A Visual Approach for Green Criminology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Green Criminology with Eyes Wide Open

   • Lorenzo Natali

   Pages 1-14

3. A Case of Organic Relationship between City and Contamination

   • Lorenzo Natali

   Pages 15-29

4. Ways of Looking at the Elephant in the Room: A First Visual Exploration

   • Lorenzo Natali

   Pages 31-49

5. Ways of Seeing the Elephant in the Room: Images and Words

   • Lorenzo Natali

   Pages 51-77

6. What Do You Mean When You Show and Say This? Where Does It Take You?

   • Lorenzo Natali

   Pages 79-88

7. Imaging Visual Methods for Green Criminology

   • Lorenzo Natali

   Pages 89-99

8. Conclusion: A Possible Way Out

   • Lorenzo Natali

   Pages 101-116

9. Back Matter

   Pages 117-137

   PDF

This book brings the visual dimension of environmental crimes and harms into the field of green criminology. It shows how photographic images can provide a means for eliciting narratives from people who live in polluted areas – describing in detail and from their point of view what they know, think and feel about the reality in which they find themselves living. 
 
Natali makes the argument for developing a visual approach for green criminology, with a single case-study as its central focus, revealing the importance of using photo elicitation to appreciate and enhance the reflexive and active role of social actors in the symbolic and social construction of their environmental experiences. Examining the multiple interactions between the images and the words used to describe the socio-environmental worlds in which we live, this book is a call to open the eyes of green criminology to wider and richer explorations of environmental harms and crimes. An innovative and engaging study, this text will be of particular interest to scholars of environmental crime and cultural, green and visual criminologies.

• criminology
• green criminology
• social science
• eco-crimes
• radical interactionism
• visual sociology
• visual criminology
• pollution
• social perception
• contamination
• photo elicitation
• qualitative methodologies
• visual methodologies

“In this important contribution to criminology Lorenzo Natali offers a powerful invitation to understand one of the world’s most compelling social problems in fresh ways. Wide ranging in scope the book explores environmental harms and crimes through a distinctive combination of cultural, green and visual criminologies. It is essential reading, a defining statement that immediately defines its field as a vital, shared point of reference. Making creative use of visual methods, and written in a clear and accessible way, this highly engaging text will be an invaluable resource and succeeds in stretching the criminological imagination beyond current orthodoxies.” (Professor Eamonn Carrabine, University of Essex)

“The vitality and excitement of a new field of inquiry depends upon contributions that challenge and expand its original horizons. This fascinating book provides conceptual and methodological innovations for green criminology that are simultaneously provocative, stimulating, exhilarating and thought-provoking. A must read for those wishing to look at the world in new ways.” (Professor Rob White - University of Tasmania, Australia)

“Environmental crime is perceived and experienced by different people in different ways.  In this beautifully written book, Natali makes a compelling argument for why and how to  study those social actors who are the direct victims of various environmental harms.  A Visual Approach for Green Criminology ​is a path-breaking endeavor that should prove enormously inspirational for those interested in cultural criminology, green criminology, visual criminologies, their points of overlap and their lacunae.” (Professor Avi Brisman, School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University)

“Lorenzo Natali has written an important book, which provides an elegant and compelling argument for a broader approach to green criminological research. Natali argues that we must learn how to ‘listen visually’ to the voices of the victims of environmental crime. His fascinating account of the use of photo elicitation interviews reveals a rich and at times unexpected explanation of the participants’ complex social reality.  This is essential reading for anyone interested in pursuing qualitative green criminology research.” (John Cianchi, University of Tasmania)

• Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

  Lorenzo Natali

Lorenzo Natali holds a PhD in Criminal Law and Criminology and is currently a post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. His research focuses on violent crime, symbolic and radical interactionism, green criminology, and qualitative and interdisciplinary approaches, including visual methodologies. He is the author of Green Criminology: Prospettive Emergenti sui Crimini Ambientali (Torino: Giappichelli).

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