Illegal deforestation is generally not considered as a criminological subject but in this article it is argued that it can easily be considered as such. The central question that is addressed here is how the theme of deforestation, which clearly fits into the new realm of green criminology, relates to more traditional criminological concepts. This question is discussed through various case studies: the Brazilian Amazon (mainly Brazil), Central Africa (mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo), South East Asia (mainly Indonesia), Russian Siberia, and Pakistan's Swat forests. The case studies show that there are actually many victims of deforestation, both human and non-human, and that deforestation is linked to a variety of other crimes and harms as well. It is concluded that even without taking a green criminological perspective, several concepts of criminology apply to illegal deforestation practices: governmental and state crimes, corporate crimes, and various types of organized crime.

Criminology usually focuses on the human experience. The relatively few criminological publications that do pay attention to animals, are very often written from an anthropocentric perspective in which animals are portrayed as passive objects and in terms of their usefulness to humans. Is this a satisfactory situation? Some criminologists would answer this question with a sincere ‘no’.
For example Beirne and Cazaux have pleaded for a non speciesist criminology, meaning a criminology that does not take other than the human species for granted. This is not a plea for an entire new criminology, but an appeal for more attention on negative outcomes of human behaviour regarding animal welfare. In this article some examples of research options are described.

Electric and electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest growing waste stream worldwide: 50 million tons of electronic waste each year. Part of it is exported, often illegally, from industrialised countries to e-waste hubs like Ghana, Nigeria, India, and China. E-waste often contains both valuable metals as well as toxic substances. The high value of metal is the main reason for imports by countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and China. However, the recycling methods in these countries are not tailored to responsible recycling of the toxic elements of e-waste, thereby causing major negative environmental and health effects. Also, the recycling methods in those countries are less efficient, which leads to the loss of valuable metals and to an increase in the mining of virgin metals. In this way the e-waste problem is directly related to the social and environmental problems at the beginning of the electronics chain. This article explores the e-waste problem from a value chain perspective and proposes policy measures that could diminish Europe's contribution to the problem.

As a contribution to literature drawing together green criminology and studies of organized and corporate crime, this paper provides a case study of crimes and public health harms linked to the Naples garbage disposal crisis. The context is the inability of modern consumer society to cope with the problem of mass production of waste. In turn this leads to opportunities for both legal and criminal entrepreneurs to offer services that promise but fail to ‘dispose’ of the problem. The analysis draws upon environmental law and classic studies of organised crime.

The laundering of criminal proceeds from environmental crime has so far received little attention. This is to some extent surprising because environmental crime is one of the most profitable types of crime. Criminal proceeds are in many cases bigger than in the drug trade. In this article three different categories of money laundering are described. The authors use an analogy with soccer to describe these categories. In ‘division one’ transactions are almost all in cash. The illegal goods, for instance fireworks, can be bought and sold with cash money. There is hardly any need to launder money and the border is barely an obstacle. In the ‘premier league’ the border plays an important role to launder money. The authors identify several methods of money laundering such as the mixing of legal and illegal trade, the use of double-entry bookkeeping and the use of priority rights. In the ‘Champions League’ criminal groups create an opportunity to make money illegally and to launder their criminal proceeds. For example the EU-wide introduction of CO₂ emissions trading created an opportunity for VAT fraud.

Many species are threatened with extinction today. Certain animal species are becoming scarce and thus more valuable. Illegally traded animals and animal products are exported by relatively poor countries. These easily provide exporting papers that demonstrate that animals are bred in captivity, when in reality they are caught in the wild. In general illegally traded animals originate from South and Central America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Europe is a major importer. Since illegal trade in animals is booming business, it is not uncommon for illegal traders in exotic animals to be associated with other forms of organised crime. Due to a relatively low risk of prosecution and high profits to be made, the trade in rare species has become very attractive.