Regional Workshop Environmental Crime/Environmental ... - RENA

Environmental crimes complexity
• There is no “ pure environmental crime” case: usually
involves offences like “ fraud; false statements; false
claims; conspiracy”
• Beneath the surface of environmental laws there is an
infrastructure of regulations and procedures – need to
know what goes into prosecution
• General prosecutor unfamiliar with complexity of
environmental laws and its technical aspects has little
time to prepare before the trial
Recognition of environmental crime
• Recognition as genuine criminal offences is more
problematic then other types of crime
• Internationally linked with other crime types e.g. money
laundering or drugs trafficking
• Detection is difficult and in many cases relies on chance
observation
• Difficult to determine damaging impact which affects the
whole society
• Typically seen as low priority for enforcement agencies
Detection and Prosecution of
Environmental Crime
• European data on detection and prosecution of
environmental crime show that the likelihood that a violation
ends up in court and is sanctioned is extremely low
• For Belgium, the average probability of being apprehended
and prosecuted for a violation is less than 1%, meaning that
only one in hundred firms that are in violation will be
detected and prosecuted
• Similar data is from the UK : on average the prosecution
rate for pollution incidents is less than 5% while serious
incidents have a much higher prosecution rate.
RENA Activity 1.2 RISP 1st Regional Workshop, 30-31 May 2011, Zagreb, Croatia
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