Faculty Investigate Environmental Crime<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3221\/2017\/03\/JenSchwartz2016_0228.jpeg\")
<\/a>Dr. Jennifer Schwartz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3221\/2017\/03\/ErikJohnson_0227-396x495.jpeg\")
<\/a>Dr. Erik Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nEnvironmental sociology and criminology have historically been two major focus areas of the WSU Sociology Department\u2014but few scholars have attempted to intersect the two disciplines.<\/p>\n
That is, until Associate Professor Erik Johnson stumbled on a trove of environmental crime cases on the EPA website more than five years ago. Most of Johnson\u2019s scholarship focuses on the environmental movement\u2014but the cases presented an interesting opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two biggest job markets for sociologists are crime and the environment, in that order,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI just looked at is as \u2018Oh, we should have students that are interested in environmental crime.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson didn\u2019t have to look far for a collaborator\u2014he is married to fellow sociology professor Dr. Jennifer Schwartz, who studies crime. Specifically, her work analyzes trends in social control, gender, and white-collar crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m starting to think more about how crime groups and organizations are comprised and who benefits in crime groups,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n
Schwartz noted that the case studies \u201clist who is involved, what they\u2019ve done, what organizations are involved, and what the sanctions are\u2026. It allows me to look at crime groups in a different way and different context than white collar crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cases include all environmental crime investigations that the EPA forwarded to the Department of Justice since the inception of environmental protection laws in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the most serious cases…. They\u2019ve been really investigated, really vetted. If we are going to look at really serious offenses against the environment, this is the place to look\u2014this is where the damage ought to be,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n
The project received funding from the Edward R. Meyer Project Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences last year. Johnson and Schwartz used the funds to hire about a dozen undergraduate students and a graduate student supervisor, Alana Inlow, to help code the cases. Some of the students also participated through a research internship class\u2014where they helped carry out the research, met every week to discuss the project, and earned class credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were really integral,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cSome went to gather information on the organizations involved, some we sent to newspaper archives to find the cases. Those were the big things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christina Hubbard, a senior sociology major, received a research experience for undergraduates grant to work on the project last summer and will present her work at the Academic Showcase in Spring 2017.<\/p>\n
Building a new research area<\/strong><\/p>\nCriminologists often use large databases collected by local and federal governments about the occurrence, severity, and location of criminal activity. However, virtually no similar data source exists about crimes against the environment\u2014and, by extension, human health.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike street crime\u2014where there is a clear victim and offender\u2014these crimes are just more difficult to get public support behind,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same fate as white collar crime\u2014where it may be more damaging than any street crime\u2014but it\u2019s more diffuse and more invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collection of criminally prosecuted cases is important because existing environmental crime studies often focus on civil cases, which mostly include relatively minor violations of environmental regulations. But the cases in Johnson and Schwartz\u2019s database are more serious and can result in jail time for offenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen percent of our data are environmental remediation firms. They take samples, but don\u2019t really test them, and come back with numbers,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most surprising [part],\u201d Schwartz added. \u201cis how much fraud there is in air quality, water quality, and emissions. There are falsified tests, just made up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson is also interested in how the agencies\u2019 definitions of environmental crimes change over time. For example, early environmental crime cases mostly consisted of hazardous waste violations, but the types of environmental crimes prosecuted have diversified since then.<\/p>\n
Schwartz is especially interested in the characteristics of people and organizations held responsible for committing environmental crimes. For example, one important unanswered question is whether organizations or individuals are more likely to be held responsible for environmental crimes.<\/p>\n
Following the publication of ongoing studies, Johnson and Schwartz plans to make the data available on a website so other scholars, policymakers, and the public can access their work.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, they continue to collaborate and brainstorm new ideas\u2014sometimes over family meals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes for an interesting dinnertime conversation, but I think there is a good synergy between both of our interests,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cIt was neat for us to come together to do this project.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Faculty Investigate Environmental Crime Environmental sociology and criminology have historically been two major focus areas of the WSU Sociology Department\u2014but few scholars have attempted to intersect the two disciplines. That is, until Associate Professor Erik Johnson stumbled on a trove of environmental crime cases on the EPA website more than five years ago. Most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-builder.php","meta":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":718,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/663\/revisions\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a><\/a>Environmental sociology and criminology have historically been two major focus areas of the WSU Sociology Department\u2014but few scholars have attempted to intersect the two disciplines.<\/p>\n
That is, until Associate Professor Erik Johnson stumbled on a trove of environmental crime cases on the EPA website more than five years ago. Most of Johnson\u2019s scholarship focuses on the environmental movement\u2014but the cases presented an interesting opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two biggest job markets for sociologists are crime and the environment, in that order,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI just looked at is as \u2018Oh, we should have students that are interested in environmental crime.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson didn\u2019t have to look far for a collaborator\u2014he is married to fellow sociology professor Dr. Jennifer Schwartz, who studies crime. Specifically, her work analyzes trends in social control, gender, and white-collar crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m starting to think more about how crime groups and organizations are comprised and who benefits in crime groups,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n
Schwartz noted that the case studies \u201clist who is involved, what they\u2019ve done, what organizations are involved, and what the sanctions are\u2026. It allows me to look at crime groups in a different way and different context than white collar crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cases include all environmental crime investigations that the EPA forwarded to the Department of Justice since the inception of environmental protection laws in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the most serious cases…. They\u2019ve been really investigated, really vetted. If we are going to look at really serious offenses against the environment, this is the place to look\u2014this is where the damage ought to be,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n
The project received funding from the Edward R. Meyer Project Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences last year. Johnson and Schwartz used the funds to hire about a dozen undergraduate students and a graduate student supervisor, Alana Inlow, to help code the cases. Some of the students also participated through a research internship class\u2014where they helped carry out the research, met every week to discuss the project, and earned class credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were really integral,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cSome went to gather information on the organizations involved, some we sent to newspaper archives to find the cases. Those were the big things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christina Hubbard, a senior sociology major, received a research experience for undergraduates grant to work on the project last summer and will present her work at the Academic Showcase in Spring 2017.<\/p>\n
Building a new research area<\/strong><\/p>\n Criminologists often use large databases collected by local and federal governments about the occurrence, severity, and location of criminal activity. However, virtually no similar data source exists about crimes against the environment\u2014and, by extension, human health.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike street crime\u2014where there is a clear victim and offender\u2014these crimes are just more difficult to get public support behind,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same fate as white collar crime\u2014where it may be more damaging than any street crime\u2014but it\u2019s more diffuse and more invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n The collection of criminally prosecuted cases is important because existing environmental crime studies often focus on civil cases, which mostly include relatively minor violations of environmental regulations. But the cases in Johnson and Schwartz\u2019s database are more serious and can result in jail time for offenders.<\/p>\n \u201cTen percent of our data are environmental remediation firms. They take samples, but don\u2019t really test them, and come back with numbers,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most surprising [part],\u201d Schwartz added. \u201cis how much fraud there is in air quality, water quality, and emissions. There are falsified tests, just made up.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson is also interested in how the agencies\u2019 definitions of environmental crimes change over time. For example, early environmental crime cases mostly consisted of hazardous waste violations, but the types of environmental crimes prosecuted have diversified since then.<\/p>\n Schwartz is especially interested in the characteristics of people and organizations held responsible for committing environmental crimes. For example, one important unanswered question is whether organizations or individuals are more likely to be held responsible for environmental crimes.<\/p>\n Following the publication of ongoing studies, Johnson and Schwartz plans to make the data available on a website so other scholars, policymakers, and the public can access their work.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, they continue to collaborate and brainstorm new ideas\u2014sometimes over family meals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes for an interesting dinnertime conversation, but I think there is a good synergy between both of our interests,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cIt was neat for us to come together to do this project.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Faculty Investigate Environmental Crime Environmental sociology and criminology have historically been two major focus areas of the WSU Sociology Department\u2014but few scholars have attempted to intersect the two disciplines. That is, until Associate Professor Erik Johnson stumbled on a trove of environmental crime cases on the EPA website more than five years ago. Most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-builder.php","meta":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":718,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/663\/revisions\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}