Green Criminological Concerns & Philosophical Beliefs

Abstract

The purpose of this research project was to test the philosophical argument that people who maintained a dualistic mindset or sustained a belief in the existence of the soul would be less concerned with environmental crime. A survey was collected from a sample of 332 individuals at the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, Texas. The survey asked individuals to select on a likert scale how concerned they were with environmental harm. Preceding these, individuals were asked to answer either yes, no, or I don’t know on questions concerning their philosophical beliefs, looking for indicators of dualistic thinking and a belief in existence of the soul. These questions were analyzed using independent-samples t-test and chi-squared test for association to see if a statistically significant difference or association existed. The findings from the analyses indicated, overall, no statistically significant difference or association existed for almost every test conducted between the dependent variable, concern for environmental crime, and the independent variable, questions indicating dualistic thinking or a maintained belief in the existence of the soul. Additional independent-samples t-test were performed, looking to see if a statistically significant difference existed for the level of concern for environmental crime particular individuals had in the following categories: gender, college major, religion, and parents’ highest level of education. An increased level of concern for environmental crime was observed in females, students majoring in biology, and individual’s whose parents earned a college degree. No statistically significant difference existed for the level of concern for environmental crime between Christians and non-religious individuals.