ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME: ENFORCEMENT, POLICY, AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY by Mary Clifford (editor). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers, 1998. 532 pages. Paper. $46.00. ISBN 0-8342-1009-6.

Reviewed by Zachary A. Smith, Department of Political Science, Northern Arizona University. Email: Zachary.Smith@nau.edu.

Mary Clifford has edited an excellent introductory textbook in environmental crime. Although it is somewhat rare in political science or law, a study of the environment, whether legal, political, social, or, for that matter, from the perspective of the physical sciences, should be interdisciplinary. This anthology includes the work of scholars from a variety of backgrounds and examines political, social, economic, legal, and physical/natural components of environmental understanding.

The book is organized into four parts. Part I provides an overview of the issues central to understanding environmental management in general and environmental crime in particular. It includes a chapter on defining environmental crime, a chapter that summarizes the history of the environmental movement in the United States, a chapter examining the relationship between economics and environmental protection, a chapter that summarizes the nature of scientific knowledge and provides an introduction to scientific terms necessary for understanding environmental management, and finally an overview of environmental law and regulation. Part II consists of five more chapters, each examining some aspect of enforcement of environmental protection legislation. Part II includes a chapter which summarizes the federal environmental regulatory structure, the role of state and local government in environmental protection and enforcement, a chapter on policing the environment which includes discussions of detecting environmental crime and identifying environmental criminals, and chapters on prosecution and sentencing. Parts I and II of this anthology are relatively straightforward, Part I providing an overview and the context for understanding environmental crime and management; Part II providing the nuts and bolts of environmental crime.

Part III provides five additional chapters that will be of interest to those with some background in environmental protection and crime. Part III discusses broader practical and theoretical issues in environmental crime research, beginning with a discussion of the types of environmental offenders. Next there is a chapter on environmental ethics that explores the role of ethics in our understanding and management of the environment. In this section an interesting chapter by Dion Dennis titled "Mystification of Environmental Images" explores the role of ideology and media in shaping what we think about and how we act on environmental protection. Finally, Part III concludes with a chapter on international environmental issues and a summary chapter on environmental crime research, "Where Have We Been? Where Should We Go?" which is a brief overview of trends in environmental crime research.

The last section of the book, Part IV, provides five case studies designed to exemplify the issues, themes, and the applications of policy presented in the first part of the book. These case studies, three of which involve hazardous waste issues (an incineration plant that was never built in Arizona, Rocky Flats, and an overview of Superfund), as well as discussions of reauthorizing the Endangered Species Act and U.S.-Mexico border environmental crime issues, are useful additions to the text but they don't quite live up to the promise of integrating the material presented in the first three parts of the book.

Finally, the book has five appendices which include a glossary, a chronology of environmental activities in the United States, a summary of criminal sanctions provided in federal environmental legislation, a list of important court cases in environmental law, and a reprint of a handbook for environmental law enforcement officers produced by the Broward County, Florida, Sheriff's Office.

This is an excellent textbook that accomplishes nearly everything it sets out to accomplish. The student unfamiliar with environmental management or environmental crime will get an introduction to how both the social and natural systems work, what the major issues are (social, legal, and political) in environmental enforcement, and will be introduced to the broader issues involved in environmental crime and its management. The case studies provide a useful context for the material, if not quite a "how to" application of everything else that is covered in the text.

Those working in the field of environmental crime might enjoy the overview of research in this area provided by Donald Rebovich in Chapter 15. However, although I don't mean it as a criticism (this is an introductory text), scholars of environmental law and policy will find nothing new here.

Copyright 1995