Browsing by Subject "environmental crime"

Environmental crime has grown into people's awareness in the 21st century through the reporting of major environmental cases. Environmental crime is often the subject of economic savings and environmental crime in Finland is categorized as part of economic crime. The aim of this thesis is to examine how profitable environmental crime is in Finland, how much environmental crime causes social loss to society and how to tackle environmental crime effectively. This thesis explores environmental crime from an economic point of view based on eight environmental case reports. The assessment is mainly made by using economist Gary S. Becker's theoretical framework. Becker has examined crime and the importance of punishment for crime in his article "Crime and Punishment". Gary Becker's article of an optimal punishment for a crime has been seen as the starting point of an economic approach to crime and punishment. It has been estimated that there is far more environmental crime in Finland than what the authorities are aware of. In 2011-2015, the number of environmental crime reported to the police is over 600 per annum. A certain amount of these cases lead to prosecution and only a few are condemned. Preventing environmental crime causes significant costs for society. Social loss of society can be affected by raising the risk of being caught or the punishment from an offense. The prevailing crime prevention system with low risk of capture and minor penalties does not create enough deterrent effect on environmental crime offenders. There is a need for societal consideration of the way in which environmental crime can be tackled more effectively. Increasing the rate for apprehension could be a costly solution to society, since the costs added to the authorities and supervision will increase. Harsher penalties may be more cost-effective for society, but on the other hand, the fear of punishment could increase.