论违反《中华人民共和国固体废物污染环境防治法》的刑事责任

系统分析《中华人民共和国固体废物污染环境防治法》所规定的三种犯罪类型,论述追究固体废物污染环境罪刑事责任的犯罪构成要件。     

污染环境的刑事责任问题探讨

根据一些发达国家的法律实践和我国环境保护工作的实际需要,探讨了对环境造成严重恶果的行为,应设立“污染环境罪”来调整人们行为的最后法律手段的必要性,并就污染环境罪的基本特征及与其它法律责任的区别作了分析和阐述,提出在我国刑法中应专条补充设立“污染环境罪”规定的建议。     

Temporal displacement of environmental crime: Evidence from marine oil pollution

We provide evidence for temporal displacement of illegal discharges of oil from shipping, a major source of ocean pollution, in response to a monitoring technology that features variation in the probability of conviction by time of day. During the nighttime, evidence collected by Coast Guard aircraft using radar becomes contestable in court because the nature of an identified spot cannot be verified visually by an observer on board of the aircraft. Seasonal variation in time of sunset is used to distinguish evasive behavior from daily routines on board. Using data from surveillance flights above the Dutch part of the North Sea during 1992–2011, we provide evidence for a sudden increase in illegal discharges after sunset across the year. Our results show that even a tiny chance of getting caught and a mild punishment can have a major impact on behavior.     

Effects of signals of disorder on fear of crime in real and virtual environments

Despite the fact that virtual environments are increasingly deployed to study the relation between urban planning, physical and social disorder, and fear of crime, their ecological validity for this type of research has not been established. This study compares the effects of similar signs of public disorder (litter, warning signs, cameras, signs of vandalism and car burglary) in an urban neighborhood and in its virtual counterpart on the subjective perception of safety and livability of the neighborhood. Participants made a walking tour through either the real or the virtual neighborhood, which was either in an orderly (baseline) state or adorned with numerous signs of public disorder. During their tour they reported the signs of disorder they noticed and the degree to which each of these affected their emotional state and feelings of personal safety. After finishing their tour they appraised the perceived safety and livability of the environment. Both in the real and in the simulated urban neighborhood, signs of disorder evoked associations with social disorder. In all conditions, neglected greenery was spontaneously reported as a sign of disorder. Disorder did not inspire concern for personal safety in reality and in the virtual environment with a realistic soundscape. However, in the absence of sound disorder compromised perceived personal safety in the virtual environment. Signs of disorder were associated with negative emotions more frequently in the virtual environment than in its real-world counterpart, particularly in the absence of sound. Also, signs of disorder degraded the perceived livability of the virtual, but not of the real neighborhood. Hence, it appears that people focus more on details in a virtual environment than in reality. We conclude that both a correction for this focusing effect and realistic soundscapes are required to make virtual environments an appropriate medium for both etiological (e.g. the effects of signs of disorder on fear of crime) and intervention (e.g. CPTED) research.     

Building a global taxonomy of wildlife offenses

Most countries have many pieces of legislation that govern biodiversity, including a range of criminal, administrative, and civil law provisions that state how wildlife must be legally used, managed, and protected. However, related debates in conservation, such as about enforcement, often overlook the details within national legislation that define which specific acts are illegal, the conditions under which laws apply, and how they are sanctioned. Based on a review of 90 wildlife laws in 8 high-biodiversity countries with different legal systems, we developed a taxonomy that describes all types of wildlife offenses in those countries. The 511 offenses are organized into a hierarchical taxonomy that scholars and practitioners can use to help conduct legal analyses. This is significant amidst competing calls to strengthen, deregulate, and reform wildlife legislation, particularly in response to fears over zoonotic threats and large-scale biodiversity loss. It can be used to provide more nuance legal analyses and facilitate like-for-like comparisons across countries, informing processes to redraft conservation laws, review deregulation efforts, close loopholes, and harmonize legislation across jurisdictions. We applied the taxonomy in a comparison of sanctions in 8 countries for hunting a protected species. We found not only huge ranges in fines (US$0 to $200,000) and imprisonment terms (1.5 years to life imprisonment), but also fundamentally different approaches to designing sanctions for wildlife offenses. The taxonomy also illustrates how future legal taxonomies can be developed for other environmental issues (e.g., invasive species, protected areas).     

Governing sustainable cities

Boston's Chinatown is an urban community surrounded by businesses, a university, a large medical centre, and an area zoned for “adult entertainment” called the Combat Zone. The overall goal of this exploratory study was to examine the temporal and geographic distribution of street crime in Boston's Chinatown using police crime reports from the years 1988 to 2004. Crime patterns were most notably associated with the presence of the adult entertainment area, known as the Combat Zone. However, despite the decline of adult businesses over the study period, we saw small limited reduction in property and violent crimes, suggesting that the decline of these businesses did not lead to large-scale short-term (<5 years) reductions in crime.     

污染环境罪司法适用争议问题研究

《刑法修正案（八）》颁布实施后,污染环境罪适用已经一年有余,然而一些争议问题仍未厘清,尤其是主观罪过形态以及严格责任问题,理论界和司法实践中还存在不同的认识。笔者认为,将污染环境罪认定为过失犯罪不存在理论上的不恰切,相反更符合刑法罪责刑相适应的原则。同时严格责任在我国刑法中没有适用的空间。     

Awareness of environmental legislation as a deterrent for wildlife crime: A case with Masaai pastoralists,poison use and the Kenya Wildlife Act

Illegal wildlife crime is a global phenomenon, accelerating the ongoing biodiversity crisis. In the Old World, and particularly in Africa, illegal use of poisons to eliminate carnivores is the main driver of the continental vulture crisis. Knowledge about the underlying source and drivers of this threat is lacking for most areas, including Kenya, a global vulture and biodiversity hotspot. An extensive questionnaire survey of over 1300 respondents was run, using a specialized questioning technique and quantitative analytical approaches. Results show that, while pastoralists have a positive attitude towards vultures, over 20% of them use poisons to eliminate predators. Poisoning was largely driven by livestock losses to predators, and by negative attitude towards predators. Poisoning was less prevalent among respondents aware of the Kenya Wildlife Act. Overall, we suggest that a combination of top-down, e.g. legislation, and bottom-up (such as corrals or compensation) along with awareness campaigns may help reduce poisoning on the ground.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01695-8.     

严惩环境污染犯罪观念之反思

目前,中国重大环境污染事故频发,严重危害了公民居住的环境甚至是公共安全,在社会上引起了广泛影响,民众要求严惩环境污染犯罪的观念也日益盛行。从客观上来讲,严惩环境污染犯罪有一定的意义,但此种观念的蔓延也可能带来一系列的副作用,因此有必要对此种观念进行深刻反思。通过对环境污染犯罪进行综合分析可以发现,导致此类犯罪的原因是多方面的,因而预防该类犯罪的方法也应当是多元的,仅仅严惩是起不到防治环境污染犯罪效果的。