Preventing wildlife crime: Melanie Wellsmith considers how to best reduce harm to animals

Green criminology (under its various names) is concerned, in simple terms, with harms to the environment and non-human animals (hereafter 'animals') because of the benefits the environment and animals bring to humans (aesthetics, leisure activities, consumables and so forth), the need to protect the delicately balanced biosphere or the inherent rights held by all species, particularly animals to avoid harm and interference (White 2008). My interests focus on animals; both behaviours deemed to be criminal and those that are harmful or exploitative, but legal. In this article I consider the issue of wildlife crime and contend that focus needs to be shifted from a preoccupation with enforcement and deterrent sentencing to complementary use of situational and social programmes that seek to reduce hard to animals