Environment Crimes

Protecting the Environment and Law Enforcement

Corporate environmental crime

In an inquiry held by the British House of Commons into Environmental Crime it become clear that, with varying degrees of seriousness, crimes impacting on the environment occurs often and are being committed by many businesses, organisations and other corporate bodies. Their inquiry took the approach that the term 'corporate environmental crime' should be broad and practical and defined it as any environmental crime committed by any corporate body. The importance of this inquiry was to hear from a range of corporate bodies and their representatives on their understanding of the present environmental criminal justice system, while at the same time recognising that an environmental sentence for a corporate body is at present limited to a fine.

Environment crime

Corporate Environmental Crimes can include offences such as the illegal dumping of waste to pollution incidents, whether that be as a result of chemicals, farm slurry or general sewage waste, being discharged into the watercourse or as in the case of the Bhopal disaster. The reasons for committing corporate environmental crimes are also varied. The crime may occur not because the corporation is ignorant of its environmental obligations. It may also occur all too often as a result of negligent behaviour, for example, where businesses are poorly managed, staff are inadequately trained or equipment and infrastructure has not been maintained to the required standard, allowing a pollution incident to occur.

But perhaps the most depressing cause is when corporate environmental crime or white collar crime and corruption is the result of a deliberate and intentional illegal act, a decision taken in the full knowledge that the act is illegal and will result in environmental harm. During the course of the inquiry, evidence of environmental crime occurring was for all of these reasons. The responses of corporations have been varied, many consider any associated fines a normal cost of doing business while other have taken a much more different approach. Some companies have have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect not only the corporate image but also to protect themselves from adverse legal outcomes. For example, MacDonalds spent a huge some of money to protect its corporate image in England. While in another cases others have engaged what is now called SLAPP (Strategic Law Suits Against Public Participation) strategies to maintain a corporate persona.

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