Green Criminology and Native Peoples: The Treadmill of Production and the Killing of Indigenous Environmental Activists

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2018

Keywords

Ecocide, ecological disorganization, environmental justice, environmental victimization, genocide, green criminology, indigenous peoples, treadmill of production, world systems theory

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480618790982

Abstract

During the development of green criminology, little attention has been paid to how Indigenous/Native Peoples (INP) are victimized by green crime and how they employ environmental activism to resist externally imposed ecological destruction. In the past decade, news services and environmental interest groups have reported on the killing of INP environmental activists who have resisted ecological destruction across the world. Here, we begin to develop a green criminological view of INP victimization and resistance to ecological destruction within the context of the global capitalist treadmill of production, while drawing upon concepts of colonization, imperialism, genocide and ecocide. Our analysis suggests that in the contemporary capitalist world system, expansion of the treadmill of production’s ecological withdrawal process (i.e. the withdrawal of raw materials used in production) not only accelerates ecological disorganization in developing/underdeveloped nations, but may be harmful in nations where INP are dependent on access to nature for survival.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Theoretical Criminology, v. 22, issue 3, p. 318-341

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