Illegal dumping and crime prevention: A case study of Ash Road, Liverpool Council

Abstract

Illegal waste disposal is an increasingly significant and costly problem. This paper considers a specific hot-spot for illegal dumping in Sydney, Australia from criminological perspectives. We contribute to the developing criminological literature that considers environmental harms as a crime. This draws upon the symbolic aspect of criminal law, contributing to the notion of environmental harms as wrongs worthy of sanction, and facilitates analysis through the prism of criminological literature. We apply theories of crime prevention to the site and argue that these techniques of crime prevention would be cheaper and more effective long-term than current council responses of simply reacting to dumping after it has occurred.

Illegal Dumping as an Indicator for Community Social Disorganization and Crime

“…Illegal dump sites are difficult to remediate, and they can be a financial burden on municipalities (Matsumoto & Takeuchi, 2011). In 2010, for example, Australian local governments spent $10 million removing and disposing of illegally dumped wastes (Crofts et al, 2010). The United Kingdom spends an estimated €100 to €150 million ($110 to $170 million) every year to find and clean illegal dump sites (Ichinose & Yamamoto, 2011).…”

“…Causes of illegal dumping. Illegal dumping is hypothesized to be associated with disposal costs (Crofts et al, 2010;Ichinose & Yamamoto, 2011;Karagiannidis, et al, 2005;Kim et al, 2008), fines (Crofts et al, 2010;Ichinose & Yamamoto, 2011), disposal restrictions (Sigman, 1998), accessibility (Jorda-Borrell et al, 2014;Matos et al, 2012;Tasaki, et al, 2007), population density (Jorda-Borrell et al, 2014;Matos et al, 2012;Tasaki, et al, 2007), surveillance (Crofts et al, 2010;Jorda-Borrell et al, 2014;Matsumoto & Takeuchi, 2011), unemployment (Matsumoto & Takeuchi, 2011), and income (Jorda-Borrell et al, 2014;Karagiannidis, et al, 2005;Tasaki, et al, 2007).…”

“…Kim et al (2008) found that a 1% increase in the unit price of a trash bag led to a 3% increase in the number of reported illegal dumping incidents in Korea. Crofts et al (2010) explored illegal dumping from a criminal perspective in Australia.…”

“…These authors found that crimes are usually committed when the reward outweighs the costs. In the case of illegal dumping, legal waste disposal is costly, while illegal dumping is free (Crofts et al, 2010). Greater fines for illegal dumping may influence this behavior.…”

“…Illegal dumping is hypothesized to be associated with an inability to afford proper disposal (Crofts, Morris, Wells, & Powell, 2010;Ichinose & Yamamoto, 2011;Karagiannidis, et al, 2005;Kim, Chang, & Kelleher, 2008), disposal restrictions (Sigman, 1998), population density (Jorda-Borrell, Ruiz-Rodriguez, & Lucendo-Monedero, 2014;Matos et al, 2012;Tasaki, et al, 2007), and inadequate enforcement (Crofts et al, 2010;Jorda-Borrell et al, 2014;Matsumoto & Takeuchi, 2011). Previous studies have focused on economic, physical and demographic factors associated with illegal dumping.…”