Situational Crime Prevention in Mining Industry

Mija Kos

Purpose:

The purpose of the paper is to present, from the green criminology aspect, the problem of the organization of mining waste landfills in Slovenia. The purpose is also to describe the criminological theories dealing with the causes of crime and to present in details the Clark’s technique of situational crime prevention. The aim is to examine the forms of criminality that have emerged as a result of the insufficient regulation of the mining sector and to establish general guidelines for regulating mining waste landfills in Slovenia.

Design/Methods/Approach:

The article is based on the literature review and analysis of criminological studies on mining, mining waste landfills, environmental criminality, green criminology, and environmental protection.

Findings:

In Slovenia and abroad, there is an absence of a study dealing with all three elements simultaneously (mining waste, mining waste landfill, and environmental criminality). In Slovenia, most studies are focused on the harmful effects of mining on the environment, on the regulation of illegal landfills (not mining waste landfills), on the record of the mines, and on the quantity of landfill mining waste. From the literature review it is evident that the mining sector in Slovenia is neglected, which enables the appearance of various forms of criminality, and that is the reason, why the regulation of the sector is very important. It is important to discover the causes of the particular criminal offense, to propose the measures to reduce or preventing opportunities for the commission of a criminal offense, and to form general guidelines that will apply to all equally categorized landfills.

Practical Implications:

In this paper are in detail presented the criminological theories that explaining the emergence of criminal behavior in an individual. This is important in identifying the forms of crime that occur in the mining sector. Consequently, on these findings, we can form situational preventive measures that will, with proper implementation, help to reduce the opportunities which leads to a criminal act.

Originality/Value:

The problem of regulation of mining waste in Slovenia has not yet been addressed from the green criminology aspect, and this research is the basis for the first of its kind in Slovenia.

UDC: 343.9:622

Keywords: mining, mining waste, landfills, green criminology, situational crime prevention

Full article in Slovene