ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on practical ways to protect victims of state-corporate environmental crimes, examining solutions for reducing victimisation through political, legal and grassroots efforts, and offering suggestions for ways in which green criminologists can aid the plight of victims of state-corporate crimes through scholarship and direct action. It builds on the authors’ own work, describing their experience working on behalf of environmental justice communities and contemplating how criminologists can play a role in protecting and advocating for victims of green crimes. The chapter is divided into eight substantive sections: (1) Changing the frame (how to conceptualise environmental crimes as ‘real crimes’); (2) Enforcing existing laws (problems with the current regulatory enforcement apparatus); (3) Better oversight (reducing victimisation through improved environmental enforcement); (4) Legal recognition of victims (how to increase protection of victims under the law); (5) Removing victims from harmful environments (community buyouts and environmental justice); (6) Non-human victims matter (the value of considering non-human animals as victims); (7) Becoming involved through research (exploring avenues for new research); and (8) Becoming active (how the authors engaged in grassroots activism in their local communities). The chapter concludes by suggesting the most fruitful ways for how criminologists might play a role in protecting the environment and helping victims of environmental crimes and harms.
