Crime and punishment in the outback: A review of extractive and destructive green crime cases in Australia's criminal justice system

Abstract Wildlife and environmental crime (WEC) is a global issue and is estimated to be the fourth largest organized transnational crime sector. While global assessments of these crimes and their impacts have been increasingly conducted, there is little understanding of the scope of WEC in an Australian context, despite the nation's high rate of endemism and extinction. We reviewed publicly available case files from Australia's intermediate and higher courts to construct a dataset providing insight into the nature and extent of WEC. Our study has produced the first dataset to quantify publicly available WEC prosecution data for Australia on a national scale. We found that native vegetation clearance, illegal fishing, and wildlife trafficking offenses were the most prevalent and collected data that can be analyzed in future comparative and empirical research projects to assess the effectiveness of specialist environment courts, penalties for environmental crimes, and cross‐jurisdictional legislation.