Rivers on Fire and Corporate Liars: The Monitoring and Sanctioning of U.S. Water Pollution Crimes - Paperback

by Joshua Ozymy (Author), Melissa Jarrell Ozymy (Author)

For over four decades, the US federal government has undertaken efforts to police and prosecute environmental crimes to protect public health and the natural environment. Yet, we still know very little about how US federal agencies have monitored and sanctioned water pollution violations and if these actions actually deter crime. In Rivers on Fire and Corporate Liars, Joshua Ozymy and Melissa Jarrell Ozymy examined over one thousand federal water pollution investigations and prosecutions undertaken by the US EPA and Department of Justice from 1983 to 2023 to answer these questions. Their analysis provides the most comprehensive empirical examination to date of how the criminal enforcement of water pollution has evolved over time, patterns in prosecutions, and how criminals were sanctioned.

Author Biography

JOSHUA OZYMY is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nevada, Reno. His books include The U.S. Administrative State and the Protection of Environmental Crime Victims and Toxic Intent: Environmental Harm, Corporate Crime, and the Criminal Enforcement of Federal Environmental Laws in the United States, both coauthored with Melissa Jarrell Ozymy.

MELISSA JARRELL OZYMY is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her books include The U.S. Administrative State and the Protection of Environmental Crime Victims and Toxic Intent: Environmental Harm, Corporate Crime, and the Criminal Enforcement of Federal Environmental Laws in the United States, both coauthored with Joshua Ozymy. She is also a coeditor of Palgrave Macmillan's Palgrave Studies in Green Criminology series.