Course content

This course addresses various forms of environmental crimes and harms as well as various forms of animal abuse, both those which are legal and those which are illegal, through examples of empirical research. Harms are i.e. those produced by, pollution, deforestation and illegal logging, wildlife trafficking and biopiracy. The course critically examines criminalization processes; the mechanisms which cause some of these harms to be legal while others are criminalized. The course further addresses the mechanisms which cause environmental crimes, such as consumerism and capitalism.

Concerns within the field are how crime is conceptualized, law enforcement and punishment, or lack of punishment, in relation to such harms, how they should be understood and how they should be addressed.

The course crosses disciplinary boundaries and emphasizes a variety of approaches to these issues, although with a criminological starting point. These approaches include perspectives which, for example, are lent from philosophy, such as moral rights and perspectives of justice.

Lectures will present and discuss the current status of research related to the given theme. Every lecture aims at presenting the forefront of research, and the course includes lectures from well-known scholars in the field.

Learning outcome

The students will learn how and why green criminology has become an important and fast expanding field in critical criminology, and about the topics and perspectives which are relevant in the field; for example it expands the understanding of what criminology is and what it should be by applying perspectives of justice, rather than limiting the focus to acts which are criminalized. The course provides insight into how environmental harms affect both human and nonhuman species.

Knowledge,?at the end of the course, students are expected to know:

  • How environmental crimes and harms affect human and nonhuman species, and examples of such harms.
  • What green criminology is and encompasses in relation to conventional criminology, and how it diverges from conventional criminology.
  • Central discussions and positions in contemporary research on green criminology.
  • Different theoretical perspectives in green criminology..

Skills,?at the end of the course, students are expected to:

  • Be able to account for central theoretical themes and empirical examples addressed during the course
  • Be able to identify why some environmental harms are criminalized while others are condoned.
  • Be able to discuss various environmental crimes and their causes and effects, as well as of criminalization processes of the same harms

Competences, at the end of the course, students will have

  • Enhanced their respect and understanding for social scientific critical thinking and inquiry
  • Learned what it entails to interpret, analyze and discuss scholarly texts from green criminology perspective
  • Developed their capability to critically reflect on the meaning of crime and harm in relation to how societies, policies and the judicial system address environmental harms and animal abuse

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Overlapping courses

Teaching

Lectures

The students are expected to take active part in classes and commit to preparing group presentations of assignments given in class concerning various forms of environmental crimes and harms as they are described in the curriculum.?

Examination

Students are graded on the basis of a 3-day written home exam.

Size: Maximum 2500 words.?

Maximum length for a written home exam on Bachelor’s level is 2500 words. Front page, contents page (optional) and bibliography are not included. If footnotes are used in the text (at the bottom of each page), they are included in the word limit.

Papers that exceed the 2500 word limit may be rejected.

You must familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to exam support materials, and?the use of sources and citations. If you violate these rules, you may be suspected of cheating or attempted cheating.?You can read about what the university considers cheating, and the consequences of cheating here.

General rules on cheating and plagiarism apply during all exams. You must provide a reference whenever you draw upon another person’s ideas, words or research in your answer to the exam question(s). You cannot copy text directly from textbooks, journal articles, court judgments etc. without highlighting that the text is copied. Verbatim quotes must be put in quotation marks, italicised or otherwise highlighted to clearly mark that they are not the candidate’s own words. Failure to cite sources or highlight quotes in your exam answer constitutes a breach of exam regulations, and will be regarded as cheating.

See an example of how to cite correctly here:?Sources and referencing

Any exam at the University of Oslo is being checked for both correct word count and incidents of cheating.

Language of examination

Subjects taught in English will only offer the exam paper in English.

You may write your examination paper in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

This guide is used by examiners for grading this course.

More about examinations at UiO

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.

Last updated from FS (Common Student System) Dec. 24, 2024 6:45:19 PM

Facts about this course

Level
Bachelor
Credits
10
Teaching

Spring 2025

Examination
Spring
Teaching language
English

Contact

The Information Centre at The Faculty of Law