A Macro Analysis of Illegal Hunting and Fishing Across Texas Counties: Using an Economic Structural Approach

Author

Leo J. Genco Jr., University of South Florida

Graduation Year

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Criminology

Major Professor

Michael Lynch, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Lyndsay Boggess, Ph.D.

Committee Member

John Cochran, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Michael Long, Ph.D.

Keywords

conservatrion, green criminology, quantitative, wildlife crime

Abstract

The purpose of this disseration is to examine the distribution of illegal hunting and fishing violations across Texas counties in respect to the economic structure. Illegal hunting plays a part in the extraction of resources that are overly withdrawn, and criminologists have ignored this form of deviancy that has large ramifications for the environment. To view this criminal phenomenon, the study uses the Treadmill of Production theory to determine economic structural factors and whether those factors explain the distribution of illegal hunting and fishing. Using regression analyses and SatScan, the findings suggested that while there are significant factors related to the distribution of illegal hunting, these factors do not explain the distribution completely when a spatial component is included. Thus, while the economic structure does explain the distribution when comparing illegal hunting and fishing across counties, it does not explain individual county’s illegal hunting and fishing activity within them. Texas state and county governments should not form a uniform policy across Texas, but have policy situated for each county in order to address this issue.

Scholar Commons Citation

Genco, Leo J. Jr., "A Macro Analysis of Illegal Hunting and Fishing Across Texas Counties: Using an Economic Structural Approach" (2021). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/8778