Environmental Crime

Introduction: The purpose of this research is to determine whether there has been a change in the overall water quality of the Lake Tarpon Basin, and if so, whether the quality has improved or worsened. The variables that will determine whether the quality has changed are: nutrients (phosphates and nitrates) and dissolved oxygen (DO). The expected changes are lower dissolved oxygen levels (from the already low levels), higher nitrogen levels (from the already high nitrogen levels), and the state qualifications still are not met for nutrients and dissolved oxygen (Levy, Flock, Burnes, Myers, Weed, River 2010). This topic relates to environmental management because the changes in water quality would be due to pollution, which relates to the question “How does human activity lead to the pollution of water stores?” The hypothesis that will be tested is that Lake Tarpon’s water quality will have worsened since the last measurements by Levy, Flock, Burnes, Myers, Weed, and Rivera in 2010.

In our society there is many different types of crimes, I will be focusing specifically on street crime and white-collared crime. Each of these criminal communities has criminals that in the end are just trying to reach a goal. Whether it is the American dream of living in luxury or just trying to make ends meet. “White collared” crime is defined as a nonviolent criminal act that is motivated by financial gain. Then there is “street crime” which is defined as a criminal offense that is committed in a public place. Some examples of white-collar crimes are: embezzlement, corporate price-fixing, fraud, bribery, forgery, money laundering, cybercrime, copyright infringement, etc. While some examples of street crime are: robbing, murder, rape, sale of illegal drugs, assault, auto theft, etc.

In order to have a thriving and healthy society a clean water supply is a very simple but necessary resource. Dating back to the beginning of civilizations the need for clean water was an essential need. The Clean Water Act dates to Franklin D Roosevelt’s administration. In 1972 Congress amended and passed what is now known as the Clean Water Act to protect our precious resource of water. The clean water Act prevented the dumping of pollutants into navigable waters without a permit. Many municipalities and commercial entities had previously dumped sewage and unregulated waste in to our rivers and streams contaminating a great percentage of our drinking water. This wreck less contamination of our waterways not only affected humans but also affected our wildlife including fish and animal’s life that depended on these waters. Any municipality or company that could affect our waters would need to apply for a permit to do so. While the Clean Water Act was a landmark legislation that was supported by both Democrats and Republicans alike over the years has seen expansion of the EPA’s interpretation of the law and has created a controversy in Administrative Law that has many challenges up to the Unites States Supreme Court. (Television, n.d.)

Moving on, there are some issues with the legislation that has been passed in order to conserve the water, especially concerning the Clean Water Act. People are having opposition with the rules of the Clean Water Act. Small business owners feel that this act is restricting the way that they tend to their property. For example, several farmers use pesticides, herbicides, and other fertilizers to keep harmful insects and other animals off of their crops, so they can grow properly. These pesticides eventually end up in our local rivers, lakes, and oceans which are making humans and animals very ill. However, they make money by the crops they sell, and to them, the Clean Water Act has a very negative economic impact on them (Landers). Although

The environmental protection agency has been stepping up its mandate of ensuring safer and better environment for not only the business operators, buts also the society as a whole. In order to achieve this goal of environmental protection, there has been the creation of environmental protection agency that has ensured that all the businesses, irrespective of their size and type, strive to ensure that the environment is protected for the benefit of current and future generations.

Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 102 Md. App. 45, 57 (1994), the Maryland Court of Special Appeals held that carbon monoxide fumes emitted from the central heating system constitute pollution, for which there was no coverage under a policy exclusion similar to the one in the instant matter. Id. at 57. In that case, the insured argued that the pollution exclusion should be limited to instances that are more commonly associated with that word in common parlance—such as industrial pollution. Id at 55. In rejecting the insured’s argument, the court recognized that the “insurance industry has constructed an ‘absolute’ exclusion so broad in its application that it sweeps away coverage well beyond that which might be required to meet the industry's legitimate aims.” Id. at 57. Nevertheless, the court adhered to the text of the policy that the parties agreed to and held that carbon monoxide is a “gaseous” “contaminant” that constitutes pollution under the policy.

Water pollution, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund, “happens when toxic substances enter water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans and so on, getting dissolved in them, lying suspended in the water or depositing on the bed.”1 In 1948, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was passed by congress, but was later amended in 1972 in response to great public outcry—this amended document is what is now known as the Clean Water Act.2 Despite these national efforts, in a report released by the Environment America Research & Policy Center in 2014, Virginia was listed as one of the top five states with the largest discharge of toxic substances into waterways, documented at over eleven million pounds.3 Furthermore, in a 2014 report conducted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, it was found that the water pollution has spread throughout sixteen-thousand miles of the state’s rivers.4

The freshwater that is available for use is becoming more contaminated with each use. The Clean Water Act of 1972 put in order more regulations in regards to wastewater and the dumping of it into rivers and lakes. Multiple-step filtration systems have been used since then to better remove toxins from wastes before it enters freshwater. In a personal interview with Moe Crabtree, Nature Resource Specialist for the Washington Department of Natural Resources, I learned some measures taken to keep water clean. Her common job is to setup timber sales which includes much precaution of rivers and streams. I asked her- “In what ways do you have to avoid water contamination?” she replied, “we have to divert culverts at minimum one hundred feet from

In the article, “Water Pollution: A Surefire Story in Your Community,” from IRE Journal, Robert Mcclure, investigates waterways that were supposedly “cleaned up” by the federal government. Factories and large businesses are the main contributors to water pollution in seas and oceans. The Clean Water Act was supposed to help clean oceans and ocean fronts from pollution and polluters, but the act was never initiated. Mcclure mentions that “The result today: Beaches, streams, and bays across the country are not being protected enough for people to safely swim and fish there” (1). He has performed many studies, starting with a Statewide look of investigation of water pollution. In his research, he revealed, “all the factories, sewage treatment plants and other

The case of white-collar crime I chose to educate myself on was the Enron scandal. The Enron corporation was an energy and services company in Houston, Texas. In just fifteen years, Enron became the seventh largest company in the world. They were one of the worlds largest electricity and natural gas companies. According to CNN, in 2000, the company claimed to have made around 111 billion dollars in revenue. During that time, a single share was going for $90.75.

White-collar crimes can occur at any occupational level and affects all parts of society, from big businesses to individuals. Some associate the definition of white-collar crime mainly to economic crime, but others include corporate crimes like environmental law violations and health and safety law violations (Barnett, 1999). It is interesting to note that corporate crimes such as environmental pollution typically involve corporate personnel on various levels for purposes of implementation, from CEOs to low level workers (Payne, 2013). Overall this project will deal with environmental and white-collar crime outlining the similarities and differences between those.

CTPED or Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design is defined as “The prevention strategy which outlines how the physical environments can be designed in order to lessen the opportunity for crime.” (Queensland Police Department.) CPTED not only is defined by this definition, but it focuses on four more characteristics that help to make this design work effectively, and smoothly. These four characteristics are: maximizing the risk that offenders face, maximizing the effort required by offenders to commit crimes, minimizing the benefits that offenders can gain from committing crimes, and finally minimizing the excuses for opportunities toward offenders. COP is defined as “Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues, such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.” (Community Policing Defined." Community Policing Dispatch). CPTED and COP are methods that promote strong communities to deter crime, and provide the community with alternatives to stop crime from ever happening in the first place. As well as these definitions, the strategies of COP, and CPTED, these strategies are based off of the broken windows theory. The broken windows theory is the theory that states once criminals see an area that is under-patrolled, they will commit more crimes

With billions of dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of Americans employed (Department of Commerce, n.d.), the automobile industry has a vast influence in the United States. Since the time Henry Ford developed the assembly line production (Statista, n.d.) the industry has grown into a global market with no signs of slowing down. Top car companies are constantly searching for new innovations to set them apart from their competitors. Among those companies is Volkswagen (VW). A company which strides in emissions and fuel efficiency turned, not only to be false, but caused a severe amount of damage (Ewing, 2016).

For example, in 1998 Chiquita fell a victim of an undercover investigation into dangerous and illegal business practices. The Cincinnati Enquirer, a paper based in Kentucky, accused the company guilty of “labour, human rights, environmental and political violations” in central America, leaving an “unsavoury impression of our company” according to Jeff Zalla, current corporate responsibility officer at Chiquita. (Luthans, F., & P. Doh, J. 2012).

One of the main misunderstandings in environmental crime is the lack of consistency in the definition and classification of environmental crime. The primary problem is differing perspectives as to what constitutes as environmental crime, embedded in moral, philosophical and legalistic interpretations of harm and in what circumstances does this harm becomes a crime (White, 2008). Many criminologists have put forth perspectives which explain the reasons why individuals and corporations engage in activities that cause environmental harms. These perspectives can be linked to the original environmental or green criminology perspectives. Pollution and dumping has become an increasingly costly problem for the environment. As a results,