Environment Prosecutions for March 2017
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during March 2017 the government reported 34 new environment prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down from 44 the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged with environment-related offenses are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (see Table 2).
When monthly 2017 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-35.1%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 63.5 percent from levels reported in 2012.
The substantial dip in these cases is partly related to increases in the matters filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. If magistrate cases are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall decrease in environment prosecutions is 39.1 percent instead of 63.5 percent. The evidence suggests that part of the difference may be the result of improvements in the recording of the magistrate cases by the Justice Department.
The decrease from the levels five years ago in environment prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 2. The vertical bars in Figure 2 represent the number of environment prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Number of Defendants in Environment Cases
Table 2 lists all separate cases with the number of defendants.
Case Defendant # 2017 - Ala, S (Mobile) Case: 1 1 Details 2017 - Ala, S (Mobile) Case: 1 2 Details 2017 - Ala, S (Mobile) Case: 1 3 Details 2017 - Ala, S (Mobile) Case: 1 4 Details 2017 - Wisc, E (Milwaukee) Case: 2 1 Details 2017 - Wisc, E (Milwaukee) Case: 2 2 Details 2017 - Wisc, E (Milwaukee) Case: 2 3 Details 2017 - Wisc, E (Milwaukee) Case: 2 4 Details 2017 - S Dakota (Sioux Falls) Case: 3 1 Details 2017 - S Dakota (Sioux Falls) Case: 3 2 Details 2017 - Ark, E (Little Rock) Case: 4 1 Details 2017 - Cal, C (Los Angeles) Case: 5 1 Details 2017 - Cal, S (San Diego) Case: 6 1 Details 2017 - Fla, S (Miami) Case: 7 1 Details 2017 - Kansas (Topeka) Case: 8 1 Details 2017 - Ken, W (Louisville) Case: 9 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 10 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 11 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 12 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 13 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 14 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 15 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 16 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 17 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 18 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 19 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 20 1 Details 2017 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 21 1 Details 2017 - Miss, N (Oxford) Case: 22 1 Details 2017 - N. J. (Newark) Case: 23 1 Details 2017 - Ohio, S (Cincinnati) Case: 24 1 Details 2017 - Texas, S (Houston) Case: 25 1 Details 2017 - Texas, S (Houston) Case: 26 1 Details 2017 - Texas, S (Houston) Case: 27 1 Details Table 2. Number of Defendants per Case
Report Generated: May 18, 2017
