ABSTRACT

This chapter charts the development of a distinct current within green criminology that focuses attention specifically on the human and non-human victims of environmental harms—a so-called ‘green victimology’—before turning to the ongoing debate and controversy around the issue of ‘environmental refugees’. By discussing both issues concurrently, the author demonstrates: (1) how green victimology might assist with the incorporation of environmental refugees within green criminological discourse; and (2) how victimological insights might better aid us in understanding the plight of environmental refugees. This chapter describes how criminal justice and other agencies have tended to respond to such refugees, especially in so-called ‘receiving countries’, and it puts forth the argument that conceiving of ‘environmental refugees’ as ‘environmental victims’ helps us move beyond formulistic debates around legal definitions of ‘refugees’ versus ‘migrants’ to focus attention, instead, on such persons’ lived experiences. To address the question of how national and international legal orders might address these matters, the author explores the 1985 UN Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. While this chapter focuses on the displacement of human beings, the author takes pains to point out that the same environmentally degrading activities and impacts that are compelling human populations to migrate are also having significant effects on animals, disrupting their migration and herding patterns—thereby demonstrating that there is no cogent reason to exclude such harms from the scope of ‘environmental victimisation’.