Social factors shape federal environmental crime prosecution patterns in the USA

Enforcement of environmental laws and regulations is critical to achieving a cleaner environment and alleviating inequitable distributions of environmental harms. Here we examine the geographic patterning of US federal environmental crime prosecutions from 2011 to 2020. Results show that counties with higher levels of socioeconomic status have more environmental criminal prosecutions, on average, while environmental conditions such as air and water quality have no effect on environmental crime prosecution patterns. This study analyses the geographic patterns of US federal environmental crime prosecutions over 2011–2020, showing that, on average, they tend to occur more in counties with higher socioeconomic status than in the most environmentally degraded areas of the USA.