Inside the Minds of People Who Knowingly Destroy the Planet ("Green Crime" - a book by a *Criminal Psychologist*) PsyTdy

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Dr. Julia Shaw's new book, "Green Crime," is a page-turning exposé.

Posted November 15, 2025 | Reviewed by Margaret Foley

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Julia Shaw: I felt helpless and hopeless when it came to the environmental destruction that so ravages our world and our social media feeds. I felt that if there was any way I could contribute, even if just a little bit, it was irresponsible of me not to try. When I began to meet with people and interviewed them for my book, I realised quickly that most of the people working on environmental reports with the United Nations, or in climate sciences at universities, or in environmental law, had never met a psychological scientist before. And I realised that there is so much missed opportunity for collaboration at the moment. I am hoping that this book builds a bridge that connects social scientists and their findings with those working to protect nature.

Writing this book has also made me more hopeful than I have ever been. I certainly didn’t understand the army of people who are fighting for the earth, and getting to know them and hear about the jobs they do, from regulators to undercover agents to environmental lawyers, has made me far more optimistic than I was before.2
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JS: I write about six of the biggest areas of environmental harm today―emissions crimes, illegal deforestation, wildlife crime, illegal fishing, illegal mining, and negligent oil spills. The main message is that if we try and understand the real people committing environmental crimes, we can stop them. I created a model that I find really useful to cut through the stereotypes and help us to profile green criminals. I call it the six pillars model of green crime, and the pillars are ease, impunity, greed, rationalisation, conformity, and desperation. If you address even just one of these factors, you can topple entire organised crime and corporate crime hierarchies.
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JS: That depends on what you mean by action. If I write about violent crime, you don’t expect me to give you five top tips on how to protect yourself against violence. You are hoping to understand why it happens, and expect me not to victim-blame you or others. We have been told our whole lives that we, as end consumers, are to blame for the destruction of nature—that if we just recycled more, bought less, travelled differently, and ate more plant-based, we wouldn’t be in our current predicament. But this is backwards.

Consumers are buying and using things that already exist, and our desires for products and lifestyles are mostly manufactured by enormous and relentless marketing campaigns. The question is, why are people creating things that destroy the earth? Why are they stealing their timber and fish from protected areas, or burning down rainforests for cattle, or polluting our water with untreated mining tailings?
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more: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/202510/inside-the-minds-of-people-who-knowingly-destroy-the-planet