Punishing environmental offenders: criminal environmental sentencing in Louisiana, 2004-2014

ABSTRACT Despite growing interest in environmental/green crimes, little remains known about these offenses and how environmental offenders are punished in criminal cases. Much of what is known about the punishment of environmental offenders comes from studies that are now more than 25 years old. Further, many studies rely on aggregated US EPA data, which provides information about these cases nationally, but does not address potential variability in the punishment of environmental criminals in any particular state. To address these issues, this study examines state-level criminal punishments for environmental offenders in Louisiana for the years 2004–2014. The discussion also draws attention to estimating the potential frequency of environmental crimes and punishments in Louisiana. The results support contentions that environmental punishment are rare, that penalties in a handful of cases significantly skew the results, and that when extreme punishments are omitted, criminal punishments for environmental offenses are lenient in comparison to the potentially damaging consequences of those offenses.