• E4J University Module Series: Wildlife Crime

• Module 3: Criminal Justice Responses to Wildlife Trafficking

• Introduction and learning outcomes

• Key issues

  • Criminal justice actors and agencies
  • Criminalization of wildlife trafficking
  • Challenges for law enforcement
  • Investigation measures and detection methods
  • DNA
  • Prosecution and judiciary
  • References

• Exercises

• Possible class structure

• Core reading

• Advanced reading

• Student assessment

• Additional teaching tools

 

Published in September 2019 

Regional Perspective: Eastern and Southern Africa - added in April 2020

 

 

  This module is a resource for lecturers  

 

Introduction

 

Module 3 introduces students to the tools, actors, and agencies that are part of the criminal justice response to wildlife trafficking in any one jurisdiction. The main focus of this Module is on the criminalization of the activities constituting, and associated with, wildlife trafficking, on detection methods and forensic procedures, on the work of law enforcement and customs agencies, and on the role of prosecutors and the judiciary in combating wildlife trafficking.

 

Learning outcomes

• Understand the national agencies and actors involved in the criminal justice response to wildlife and forest crime, including their mandate and powers
• Identify criminal offences pertaining to wildlife trafficking, including the elements, interpretation, and application of such offences
• Understand the methods used to detect and investigate trafficking of wildlife and forest products
• Understand the use of forensics to trace and identify animal and plant species, especially for criminal justice purposes
• Understand the role of prosecutors and the judiciary in the context of wildlife trafficking
• Identify and locate relevant international materials and critically engage with reports and scholarly literature relating to the international frameworks for combating wildlife trafficking

 

Next: Key issues

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