238.
Defining green in ‘green criminology’
- Green crimes, like other crimes, are social constructions influenced by social locations and
power relations in society
- Examining the meaning of green as influenced by 2 distinct groups: corporate actors and
environmental jusice activists/movements influenced by considerations of gender, race, and
class-based inequities
The social construction of crime
- Quinney (1970) popularized the idea that crime is a social construction that reflects societal
power relations.
- the acts of crime are behaviours predominantly undertaken by relatively powerless social
actors
- the process of constructing crime is also subject to legitimation constraints and rules defining
fair play – conseqeutnly some of the behaviours of the powerful will also be defined as
criminal
The corporate deconstruction of green
- corporations play an important role in the social construction/meaning of green
- late 1980’s media and scholarly pundits predicted that the environment would become a
major political issue over the following, decade, reawakening people’s environmental
consciousness
- proved inaccurate
- the involvement of corporations in environmental movements facilitated the decline of
renewed interest in the environment
- the limited success of the green movement can be tied to the transformation of the ideological
basis and symbolism the public has come to associate with the term green
- corporate constructions of green have led to widespread reinterpretations of what it means to
‘be green’ and to take a ‘green position’
- corporations that release cancer-causing substances into the environment in amounts that
meet established regulatory limits are praised even though their production practices are non-
sustainable, exploitive and even criminal in some countries
Corporate reconstruction of green
- environmental movement rapidly reconstructed in the 1990’s by corporations that manipulated
and remade the term green
- the word green – presented to the public in a mild de-politicized environmental vision along
with less drastic responses to environmental issues – for example consumers could easily
become green by altering their purchasing behavior – buying ‘green’ products – by appearing
green they were able to redirect support for environmental issues and movements (Karliner
1997)
- growing public concern with environmental issues – more of the population wished to join
green-based movements
- green movements are radical – argue for changes in production practices, limits on growth
and corporate power and economic redistribution as a viable policy response – consequently
increasing public support posed a threat to corporations business
- 2 responses by corporations – the first was to make small environmental concessions to
appease the public’s concerns, second corportations engaged in public relations campaigns.
Example: McDonald’s bowed to pressure to eliminate the use of Styrofoam, secondly, they
used media campaigns to make them appear green – appeased publics desire for
strengthened environmental protectionism – depoliticized the idea of being green
- ‘Greenwashing’ – advertising to head off the development of a peoples environmental
movement
- Karliner (1997) – corporations have successfully employed this strategy as a response to
popular environmentalism – consumers encouraged to think and buy green – green practices
associated with advertisements rather than production practices
- Chevron corporation – well known for its environmentally destructive practices – developed
environmental advertising program that included a TV commercial featuring attempts to save
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