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Social Justice Research

Erschienen in:

01.09.2013

The Relationship Between Moral Judgments and Causal Explanations of Everyday Environmental Crimes

verfasst von: Ana M. Martín, Bernardo Hernández, Stephany Hess, Cristina Ruiz, Isabel Alonso

Erschienen in: Social Justice Research | Ausgabe 3/2013

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Abstract

Environmental crimes are behaviors that break environmental laws but are not universally perceived as illegal, or even reproachable, though they harm both the environment and human beings. This lack of social reproach may be related to the peculiarities of the consequences, sanctions, victims, and perpetrators. This study aims to analyze the social perception of environmental crime, focusing on the moral judgment and explanation of instances occurring in the surroundings of ordinary people in their everyday lives. A questionnaire including seven descriptions of environmental transgressions and 17 rating scales referring to moral judgments and behavior explanations was answered by 487 persons, living in a territory highly protected by environmental laws. Results show that people generate a perceptive space in which environmental transgressions have relative positions framed by three dimensions. Moral judgments and explanations of environmental crimes are related, and indicate that people consider environmental crime to be wrong in general terms and a reflection of the badness of transgressors. However, certain circumstances may lead individuals who are not really bad to behave illegally in environmental terms. To explain illegal anti-ecological behavior in these circumstances, observers use justifications and excuses that are linked to the peculiarities of illegal anti-ecological behavior.

Vorheriger Artikel Making Sense of the Senseless: Identity, Justice, and the Framing of Environmental Crises

Nächster Artikel Acceptance and Support of the Australian Carbon Policy

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All transgressions were considered morally wrong because they break a law, and laws are supposed to reflect what society considers should or should not be done (Gollan & Witte, 2008). In any case, data on the participants’ perceived immorality of the transgressions are provided in the results section.

Plots of the coordinates of the transgressions in the three dimensions computed from the scores in the explanations are available from the first author upon request.

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Titel: The Relationship Between Moral Judgments and Causal Explanations of Everyday Environmental Crimes
verfasst von: Ana M. Martín
Bernardo Hernández
Stephany Hess
Cristina Ruiz
Isabel Alonso
Publikationsdatum: 01.09.2013
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Social Justice Research / Ausgabe 3/2013
Print ISSN: 0885-7466
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6725
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-013-0188-9

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