Criminal Ignorance, Environmental Harms and Processes of Denial

Ignorance and denial of the intentions and outcomes of transgressive activities are central to understanding how individuals and organisations bend, break, create and manipulate moral and legal rules. This chapter describes how these concepts have been used to understand crimes ranging from minor youthful delinquencies to major genocides and widespread environmental devastation. We begin by describing how ‘techniques of neutralisation’ are said to operate to release people from moral binds and enable transgression. We then turn to the concept of ‘pluralistic ignorance’ showing how it facilitates the commission of crimes and illustrating its pivotal role in patterning public reaction to crime and injury. Next, we examine how large and powerful organisations, in particular modern states, also manufacture ignorance and use neutralisation techniques in order to break and manipulate moral and legal rules. We then expand these perspectives to examine how states and corporations operate in conjunction to fog and deny the crimes and harms engendered by environmental destruction so that they can suppress social reaction and continue business as usual.