The study of transnational environmental harm demands appreciation of specific methodological and conceptual issues that impinge upon the data collection process. Some of these issues include the ethics and politics of 'outsiders' researching other people's territory, the differential availability and types of data in different jurisdictions, the ways in which state denial and corporate resistance impede the research process, and the importance of utilising a wide range of data sources as a means to substantiate claims about harms and the causes of harms. The paper presents an exploration of methodological issues in the study of harms that are global, cross-national, and/or localised, but which are intrinsically transnational in nature regardless of scale and scope. By understanding the challenges presented to those working in this area, we are also able to identify directions for future methodological development.

This paper draws on ideas and research in youth studies in order to compare and contrast three approaches to the notion of social agency. The paper charts how youth studies commentators have generally relied upon either a 'deterministic' or a 'voluntaristic' conception of social action in explaining the life worlds of young people. It is argued that a 'contextual' understanding of youth experience provides a better appreciation of how youth agency is constructed by and interfaces with social structures.

This article provides an exploration of how the criminological imagination can provide particular insights into the nature of environmental issues. To illustrate the contribution of criminology to such discussions, the article provides a case study of the social, political and economic dynamics surrounding the provision of drinking water. The article demonstrates the complexities in determining the character, extent and impact of environmental harm. It furthermore identifies diverse and at times competing approaches to environmental regulation and to the prevention of environmental harm.

This article sketches out three broad philosophical frameworks relating to the human/environment nexus—the anthropocentric, biocentric and ecocentric perspectives. It is argued that acknowledgement of these different perspectives is essential in any analysis of environmental harm. To illustrate the importance of an `ecological imagination', each philosophy is considered in relation to the regulation and use of old-growth forest.

This article examines issues surrounding the relationship between youth gangs and violent behaviour by considering the complex definitional and methodological problems surrounding these matters. By drawing upon a recent survey of school students in Perth, Western Australia, it highlights the importance of and need for developing increasingly sophisticated ways of interpreting youth group formations and group activities. For example, a distinction can be made between gangs and gang-related behaviour. The importance of gang membership and nongang membership in shaping social behaviour also needs to be acknowledged. We argue that most teenagers appear to engage in very similar types of activities, including violence. However, the intensity and dynamics of this behaviour varies greatly depending upon the type of group membership in question. Typologies are presented to show the differences in antisocial behaviour depending upon gang or nongang membership.