Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Wildlife crime under investigation at Leeds Beckett
The session, entitled ‘Policing Wildlife: Contemporary Perspectives on Wildlife Crime’, will be presented by Dr Angus Nurse, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Middlesex University, and will draw on his extensive research which is due to be published as a book in April 2015.
Hosted by the Centre for Applied Social Research (CeASR) at Leeds Beckett, the seminar will be held at Broadcasting Place from 2pm – 4pm. Places are free but must be booked at https://policingwildlife.eventbrite.co.uk.
Wildlife crime is one of the fastest-growing areas of crime in the world and one of the highest value areas of crime, with long-term effects on ecosystems. In spite of this, it is still seen as a fringe area of criminal justice.
Dr Nurse’s talk will explore the enforcement of wildlife law and examine the extent of wildlife crime, the role of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in developing policies and enforcing the law, and consider how justice systems deal with wildlife crime.
Drawing on case studies from his book, Policing Wildlife, Dr Nurse will examine the pressing threat of organised crime and terror groups in wildlife crime, highlighting the weaker enforcement regimes that exist and the more lenient attitudes to wildlife crimes by the courts, despite the strong provisions which actually exist in wildlife law. He will argue that enforcement regimes need to adapt to contemporary wildlife crime threats and argue for better integration of wildlife crime into mainstream justice systems.
Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and organiser of the guest seminar, Angela Grier, said: “Dr Angus Nurse is an internationally-renowned speaker on green criminology. His research on green crime, environmental harms and the abuse of animals is both pioneering and highly inspirational. We are therefore very pleased to welcome him to Leeds Beckett University as part of our series of social science seminars.”
Dr Angus Nurse’s research and teaching focus is around green crime, access to justice and human rights as well as crime media and culture. He is particularly interested in the use of criminal and civil justice systems and restorative justice as tools to address environmental harms and achieve better protection for wildlife.
Before becoming an academic, Dr Nurse was Investigations Co-ordinator for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for seven years before becoming its Legal and Data Protection Officer. He was then an Investigator for the Local Government Ombudsman for eight years before joining the Law School at the University of Lincoln. He has taught human rights, evidence law and constitutional law and has written extensively on wildlife crime, environmental law and access to justice issues in academic journals, books and policy papers; also presenting his work at numerous academic and policy conferences. His previous book, Animal Harm: Perspectives on Why People Harm and Kill Animals, was published by Ashgate in 2013.