If one would be asked ‘what is harm?’ or ‘what is the major cause of harm to people?’, one would most certainly think of interpersonal violence and the often resulting injuries and death. Such inference would not be surprising since our everyday lives are over-saturated with media headlines, TV shows and literature on crimes conventionally known as violent interpersonal acts such as assault and murder. It is the most visible and obvious crimes that involve direct victims that attract the most attention (Roberts, 2009). While these types of crimes that harm single individuals are important and should not be neglected, there are harms and injustices that result in much more serious consequences involving a much larger number of casualties and fatalities but which rarely provoke public and political outrage and scarcely appear on newspapers (Roberts, 2009; Pemberton, 2007; Hillyard and Tombs, 2007). …show more content…
Some examples of such events are marketing of known faulty products, corporations promoting unsafe and life-threatening substances, the abuse involved in the transportation of live animals, the failure to enforce health and safety standards at work, the international dumping of toxic waste and pollution (Roberts, 2009). The list is not exhaustive but this essay will focus on pollution as social harm.
There are numerous instances of pollution across the globe which have affected the general public and local communities. In Bhopal, India, in 1984, 3,000 to 5,000 residents lost their lives due to the release of methyl isocyanate by an industrial company (Croall, 2007).
In the year of 2000, under the Swedish Environmental legislation 14% of prosecutions were for littering and in Britain 237 shopping trolleys were removed from a local river for which a major supermarket was prosecuted (Croall,
Structural violence is differentiated from direct violence both in terms of etiology and nature. D...
For example, a cow that is consuming intoxicating water the milk that is producing the humans are going to drink it and now is not only the cow being intoxicated, but the person consuming the milk. Leading to health issues, on top of that, pollution of the air because of the natural gasses the cars, truck, factories are thrown in the air. Ending with the person either getting really sick of intoxication or even death. The cow spreading this issue to everyone drinking milk and having the owner either to put him to sleep causing him to
Defining social harm is not an easy task, the question of culpability and methodologies for studying harm are diverse. The perception of social harm incipiently was to expand the notion of harm to cover harms fulfilled by organizations and nations states that are not held as crime since they do not fit the description ('an act that is capable of being
Aggression, violence, and victimization are remarkably dynamic terms. How these terms are understood and defined is shaped by formal and informal social policies and controls (Goldstein, 1986). Excluding assertiveness from the definition of aggression as it relates to violence, aggression can be considered to encompass behaviors intended to cause physical or psychological harm. Violence may be understood as an extreme form of aggression, in which the intent of the perpetrator is to cause serious harm (Berkowitz, 1993). Anthropological research on various non-western cultures demonstrates that aggression and violence are not necessarily inevitable, nor are they universal (Goldstein, 1986). Like words and manners, as Elias points out, the concepts transform over time, and vary across and within cultures (Fletcher, 1997).
Everyday thousands of people suffer from some type of violence, some may able to live and see the next day and even be able to overcome it and become and advocate to other, however others are not so lucky. No one should ever have to be a victim of any type of abuse, whether it is verbally, emotionally, physically or mentally. Interpersonal violence is a term often used to describe sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and stalking (UNC Charlotte, 2017). No matter what type of violence is being experiences, the victim should always know that it is not their fault, that is help, and safety is available.
Whenever we fight for clean drinking water, or clean air, or a safe workplace, we are likely to find a corporation on the other side of the issue. The goal of a corporation is, first, to survive, and, second, to return a profit to its shareholders, not to mention for money and if the air has to be fouled to accomplish these goals, then the air will be fouled. Meaning, the corporations will do anything to keep these goals even if it means that they have to cause pollution or some issues. Pollution is one of the problems by the corporations that affect us. The Business Council for Sustainable Development thinks of this as ?gToday, for instance, the earth's atmosphere is providing the valuable service of acting as a dump for pollutants; those enjoying this service rarely pay a reasonable price for it,". This is an example of corporations ?gexternalizing?h their costs. By using the air as a free dump, corporations are able to get away with paying the costs for waste disposal to the people while they prof...
...nvironmental crimes can lead to overwhelming disasters in which mankind may not be able to restore. In order to resolve the Ecocrime paradox, first step should be heightening people’s awareness towards crime against the environment. In a democratic system, it may be feasible; however, in other authoritarian-type governments, it may be very difficult unless powerful figures within their system happens to be knowledgeable about long-term consequences of environmental crimes and acts upon them.
...ty. It is available to reflect the social values of a society such as new concepts of justice. The law Reform Commission of Canada is persistently submitting legal proposals that can be used to improve a society and it also serves as a crucial role to the structure of law and the government and the Canadian Criminal Justice System. A proposal that has drawn a lot of debate is the idea of whether environmental destruction and maltreatment should be criminalized. After examining the given themes, environmental harm should not be considered a crime. The undesirable outcomes of criminalizing environmental harm outweigh the positives of criminalizing such a reform. Although the environment affects people’s lives, so do the laws and regulations. This crime is too broad and may result in more harm than good in the Canadian society and the Canadian Criminal Justice System.
Park, S. Rozeila. 1998. “An Examination of International Environmental Racism Through the Lens of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 5 (2): 659-709.
Typically in the business cycle, companies have a tendency to become the most concerned with the sales sector of their industry. These companies look passed the environmental detriment of society for the chance at obtaining an additional dollar. “When money becomes a measure—as well as the means—of all things, the potential for economic and political mischief grows” (Chouin...
Tort law traditionally provided the primary means for remedying environmental harms. Despite its importance, it has always been the topic of debate among scholars. Tort’s doctrines focus on the protection of private property and tend to ignore the damage to public
Air pollution is caused by many things such as car fumes, burning of fossil fuels,
Victims of crime will deal with a wide range of immediate, short-term and long-term reactions. All victims will experience shock, distress, numbness and disconnection. It can affect their emotional, psychological, physical, social, financial and spiritual wellbeing, causing people to change their behaviour and lifestyles. Victims who have suffered violent crimes and threats to their lives and personal injury will have a different reaction and have a harder time coping with their feelings than those who are victims of nonviolent
Who are the victims of structural violence? Often these victims are considered to be members of a low economic class. This does not necessarily mean they live in poverty. It is a miscomprehension that only people in third world countries or that the developing world is the only place we find structural violence. This violence happens in almost every country, the only reason we do not see it is (a) tha...
People are often blinded by the situation in which they are in, and by their personal motives which drive them to act. Humans, by nature, have faults and vices that are potentially harmful. It is the responsibility of society to anticipate harm, whether to oneself or to others. Once dangerous patterns and habits are recognized, it is imperative to anticipate and prevent injury from reoccurring. To allow any individual to be inflicted harm forces citizens to lose trust in the government, thus unraveling the fabric of society.... ...