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Corporate Violence in the Central Appalachian Coal Industry: From Roots to Repercussions

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Abstract

Studies of green corporate crime tend to be ahistorical in nature. This article explores the coal industry in the Central Appalachian region of the United States to highlight how historical context is crucial for understanding ongoing societal ills. The linkage between capitalism’s traumatic legacy and current social problems is quantified in negative indicators like high poverty, low life expectancy, and high rates of opioid addiction, and is manifest in the failed economic strategy of prison building. I examine the foundational role the coal industry has played in these modern outcomes, as well as the incalculable ecological damage to the region, by tracing corporate entities' appropriation of land and resources and their maltreatment of labor in the region. I then address the capture of regulatory bodies and politicians that has resulted in thousands of unnecessary deaths and the erasure of unique ecosystems, before exploring the ideological machinations that generate misplaced support for the industry today.

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Notes

  1. In Kentucky, these deeds were repeatedly upheld in court until 1988, when the work of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) and others helped convince the Kentucky General Assembly to amend the state constitution to require agreements severing surface and subsurface estates to specify the method of extraction to be employed for potential future mining—essentially warning landowners of the risk that they might have their property strip mined if they signed such documents (Szakos 1993).

  2. Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy provides that in any bureaucratic organization, there will be two kinds of people—those who are devoted to the goals of the organization and those dedicated to the organization itself. The Iron Law states that in every case, the second group will gain and maintain control of the organization.

  3. It should be noted that support of the industry is far from universal and resistance has long existed in the region and continues today (see, e.g., Bell 2016; Fisher 1993; Fisher and Smith 2012; Montrie 2003; Perdue and McCarty 2015). It also should be noted that while the region has tended to vote for candidates closely aligned with the coal industry, few candidates, regardless of party, are not openly supportive of the coal industry. West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s unwavering support of the industry is a telling example.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology Department, Elon University, Elon, NC, USA

    Robert Todd Perdue

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Perdue, R.T. Corporate Violence in the Central Appalachian Coal Industry: From Roots to Repercussions. Crit Crim 29, 897–913 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-021-09576-y

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