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Giving the green light: corporate environmental crimes, the treadmill of production, and environmental justice

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Abstract

In addition to legal considerations, what other factors correlate with and seem to affect fines companies are assessed when they commit an environmental crime? Relying upon the treadmill of crime theoretical framework we hypothesize that companies committing environmental crimes in poor and minority dominated communities will receive lower relative fines because the harms are viewed as less serious by prosecutors and judges, thus resulting in environmental injustice. In addition, from a green criminological framework, a company’s economic situation may be considered in setting fines so as not to slow down the treadmill of production. Using a unique dataset of firms fined for environmental violations in federal criminal courts, we seek to determine if sentencing practices that are consistent with the treadmill of crime perspective produce second-level environmental injustices. We conclude that the sentencing of corporations is handled in a manner consistent with predictions derived from the treadmill of crime theory and find as a result, in limited circumstances, environmental injustices are occurring.

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Notes

  1. https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-9-28000-principles-federal-prosecution-business-organizations.

  2. We do not know if prosecutors or judges are basing their decisions on the relative fine as opposed to the total fine. However, we presume that judges and prosecutors are well aware of a corporation’s revenue at the time of sentencing and are certainly able to consider the total fine’s impact on a company. As such, we presume prosecutors and judges know and consider a fine’s relative impact on corporate defendants.

  3. Repayment plans are options allowable under 18 USC § 3572 (d).

  4. As previously discussed, our cases span the years of 2004 to 2013. During that time period the median household income in the United States ranged from $42,228 in 2001 to $53,585 in 2013 (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA646N). At the time our data was collected the EPA’s ECHO system only collected the percentages of households with yearly household incomes in the following categories: (1) less than $15,000, (2) $15,000—$25,000, (3) $25,000—$50,000, (4) $50,000—$75,000, (5) greater than $75,000. The problem with the EPA’s system is that it does not factor in the size of a household which is necessary for determining if a household is above or below the poverty line (i.e. actual poverty) which means the next best measure is median household income (relative poverty). Albeit, the median household income, depending on the year, floats between ECHO categories 3 and 4 but primarily it remained in category 3. Therefore, we analyze our cases looking at the percentage of households below $50,000 per year and recognize it is by no means a perfect reflection of actual or relative poverty.

  5. The list of aggravating factors we quantified are found in the United States Sentencing Guidelines and are codified in USSG § 2Q1.1(b) and USSG § 2Q2.1.

  6. Prosecutors and Courts are mandated by law to consider past violations per 18 USC § 3553 (a).

  7. Preliminary models produced high variance inflation factors (~ 7) for revenue and employees across all models. In addition, the bivariate correlation between revenue and employees also indicates collinearity (Pearson's r = 0.92). An inspection of model fit and residuals also identified an outlier case, which was dropped in all of the final models included here.

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Statutes cited

  • Executive Order 12898, 42 U.S.C. § 4321 (2000).

  • Clean Water Act - 33 U.S.C § 1319(c)(1)(A)

  • United States Sentencing Guidelines - USSG § 2Q1.1(b) and USSG § 2Q2.1

  • USC § 3553, et seq.

  • USC § 3572, et seq.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology & Criminology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmingon, NC, 28403-5978, USA

    Michael O. Maume

  2. Department of Community and Criminal Justice Studies, Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN, 56601-2699, USA

    Matthew J. Greife

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  1. Michael O. Maume
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Correspondence to Michael O. Maume.

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Maume, M.O., Greife, M.J. Giving the green light: corporate environmental crimes, the treadmill of production, and environmental justice. Crime Law Soc Change 79, 241–261 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-022-10044-z

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