Environment Prosecutions for February 2018

Number Latest Month 19
Number Previous Month 22
Percent Change from 1 year ago -14.9
Percent Change from 5 years ago -42.6
Table 1. Criminal Environment Prosecutions

The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during February 2018 the government reported 19 new environment prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down from 22 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 2018 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-14.9%). 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 42.6 percent from levels reported in 2013.

Bar and line plot of FYMON

Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Environment Prosecutions

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 #  
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 1 1 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 1 2 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 1 3 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 1 4 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 2 1 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 2 2 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 2 3 Details
2018 - Cal, C (Los Angeles) Case: 3 1 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 4 1 Details
2018 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 5 1 Details
2018 - Maine (Portland) Case: 6 1 Details
2018 - Mo, W (Kansas City) Case: 7 1 Details
2018 - Miss, N (Oxford) Case: 8 1 Details
2018 - N Car, W (Asheville) Case: 9 1 Details
2018 - N Car, W (Asheville) Case: 10 1 Details
2018 - N Car, W (Asheville) Case: 11 1 Details
2018 - N. Y., W (Buffalo) Case: 12 1 Details
2018 - Okla, W (Oklahoma City) Case: 13 1 Details
2018 - Oregon (Portland) Case: 14 1 Details
Table 2. Number of Defendants per Case

Report Generated: March 26, 2018
TRAC Copyright
Copyright 2018, TRAC Reports, Inc.

TRAC RSS Feed for this page Email Feed for this page Email this page