The Ecological Consequences of Marine Wildlife Crime

The current research will use quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore the ecological consequences of marine wildlife crime. It aims to characterise the ecological traits of marine wildlife, which is essential in order to uncover impacts upon related species and to the ecosystem. Additionally, innovative spatial profiling techniques which incorporate components of the predictive modelling paradigm, spatiotemporal analysis and geographic profiling will be applied to marine wildlife crime data which will allow for the establishment of human activity patterns and predictions of future risk areas for target, these findings will be significant for enforcement strategies. Finally, the research aims to develop a psychological/criminological profile of convicted wildlife perpetrators and explore their motivations. Specifically, criminal thinking styles will be examined in order to gain further understanding of how such behaviour is facilitated, as this has important implications for prevention, intervention and treatment strategies. Despite research recently beginning to incorporate both conservation biology and criminal science perspectives, marine wildlife crime remains largely under-researched (Crow, Shelley & Stretesky, 2013), additionally, to date, no study has explored its relation to criminal thinking. Thus, there is a clear gap in the literature for the current research.