Our growing Criminology list takes a critical stance and features boundary-pushing work with innovative, research-led publications.
A particular focus of the list are books that engage with our global social challenges, both on a local and international level. We aim to publish books in a wide range of formats that will have real impact and shape public discourse.
Criminology
Studies show that the number of illegal wolf theriocides in Poland is significant and increasing. According to research, between 2002 and 2020 there were 91 cases of killings. On the other hand, between 1922 and 2022 we were able to identify only nine rulings related to the wolf crimes. It should be noticed that this situation is not justified by the official state approach to killing wolves in Poland. These animals have been a strictly protected species ever since 1998 and since then there has been no issuing of state licences for general population reduction. The chapter focuses on the social and legal factors influencing the effectiveness of combating the illegal killing of wolves in Poland. Our main argument is that these factors are, at the same time, the greatest problems for law enforcement authorities to effectively counteract the illegal wolf theriocides, especially when it comes to not only anthropogenic but also financial approaches in criminal law.
This chapter contributes to the debate on CITES with a reflection on its adaptability to the new vision adopted by its States Parties, which calls to ‘[c]onserve biodiversity and contribute to its sustainable use by ensuring that no species of wild fauna or flora is or remains subject to unsustainable exploitation through international trade’. Attempts to update CITES have been the source of interesting reforms in Spain, including the restructuring of CITES authorities and the adoption of a national plan that developed the EU Action Plan on Wildlife Trafficking. CITES implementation and case law in Spain shows that it is necessary to adapt to the new challenges posed by wildlife trafficking in the digital world. Thus, the introduction of digital permits and means of traceability will facilitate law enforcement and international cooperation. Spain has also adopted an exemplary practice regarding the destination of seized live animals, based on recovery and reintroduction that goes beyond CITES recommendations.
The final chapter sums up the findings of the book. The contributions illustrate that the ways in which the conventions are implemented and enforced vary between countries. For example, in Spain animals who are confiscated as a measure to enforce CITES are not euthanized, as they are in Norway. Moreover, the protection that is accorded wildlife in Europe appears to be stronger in countries that are members of the European Union, through the Habitat Directive, than the protection that is offered through the Bern Convention, since the Habitats Directive has a more powerful enforcement apparatus. While all the time more research confirms the capacities of non-human animals, the value that is accorded to individual non-human animals and their interests still lags significantly behind. Although there are provisions in regards to animal welfare in CITES, and although wildlife is accorded intrinsic value in the Bern Convention’s preamble, the basis of these conventions is in both cases anthropocentric.
Italy is one of the European countries with the richest biodiversity, but its precious heritage is at risk, with wildlife crimes, and particularly poaching in its various manifestations, being one of the main threats to the survival of rare or endangered species. This review chapter will focus, in particular, on bird poaching as a case study, presenting its trends, phenomenology and characteristics, the related wildlife markets in Italy, and their impact on wildlife conservation. It also offers a brief overview of the relevant national legislation and its implementation, suggesting how the system currently in place is not always adequate to confront a diffuse and socially embedded phenomenon, the social and environmental harms of which are too often not yet fully recognized.
This book addresses one of today’s most urgent issues: the loss of wildlife and habitat, which together constitute an ecological crisis. Combining studies from different disciplines such as law, political science and criminology with a focus on animal rights, the chapters explore the successes and failures of the international wildlife conservation and trade treaties, CITES and the BERN Convention.
While these conventions have played a crucial role in protecting endangered species from trade and in the rewilding of European large carnivores, the case studies in this book demonstrate huge variations in their implementation and enforcement across Europe. In conclusion, the book advocates for a non-anthropocentric policy approach to strengthen wildlife conservation in Europe.
This chapter is based on longitudinal research of the implementation and enforcement of CITES in Norway running from 2010–23. It concentrates mainly on the development of the enforcement of CITES in Norway and a change in regards to wildlife trade that took place in 2017, when the trade in reptiles went from being generally banned to partly legalized. This has entailed that reptiles as well as parrots are traded on the internet and the risk of laundering individuals who are illegally in trade with those who are traded legally. In addition, the legalization of reptile trade in Norway engenders further risk of animal abuse since anybody can buy a reptile and no demands are made concerning the skills of owners of exotic species, such as reptiles and parrots.
This chapter gives a brief introduction to International Environmental Law, specifically the CITES and Bern conventions, green criminology and the research project of which this book is part. An important issue for the CRIMEANTHROP project was animal rights that generally are absent in nature conventions, since ‘wildlife’ is accorded value first when a species has become endangered and, even under such circumstances, the protection accorded to individuals is minimal. Generally, freeborn animals (wildlife) are regarded as ‘nature’ rather than sentient individuals with interests. Human interest, whether in meat production or other objectification of animals as products, is constantly prioritized. Together, the contributions to this book provide a broad picture of the effects, or lack of effects, of international nature conservation conventions in protecting wildlife from harms and premature deaths caused by human action.
Norwegian grey wolves and brown bears are endangered and critically endangered, respectively, in Norway. Although they are protected by the Bern Convention, which Norway ratified in 1986, they are victims of both legal and illegal theriocides (killings of animals by humans), through practices including illegal hunts, licensed hunts and killings in defence of humans or their animals. This chapter compares the legal and illegal predator hunts, based on analysis of verdicts from penal cases on illegal theriocides, and guidelines for legal hunts. Several similarities between the legal and illegal hunts are identified, which raises the question of whether the legal hunts are more justified than the illegal hunts from a species justice perspective – that is, whether they cause the victims less suffering.
For international agreements on wildlife protection to have an effect, several actors (collective and individual) must play their roles in a ‘chain’ that goes all the way from the global to the local. States must agree on the contents of the treaty, policymakers must change the national law, governments must allocate resources to implement the new agreement, and practitioners must familiarize themselves with the new rules and enforce them. This chapter, using Norway as a case study, examines the functioning of those links regarding two wildlife treaties: CITES (1973) and the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (1979). It identifies malfunctioning in each of the links. This chapter contributes to studies of regime effectiveness.
The growth of internet and social media plays an increasing role in the illegal wildlife trade, including the illegal trade in reptiles in the Netherlands. Reptile species are sold on various digital platforms and become victim of this lively online underworld. Reptiles are often laundered online which results in illegal and legal interfaces. This chapter shows how the digital era has enabled traders, buyers, but also illegal entrepreneurs in the reptile business to communicate easily with each other, which complicates law enforcement in the Netherlands.
