Billiet & Rousseau, 2014

Carole M. Billiet & Sandra Rousseau, How real is the threat of imprisonment for environmental crime?, European Journal of Law and Economics 2014, vol. 37(2), 183-198

In this contribution, the authors investigate whether prison sentences for environmental crime are indeed used in practice, how they are used and whether they imply a real threat to violators. To this end they examine previous studies on the role of imprisonment and confront these models with some empirical data. The empirical application summarizes evidence from several countries, but focuses on detailed data for criminal prosecution of environmental offences in Flanders (Belgium) between 2003 and 2007. Thus the analysis is able to highlight some interesting policy issues and directions for future research.

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