Environmental victimology : an ecological view

Includes bibliographical references (pages [273]-292)Using theories and insights from crime victimology, this thesis lays a foundation for establishing a subfield of environmental victimology, with a focus on human victims of anthropogenic environmental harm. Various aspects of environmental victimization and the victim process are explored, including defining who is an environmental victim, scientific and lay perspectives of environmental harm, and official recognition of and response to environmental harms and victims. For this a multidisciplinary, multidimensional perspective is used which includes consideration of the environmental, biological, cultural, social, and psychological dimensions of environmental victimization. This perspective allows consideration of both the realist and social constructionist view of environmental harms and victims. Two types of environmental harm are used to discuss a wide range of environmental victimological problems and issues: (l) the harm from the more local problem of synthetic toxins and hazardous waste siting, and (2) the harm from the more global and elusive problem of climate change. Finally, an environmental victimology that is both theoretical and applied is proposed.M.A. (Master of Arts