Positive Criminology for Environmental Crimes?

ABSTRACT Environmental crimes pose harms and risks to socioecological systems, driving biodiversity loss. A 2024 resolution at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime prompted stakeholders to discuss a new international framework for addressing crimes that affect the environment. Advocates say existing multilateral efforts are insufficient for addressing environmental crime; opponents say creating a new framework could dilute efforts to reduce environmental harms, and other approaches are more suitable for the nuances of environmental crime. These debates encouraged us to probe the concept of positive criminology for environmental crime. We review the concept and present key theories informing the harm‐reduction processes central to positive criminology's theory of change. Five positive criminology inputs have touchpoints with conservation that could result in desired outcomes and impacts for harm reduction, halting and reversing loss of biodiversity: community policing, crime desistance, problem‐solving courts, restorative justice, and strength‐based programs. Regardless of whether the framework is updated or includes environmental crime, positive criminology is an intriguing theory of change with broad potential applicability to conservation policy and practice focused on halting and reversing loss of biodiversity.