Past Events Archive

BSC Green Criminology Network webinars

Dr James Heydon and Caitlin Bunce, University of Nottingham

26 March 2025, 1-2pm. Online. 

Title: Constructionist Green Criminology for a Climate in Crisis

Join us online for a discussion which offers a critical analysis of green criminology, constructionist thought and the climate crisis.

Informed by its radical origins, much of Green Criminology relies on ‘harm’ instead of ‘crime’ when identifying its targets for analysis. Drawing from well-rehearsed arguments rooted in more traditional critical criminology, this approach recognises that many of the most environmentally destructive activities are actually legal. However, despite these origins, attempts to define environmental harm as an objective, apolitical truth to neutrally direct inquiry has allowed for unacknowledged and unquestioned assumptions to enter the field. We argue these assumptions have rendered green criminology’s use of harm as highly acritical, and restricted its analytical potential to explain and tackle pressing environmental problems. In this paper, we draw out this critique before calling on the social constructionist literatures of deviance and social problems to establish a research agenda for constructionist green criminology. Using the environmental issues of urban air quality and waterway pollution, we detail several ways in which constructionist thought can equip green criminology with the tools needed to expand the discipline’s analytical potential and more effectively respond to the climate crisis.

Brandon Rochester, York St John University

Wed, 29 Jan 2025, 1-2pm

The Theriocide-Ecocide Nexus in Industrial Animal Agriculture

The industrial livestock sector exemplifies the plight of nonhuman animals and environmental degradation. However, despite their status as major sites of ecological and ethical concern, confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have largely escaped critical scrutiny within Green and Non-Speciesist Criminology. The goal of this webinar is to partially fill this gap by exploring the ‘Theriocide-Ecocide Nexus’, a concept that identifies the intertwined factors driving both the large scale killing of nonhuman animals (theriocide) and severe ecological destruction (ecocide), including how the former often escalates into the latter.

This interdisciplinary analysis will draw on insights from social psychology, critical legal studies, and political-economics to reveal the interlocking discourses, mechanisms and structures that contribute to theriocide and ecocide. First, recent advancements in social psychology illustrate that processes of classification and objectification can be equally applied to both nonhuman animals and the natural environment, reinforcing their ‘othering’ and ultimately allowing for their transformation into commodifiable resources. Second, contributions from critical legal studies illuminate how current legal frameworks reinforce and legitimise such classifications, codifying nonhuman animals and ecosystems as disposable and inert use-oriented entities. Finally, a political-economic perspective reveals how the commodification of nonhuman life and nature, coupled with growth-focused production techniques, accelerates both ecocide and theriocide within the industrialised livestock sector.

Together, these insights form the ‘Theriocide-Ecocide Nexus,’ demonstrating that: (1) the industrialised scale of animal agriculture is a significant driver of ecocide; and (2) the structural, ideological, and economic forces behind theriocide are closely linked to those that fuel ecocide.

Ultimately, this presentation will call for a Non-Speciesist Criminology that recognises and addresses these intersections and theoretical insights. This will be done with the aspiration of fostering broader reforms that confront, problematise and prohibit this zemiogenic industry.


Dr Stacy Banwell, University of Greenwich

Wednesday 27th November 2024 – 13:00 – 14:00

War crimes and crimes against humanity: A nonspeciesist understanding of the violence(s) of war and armed conflict.

Dr James Heydon, University of Nottingham

BSC Green Criminology Network and BSC Hate Crime Network joint Conference – 13 June 2024

One day conference organised by the BSC Green Criminology and BSC Hate Crime Network

The aim of this conference is to examine the nature, scope, implications of animal abuse as a form of Hate Crime, and the effectiveness of Criminal Justice Reponses.

Event Date: Thursday 13th June 2024 (Hybrid event)

Plenaries and Panels include:

“Wildlife trafficking and cruelty to animals through luxury products”
Dr Jennifer Maher, University of South Wales

Panel 1: “Scope of animal abuse as a form of hate crime”
Chair: Professor Angus Nurse

“Animal cruelty and domestic violence”
Dr Michelle Newberry, University of Southampton

Animal abuse linked to perceptions of non-sentience/speciesism based hate crime?
Dr Rachel Dunn, Leeds Law School

“Targeted abuse of assistance/service dogs”
Mandy Johnson, Guide dogs

Panel 2 “Criminal Justice responses to animal abuse”
Chair: Dr Irene Zempi

Demonisation of ‘dangerous’ dogs in the media
Professor Angus Nurse, Anglia Ruskin University and Dr Sara Rodriguez

“Human-Wildlife conflict and hate” – an exploratory study
Elliot Doornbos, NTU

“The illegal wildlife trade and harm to wild animals. Cognitive dissonance and moral disengagement with respect to exotic skins and luxury fashion consumption”
Dr Arjun Awasthi, University of Southampton.