Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The degrowth movement and crime prevention

  • Published:
Crime, Law and Social Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Critics of market economies are found among academics, social movements and alliances involving both. One such alliance is constituted by what is known as the degrowth movement, whose analyses of the dysfunctional effects of prevalent economic arrangements and principles relate (implicitly or explicitly) to crime prevention strategies. After briefly examining the concerns of classical theorists such as Karl Marx and Max Weber about infinite growth and its environmental impact, this paper tries to uncover the criminological implications of degrowth and to hypothesize how its strategies can contribute to the reduction and/or prevention of criminal activity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Appadurai, A., & Alexander, N. (2020). Failure. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arboleda, M. (2020). Planetary mine: Territories of extraction under late capitalism. Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bookchin, M. (1980). Toward an ecological society. Black Rose Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brisman, A., & South, N. (2020). A criminology of extinction: Biodiversity, extreme consumption and the vanity of species resurrection. European Journal of Criminology, 6, 918–935.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buck, H. J. (2019). After geo-engineering: Climate tragedy, repair and restoration. Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, M., & Somerville, P. (2019). Degrowth: A Defence. New Left Review, 115, 95–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chertkovskaya, E., & Paulsson, A. (2020). Countering Corporate Violence: Degrowth, Ecosocialism and Organizing beyond the Destructive Forces of Capitalism. Organization. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508420975344

  • Currie, E. (2012). The market economy and crime. In F. T. Cullen & P. Wilcox (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of criminological theory. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Currie, E. (2013). Crime and punishment in America. New York Picador.

    Google Scholar 

  • Currie, E. (2016). The roots of danger: Violent crime in global perspective. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Currie, E. (2020). A peculiar indifference: The neglected toll of violence on Black America. Metropolitan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Alisa, G., Demaria, F., & Kallis, G. (Eds.). (2014). Degrowth: A vocabulary for a new era. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, H. (2014). Beyond growth. Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, M. (2019). What is economic theology? A new governmental-political paradigm? Theory, Culture & Society, 36, 3–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D. (2019). Inequality and the 1%. Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1960). The division of labour in society. The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, J. B. (1999). Marx’s theory of metabolic rift: Classical foundations for environmental sociology. American Journal of Sociology, 105, 366–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster, J. B. (2000). Marx’s ecology: Materialism and nature. Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, J. B., & Holleman, H. (2012). Weber and the environment. American Journal of Sociology, 17, 1625–1673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1994). The order of things: An archeology of human sciences. Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (2021). Climates of capital: For a trans-environmental eco-socialism. New Left Review, 127, 94–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galbraith, J. K. (1987). A history of economics: The past as the present. Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S., & Winlow, S. (2015). Revitalizing criminological theory. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hirschman, A. O. (1977). The passions and the interests. Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, T. (2021). Post growth: Life after capitalism. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kallis, G., Kostakis, V., Lange, S., Muraca, B., Paulson, S., & Schmelzer, M. (2018). Research on degrowth. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 43, 291–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kallis, G., Paulson, S., D’Alisa, G., & Demaria, F. (2020). The case for degrowth. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, M. (2000). Inequality and crime. Review of Economics and Statistics, 82, 530–539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • kMatrix Data Services (2021), Low carbon environmental goods and services, London: kMatrix Data Services.

  • Latouche, S. (1986). Faut-il refuser le développement?: Essai sur l'anti-économique du Tiers-monde. Presses Universitaires de France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latouche, S. (1993). In the wake of the affluent society: An exploration of post-development. Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latouche, S. (1996). The westernization of the world: Significance, scope and limits of the drive towards global uniformity. Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latouche, S. (2005). L'invention de l'économie. Press Universitaires de France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latouche, S. (2010). Farewell to growth. Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Löwy, M. (2017). Marx, Engels and ecology. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 28, 10–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. (1996). Sociologia del rischio. Bruno Mondadori.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macekura, S. J. (2020). The mismeasure: Economic growth and its critics. University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. (1960). India, China, Russia. Il Saggiatore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. (1974). Early writings. Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. (1976). Capital, (volume 3). Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1952). On religion. Foreign Languages Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1975). The German Ideology. In Collected works. International Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • More, T. (1997). Utopia. Wordsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nurse, A. (2015). An introduction to green criminology and environmental justice. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M., & Sen, A. (Eds.). (1993). The quality of life. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, C. (1997). Environmental ethics. Abc-Clio.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, R. D., & Krivo, L. J. (2005). Macrostructural analyses of race, ethnicity and violent crime. Annual Review of Sociology, 31, 331–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the 21st century. Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Raymen, T. (2019). The enigma of social harm and the barrier of liberalism: Why Zemiology needs a theory of the good. Justice, Power and Resistance, 3, 134–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiner, R. (2007). Law and order: An honest Citizen’s guide to crime and control. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiner, R. (2016). Crime: The mystery of the common-sense concept. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiner, R. (2021). Social democratic criminology. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosa, H. (2019). Resonance: A sociology of our relationship to the world. Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosa, H., & Henning, C. (Eds.). (2018). The good life beyond growth. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld, R., & Messner, S. F. (2013). Crime and the economy. Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Roth, R. (2009). American Homicide. Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggiero, V. (2001). Movements in the City. Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggiero, V. (2013). The crimes of the economy. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ruggiero, V. (2015). Power and crime. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggiero, V. (2020). Killing environmental campaigners. Criminological Encounters, 3(1), 92–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J., & Wilson, W. J. (1995). Race, crime and urban inequality. In J. Hagan & R. D. Peterson (Eds.), Crime and inequality. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schabas, M. (2007). The natural origins of economics. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scorse, J. (2010). What environmentalists need to know about economics. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (2015). The country of first boys and other essays. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shearing, C. (2015). Criminology and the Anthropocene. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 15, 255–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simmel, G. (1971). On individuality and social forms. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skidelsky, R., & Skidelsky, E. (2012). How much id enough? The love of money and the case for the good life. Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sollund, R. (Ed.). (2015). Green harms and crimes: Critical criminology in a changing world. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • South, N., & Brisman, A. (Eds.). (2013). Routledge international handbook of green criminology. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spapens, T., White, R., van Uhm, D., & Huisman, W. (Eds.). (2018). Green crimes and dirty money. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, W. (2012). Citizens as customers: Considerations of the new politics of consumption. New Left Review, 76, 27–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Testot, L. (2020). Cataclysms: An environmental history of humanity. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tombs, S., & Whyte, D. (2015). The corporate criminal: Why corporations must be abolished. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Veblen, T. (1994). The theory of the leisure class. Dover Publications, Inc..

    Google Scholar 

  • Webber, C. (2021). Rediscovering the relative deprivation and crime debate: Tracking its fortunes from left realism to the precariat. Critical Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-021-09554-4

  • Weber, M. (1930). The Protestant ethic and the Spirit of capitalism. George Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society. University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte, D. (2020). Ecocide: Kill the corporation before it kills you. Manchester University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2019). The inner level. Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, J. (1986). The failure of criminology: The need for a radical realism. In R. Matthews & J. Young (Eds.), Confronting crime. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zedner, L. (2006). Security. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vincenzo Ruggiero.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ruggiero, V. The degrowth movement and crime prevention. Crime Law Soc Change 77, 463–478 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-021-10003-0

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-021-10003-0

Navigation