Beyond Wildlife Crime: Realist Social Relations Crime Scripts of the Illegal Taking of Deer Orlando Goodall This thesis is submitted in candidature for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 201 9 Cardiff School of Social Sciences Cardiff Universit y iv Dedication To my mother, Katherine, who provided me with the multiple conditions of existence to pursue my work. And to my father, Peter, the rural worker. v vi Acknowledgements This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The research was supervised by Dr Adam Edwards and Professor Mike Levi, at Cardiff University. I am very grateful to the experts who kindly gave me their time, thoughts and experiences. Without their contributions this thesis would not exist. Thank you to Simon Avery, Melissa Mendez, Raj eev Gundur, Ashley Jones, Ben Bailey , Andrew Seaton, Mark Berry, Xris Middleton, Radu Cinpoes, Mike Levi, and the realist of Realists; Adam Edwards. Special heartfelt thanks to Cheryl Claxton. vii viii Abstract This thesis explains the organisational characteristics of the illegal taking of deer and the illicit processing of venison in the rural West Country. The thesis conceptualises these offences as mundane fauna crimes that are internally related to grey game enterprise. It argues that these original terms supersede the categories of the wildlife crime of poa ching and offer an enhanced analytical precision to the problem. The thesis is a revelatory case study, with no existing literature on the case in the British context. Critical realism is used to explain the interactions of a diversity of necessary relatio ns and the contingent conditions which enable or constrain those diverse determinations. Determinations which unify to generate the tendency of grey game enterprise crimes. The abstract entities of agency and structure are brought into the concrete using t he realist social relations crime script. This innovative framework obviates neither the proximal settings, nor the distal contexts of offending and therefore advances upon rational choice models of crime script. Models which this thesis argues are static, mono -causal and deterministic. The thesis contributes to green, rural and food criminology, while offering the novel paradigm of mundane fauna crime for future research. The thesis is important due to the severe public health implications should contamina ted meats enter food supply chains and due to the detriment that illegal taking is doing to local gene pools of once thriving deer in the secluded South West. The thesis offers multiple sites for practitioner intervention into the crime script, including political economic and socio -cultural, as well as the situational. It also offers an innovative, accurate and robust conceptual toolkit for future research in the emergent field of mundane fauna and grey game enterprise crime. ix x List of Figures 1. Interview Table ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 72 2. Rural Workers illegal taking script ................................ ................................ ..... 115 3. Enterprise Owners illegal taking script ................................ ............................. 116 4. Rural Workers illicit processing script ................................ .............................. 156 5. Enterprise Owners illicit processing script ................................ ...................... 165 6. Greg Game Enterprise micro script ................................ ................................ ..... 190 7. Intervention mechanisms: responses to crimes ................................ ............ 240 xi xii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations AGHE Approved Game Handling Establishment DEFRA Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs EH Environmental Health FSA Food Standards Agency NFU National Farmers Union TS Trading Standards WCO Wildlife Crime (police) Officer xiii xiv Table of Contents Declaration ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... i Declaration ................................ ................................ ................................ .. iii Dedication ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... v Acknowledgements ................................ ................................ .................. vii Abstract ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... ix List of Figures ................................ ................................ .............................. xi List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ................................ ................. xiii Table of Contents ................................ ................................ ...................... xv Chapter One ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 1 Introduction: Life on the Frontier ................................ ......................... 1 1.1 The frontiers of criminology: Beyond wildlife crime ................................ ..... 1 1.2 Understanding and explaining the secluded South West ............................. 5 1.3 Scope o f the study: Frontier boundaries ................................ ............................ 9 1.4 Thesis structure and findings ................................ ................................ ............... 13 Chapter Two ................................ ................................ ............................... 19 Literature Review: Backdrop to the Frontier ................................ .19 2.1 Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 19 2.2 Green Criminology ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 20 2.3 Crimes against charismatic mega fauna ................................ ............................ 22 2.4 Chaotic conceptions of wildlife crime, extensive strategies and radical interpretivists ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................... 25 2.5 Countering mega fauna bias: Existing mundane fauna crime literature 26 2.6 Literature gaps: Empirical and analytical original contributions ........... 28 2.7 Adaptation literature ................................ ................................ ................................ 30 2.8 Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 35 xv Chapter Three ................................ ................................ ............................ 38 Methodology ................................ ................................ .............................. 38 3.1 Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 38 3.2 Ontology and epistemology ................................ ................................ .................. 40 3.3 Research strategy ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 41 3.3a Intensive strategy ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 41 3.3b Adaptive theory ................................ ................................ ................................ 43 3.3c Realist social relations script framework ................................ .................... 47 3.4 Case study research design ................................ ................................ ................... 50 3.5 Approach to data collection: Ethnographers tool kit ................................ ... 53 3.6 Data collection and sampling procedures ................................ ....................... 56 3.6a Interviews ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 61 3.6.b Content analysis: Official operational intelligence and local media 66 3.6.c Participant observa tion ................................ ................................ .................. 69 3.7 Ethical considerations and researcher safety ................................ ................ 70 3.8 Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 72 Interview Table ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................... 73 Chapter Four ................................ ................................ .............................. 76 Substantial Relations of Connection: Beyond the ‘Wildlife Crime’ of ‘Poaching’ ................................ ................................ ................. 76 4.1 Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 76 4.2 Routine activity substantial relation as gener ative structure .................. 77 4.3 Routine activity realist social relations synthesis ................................ ........ 80 4.4 Countryside careers and meat enterprise owners: ‘grey game enterprise’ offenders ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 82 4.5 The distinction between ‘proper poaching’ and the ‘illegal taking