Ep. 73 We’re Wild’n Out! Wildlife Crime with William Moreto

The Criminology Academy

Elephants, Tigers, and Penguins! We love them and care about them. Therefore, this week we took a dive into the world of illegal trafficking that impacts both flora (plants) and fauna (animals) by speaking with William Moreto, a professor criminal justice at the University of Central Florida. We ask him all sorts of questions related broadly to wildlife crime. We've all heard of money laundering, but what about fish laundering? Then we discuss two papers co-authored by Will on the topics of (1) the convergence between wildlife trafficking and organized crime and (2) rangers' perspectives of policing protected areas. Illegal wildlife trafficking (for example, ivory, penguin scales, caviar, and cacti) is either the third or fifth largest black market in the world (depending on the metric being used). As such, wildlife crime is a serious concern that we should all learn more about!

William Moreto has been published in Justice Quarterly, The British Journal of Criminology, Conservation Criminology, and Deviant Behavior, among other journals. You can find him on "the twitter" @MoreToPhD.