Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1992

First Page

417

Volume

16

Source Publication Abbreviation

Am. J. Tr. Advoc.

Abstract

After detailing the recent increase in environmental prosecutions, this article discusses the criminal provisions of the major federal environmental acts and discusses recent legislative efforts to strengthen those provisions even further. Those efforts include the addition of "knowing endangerment" violations, the adoption of sentencing guidelines for environmental crimes and corporate offenders, the passage of the Criminal Fine Improvements Act and the Pollution Prosecution Act, and the, as yet, unsuccessful attempts to pass the Environmental Crimes Act. Finally, this article examines the recent trend that the regulated community finds the most troubling: prosecutors' largely successful efforts to extend the "responsible corporate officer" doctrine, which arose under strict liability misdemeanor statutes, to felony environmental statutes requiring a violator in most instances to act knowingly.

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