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Criminology

CRIM 3911 Library Workshop

This guide lists resources used in a library research workshop by Chris Burns for students in CRIM 3911 (Green Criminology) taught by Paula Hirschmann in spring 2024.

Getting Started

Strategies for identifying a topic: 

1. Course readings

  • Look at your course readings in Moodle

2. The Narwhal

  • an online Canadian newspaper focused on environmental issues.
  • You may want to look at their collection of articles on "Solutions".
  • You can also search the articles using keywords; click on the 3 wavy lines in the top-left of the screen.

3. The Conversation (Canada Edition)

  • This online magazine includes short articles written by (mostly) Canadian scholars on hot topics.
  • search for the words "green criminology" or "environmental crimes" or "environmental law".

4. Environmental Law Centre projects

  • This BC public-interest law centre (based at UVIC) provides legal support to community organizations and First Nations on environmental issues; check out their projects for ideas

5. Google

  • Do a Google search for terms like "environmental crime" Vancouver [or your location of interest].
  • You might find out the names of local groups who are working on issues in the community.

6. Scan tables of contents from books on green criminology

7. Explore suggested solutions to some green criminology issues in this book:

Here are some useful keywords for finding books and articles related to green criminology:

The bolded terms are used in library catalogues so are especially useful for finding books.

  • Conservation criminology
  • Dark green criminology
  • Eco-crime
  • Ecoglobal criminology
  • Environmental crime
  • Environmental justice
  • Environmental law
  • Green criminology
  • Green-collar crime
  • Nonspeciesist criminology
  • Offenses against the environment
  • Rural green criminology
  • Wildlife crime

White, R. (2010). A green criminology perspective. In The SAGE Handbook of Criminological Theory (pp. 410-426). SAGE Publications, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446200926

  • a bit dated, but still a solid overview over a variety of theoretical perspectives related to green criminology

Finding info

Use the KPU Library's search tool called Summon to look for different types of sources in the library's collection, all at once.

Suggestions:

  • Search in Summon for "green criminology" or "environmental crimes" combined with Canada if you're looking for project ideas
  • Limit search results to matches from the last few years.
  • Scan the titles of the first 15 or so results for ideas.
  • Limit to just newspaper articles if you want to find current events.
 

Sometimes, Summon doesn't find the results you want. In that case, try searching within a specific research database. KPU Library subscribes to over 200 research databases covering different subjects and types of information. It's a good idea to search in more than one because each one has some unique content, and specialized search tools.

Recommended databases for Green Criminology

search CJ Abstracts now

Other KPU Library Guides:

More sources:

If you have not found anything useful in the Library's databases (though that's very unlikely!), you may want to check Google Scholar.

Google Scholar lists articles from a wide variety of scholarly journals. It also includes references to book chapters and many other types of sources.

Google Scholar Search
 
How do I find the full text for an article I found in Google Scholar?

Google Scholar does not usually provide the full-text for articles for free, so you might get prompted to pay for access to an article. 

Do not pay for articles! It's quite likely that the KPU Library subscribes to the journal.

  • If you are on-campus, look for the "Full text at KPU" link in your results. If you do not see this link, search for the title of your article in Summon. 
  • If you're off-campus, customize the Google Scholar settings (under 'Library Links') to check the Kwantlen Library for full-text, then follow the steps above.
  • If the KPU Library does not have the journal article that you need, you can request a copy from another library through interlibrary loan at no charge. We do the searching and can deliver most articles to you via email within 2 business days.