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Illegal hunting threatens conservation, but little research has explored structural correlates of illegal hunting trends. The leading theoretical understanding of illegal hunting is from a situational crime perspective. These situational and individual studies provide vital information on the decision-making of a wildlife offender and help improve enforcement strategies. However, correlates explaining the concentration of illegal hunting across multiple locations has yet to be explored. There has not been any criminological development to examine the overall geographical distribution of illegal hunting across a nation, territory, or state. The current study applies a green criminological perspective to analyze how the production institutions of the economy correlates with the trends of illegal hunting of terrestrial species across Texas counties. Results indicate that the treadmill of production does relate to illegal hunting, suggesting that there is conflict between the economy and public over the use of the wilderness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While wildlife law enforcement has received considerable research interest in recent years, little attention has been given to interpersonal relationships between junior rangers and their supervisors in protected areas. Based on 89 semi-structured interviews with rangers in Uganda, the present study explores interpersonal relations between juniors and their supervisors, and the impact this dynamic has on sensemaking and organisational identification. Findings suggest that study participants considered communication, mentorship, relatability, and accessibility to be important factors in supporting positive supervisor-junior relations. Factors that hindered relations, included organisational structure and chain of command, operational requirements and decentralised geography of responsibility, inequity, lack of trust, respect, and credibility, as well as retaliation. These factors shape rangers' sensemaking and the development of their organisational identity. This study has implications for the expansion of criminal justice research on non-traditional, rural forms of enforcement, while also contributing to better understanding the human dimensions of conservation science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illegal wildlife hunting, especially birds are a major global conservation concern for many dwindling species. This article attempted to collate the illegal bird hunting incidents in Bangladesh from 2010 to 2020 (until June) by searching articles published in online news portals. Three hunting hotspots have been identified, which are typically wetland habitats. Birds from the Ardeidae family (herons, egrets, bitterns, night herons) (118 cases) were hunted mostly preferred by trapping (40%) and netting (27%) hunting techniques. To generate some easy income (77% cases) during the winter season was the main motivation for hunting. Existing Wildlife Crime Control Unit of Bangladesh Forest Department should be strengthened and laws should be implemented to halt the further illegal killing of birds in Bangladesh. The country is strategically an important stopover site for bird migration where two migratory flyways (East Asian-Australasian and Central Asian) run over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite three decades of research into green/environmental crime, little is known about the enforcement activities of conservation officers (COs). What is known about CO behavior has been compiled from small samples and qualitative studies. Addressing this limitation, this study examined 10 years of wildlife enforcement data from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department (CPW; 2005-2014). In contrast to qualitative studies of CO behaviors, this analysis indicated that COs spend the majority (85%) of their enforcement time responding to wildlife-related violations. Among the court processed cases, the most common responses were fines and dismissals. At trial/hearing, courts dismissed 30% of CO citations. Among those found guilty (67%), fines were the most likely (79%) and most serious punishments. Results from this analysis differ from those obtained from qualitative studies, and indicate the need for additional quantitative assessments of wildlife crime data before conclusions can be drawn about the enforcement of environmental/green crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illegal killing of wild animals is recognized as a significant social problem in modern society, yet when compared to many other types of unlawful behaviors, the study of wildlife crime has received scant attention from criminal justice researchers. With the emergence of green criminology in recent decades, however, there has been a concomitant increase in poaching research. This essay reviews the literature and provides some observations on the status of poaching research, and then offers directions for future research on wildlife crime from a critical perspective. Conflict theory provides a useful framework for analyzing wildlife crime and can be used to enhance our understanding of laws regulating the use of wild animals. Given the fact that wildlife is a public trust resource in the United States, it is argued that state wildlife agencies that offer special programs to landowners to facilitate the commercialization of wildlife may be committing a state crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poachers adopted various cunning ways to modify the wildlife materials before commercialization. Thus, the confiscated wildlife materials is often a crime with no eyewitness and difficult for identification. However, accurate identification of the seized wildlife samples is vital for species identification, detection of trade origin and better conservation management. The study employed DNA sequencing based identification of suspected wildlife materials, received from forest departments in east India. We adopted sufficient safety measures while dealing with the samples and processed the entire job at the in-house facilities in Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata. Among 21 confiscated wildlife materials, most of them are identified by Cytb gene, while one specimen by COI gene, and one by both COI and Cytb. All the confiscated amorphous samples are accurately detected by sequence similarity search (99%–100%), estimated genetic divergence, and return monophyly using NJ phylogenetic analysis. The study detected the on-going illegal trade of five of east India's most threatened animals, B. gaurus, N. nebulosa, R. unicornis, L. olivacea, and P. molurus. The study further identified the illegal hunting of mammals (S. scrofa, B. indicus, M. muntjak, A. axis), avifauna (G. leucolophus), and herpetofauna (N. naja) in the region. The study affirms the efficacy of DNA based identification tools for detection of wildlife crime and forensic sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poaching of wildlife has received substantial interest from criminologists in recent years. In particular, prior research has attempted to better understand the factors that drive individuals to engage in such behavior. One driver that has been acknowledged is human-wildlife conflict. To date, however, there has been little research examining the situational factors that link human-wildlife conflict, retaliatory killings, and poaching. Moreover, there are few studies that have attempted to theoretically explain such convergence. Based on fieldwork in Uganda, and drawn from data collected from formal interviews, participant observation, and informal conversations with rangers, the present study demonstrates the utility of viewing the intersection between human-wildlife conflict, retaliatory killings, and poaching from a situational precipitator framework. Findings suggest that human-wildlife conflict can prompt, pressure, permit, and provoke individuals to engage in both retaliatory killings and poaching. Additionally, it was found that human-wildlife conflict directly influences community-ranger relations in Uganda. Implications for theory, practice, and prevention are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British Deer Society places the number of poached deer in the UK as high as 50,000 each year whereas only 335 incidents were reported to the police in 2009. This article explores deer as invisible victims of green crime and the motivations behind this poaching, drawing on the typologies of wildlife crime offenders developed by Nurse in 2013. In particular, the traditional profit-driven motivation of offenders is explored by attempting to uncover if there is, as suspected, a black market in venison. In order to do this, online questionnaires were sent to wildlife crime officers and gamekeepers asking questions about the scale and scope of deer poaching, who the perpetrators are and what is happening to the meat. From these data, it is hoped that a more detailed picture of deer poaching can be developed to further inform wildlife law and poaching prevention. This article also draws attention to the plight of poached deer and the potential danger to people of a black market in venison. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current study analyses seizures made at US ports of entry between 2003 and 2013, with the aim to identify concentrations of illegal wildlife imports into the United States. Findings show that 94% of species seized belong to six groups – mammals, molluscs, birds, reptiles, fish and coral – with mammals and reptiles making up more than half of all seizure incidents. Additionally, most seized wildlife is imported as leather products, medicinal products and as meat. The majority of seizures emanate from six countries, and illegal wildlife is primarily brought to the US via airline baggage. Temporal trends of wildlife seizures point to increases in the seizures of all groups of species, with the exception of birds. Based on these findings, we recommend using situational crime prevention techniques at US ports of entry to reduce opportunities that enable this trade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The CRAVED model has been used to understand theft variation in a whole host of hot products, including wildlife. Past research, however, has only applied the model at either the theft or illicit market stage to understand why particular products are stolen in high numbers. The CRAVED model has yet to be applied to thetraffickingstage of hot products smuggled between illicit markets and, therefore, its applicability at this particular stage remains unknown. Using secondary data from the Los Pozos wildlife market in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, this study applies the CRAVED model to explain why parrot species are trafficked between illicit markets in Bolivia. This research finds that species that are more “available” and less “valuable” are more likely to betraffickedbetween illicit markets, suggesting that variation at thetraffickingstage of the parrot trade can be explained by nearly the same CRAVED concepts as they do at the poaching stage. This study also finds that one-quarter of parrots in the Los Pozos market are trafficked to other cities, of which 99% are to the city of Cochabamba. These findings suggest that shutting down illicit markets and patrolling major roadways between cities can substantially reduce the illegal parrot trade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on wildlife poaching in Russia, that threatens the maintenance of biodiversity in the country. Topics discussed include the efforts of the government to protect endangered species by the management of game species, opposition by rank-and-file hunters to the hunting regulations adopted by the Russian government in 2012 and violations by VIP hunters in the country.