Toward science-based conviction criteria to deter wildlife crime

Abstract

Amid the ongoing global biodiversity crisis , a key policy mechanism for species conservation is to establish and enforce scientifically grounded rules to define whether harmful activities—such as poaching, trade, and habitat destruction—constitute criminal behavior and should be convicted . China in recent years has made multiple amendments to its conviction criteria for crime on terrestrial vertebrates, including changing the basis of the criteria from the numbers of animal individuals involved in a given offense to their monetary values . As we demonstrate with a new analysis on all of China’s 522 protected bird and terrestrial mammal species, for the vast majority of species assessed, these amendments have meant that substantially greater numbers of individuals are now required for a given offense to be deemed convictable, and overwhelmingly at reduced penalty severities. The resultant risk of weakened crime deterrence has been evidenced by judicial outcomes and observations of conservation practitioners.

摘要：

在全球生物多样性持续面临危机的背景下，一个关键的物种保护政策机制是建立并执行基于科学依据的规则，用以界定有害活动（如偷猎、贸易和栖息地破坏）是否构成犯罪行为并应被定罪。中国近年来多次修订了其针对陆生脊椎动物犯罪的定罪标准，包括将判定标准的基础从涉案动物个体数量改为其经济价值。正如我们通过对中国全部522种受保护鸟类和陆生哺乳动物进行的一项新分析所表明的那样，对于绝大多数被评估的物种而言，这些修订意味着，现在一个特定违法行为若要被判定为可定罪，需要涉及显著更多的个体数量，并且绝大多数情况下处罚力度有所减轻。由此产生的犯罪威慑力被削弱的风险，已通过司法审判结果和保护实践者的观察得到证实。

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