Introduction

Studies of the nexus between climate change and crime tend to focus on either the consequences of climate change for crime (that is, climate change leads to certain sorts of crime), or the causes of global warming (that is, certain sorts of behaviour lead to climate change).

Across a range of studies, different levels of analysis are apparent. Those focusing on individual-level explanations (such as psychobiological responses to temperature change) appear to have most relevance for adaptation strategies (that is, how to respond to climate change). Approaches that focus on structural level causes tend to be more concerned with issues of mitigation (that is, how to prevent climate change) and are more critical of entrenched policies and power structures. This chapter discusses studies that deal with the consequences of climate change, including but not exclusively from criminological perspectives.

The chapter begins by providing several initial typologies of climate change offences. It then examines mainstream criminological accounts that focus attention on the relationship between temperature changes and human behaviour. It describes literature that argues that crime rates change as temperatures increase. It also looks at the impact of climate change on human (and non-human) migrations, and more generally the social strains likely to accompany climate change – and how these translate into particular kinds of crimes and violations of human rights. The final section examines crimes linked to responses to climate change, in particular crimes stemming from and associated with the market in carbon emission credits.

Heat matters

The realities of climate change are acknowledged, to some degree, by the fact that the countries of the world are united in their stated attempts to prevent temperatures rising beyond certain limits. The sole exception to this (as of November 2017) is the United States of America. Member states of the United Nations have, in the Paris Agreement (United Nations, 2015), agreed to strengthen the global response to climate change by among other means holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels (United Nations, 2015: Article 2.1 (a)). It is recognised that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.