Crime, Violence, and Global Warming

Crime, Violence, and Global Warming introduces the many connections between climate change and criminal activity. Conflict over natural resources can escalate to state and non-state actors, resulting in wars, asymmetrical warfare, and terrorism. Crank and Jacoby apply criminological theory to each aspect of this complicated web, helping readers to evaluate conflicting claims about global warming and to analyze evidence of the current and potential impact of climate change on conflict and crime. Beginning with an overview of the science of global warming, the authors move on to the links between climate change, scarce resources, and crime. Their approach takes in the full scope of causes and consequences, present and future, in the United States and throughout the world. The book concludes by looking ahead at the problem of forecasting future security implications if global warming continues or accelerates. This fresh approach to the criminology of climate change challenges readers to examine all sides of this controversial question and to formulate their own analysis of our planet's future.

John P. Crank is a Professor in School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He received his M.A. in Sociology from the University of Arizona, his M.P.A. from the University of Illinois, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado. He has published in the area of police effectiveness, and in the areas of organizational culture and structure, focusing on the police and on parole and probation. He has also published on criminal justice theory and counter-terrorism and was the recipient of the Academy of Criminal Justice Science's Outstanding Book Award in 2004 for his book Imagining Justice (Anderson Publishing). Linda Jacoby is a doctoral student at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. Her research interests include state and corporate crime, climate change and crime, and social justice.

Introduction Prologue: Welcome to the Apocalypse Section 1: Global Warming Chapter 1: The Challenges of Global Warming Research Chapter 2: What is Global Warming? Chapter 3: Climate Change Denial Section II: Climate Change and the Rending of the Social Fabric Chapter 4: Modeling the Relationship between Global Warming, Violence, and Crime Chapter 5: Consequences of Global Warming Chapter 6: The Problems of Water Section III: Migration Futures and Megacities: A Collision Course with Global Warming Chapter 7: Refugee Migration and Settlement Amid Climate Change: A Prescription for Violence? Chapter 8: The Future of Migration: A Planet of Megacities Chapter 9: Favela and Metropolis: The Crucibles of Crime in a Mega-Urban Environment Section IV: Global Warming and International Security: The Nation-State System and State Challengers Chapter 10. States and Their Challengers Chapter 11: Security Issues of Global Warming Chapter12. Conclusion: Whither the Social Contract? Endnotes References