Wildlife Trade and Animal Victimization

Ragnhild Aslaug Sollund is Professor in the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, the University of Oslo, Norway.

'Wildlife Trade and Animal Victimization: Parallel Harms and Crimes is Ragnhild Sollund’s best book to date—unique in the way that it combines passionate pleas to end nonhuman animal suffering with methodologically rigorous findings and theoretically sophisticated analysis. If you are not enraged by the time you finish the book, you lack a pulse!'Avi Brisman, Professor, Eastern Kentucky University'Ragnhild Sollund is a pioneering investigator of wildlife trafficking, campaigner against speciesism, and a founding contributor to green criminology. Her recent work has revealed the shortcomings of domestic and international protections for endangered species. This book brings her work together in a profound, passionate and expert overview of human exploitation and victimisation of other species.'Nigel South, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of Essex'This groundbreaking book exposes the intricate power dynamics, the legal-illegal interfaces, and the multifaceted victimization behind the wildlife trade. From a non-speciesist approach, Ragnhild Sollund critically interrogates the anthropocentric dichotomy between individual and species rights and introduces steppingstones toward justice and better lives for all.'Daan van Uhm, Associate professor of Criminology, Utrecht University`Sollund succeeds in reframing wildlife trade as a serious form of victimization, one deserving of the same criminological attention afforded to interpersonal violence. Her meticulous research, compassionate analysis, and unsparing critique render this book essential reading for criminologists, environmental scholars, enforcement agencies, and anyone concerned with justice beyond the human. It is difficult to offer criticism of a work so compelling, so ethically clear, and so urgently needed. Sollund’s monograph stands as a landmark text in green criminology and a powerful argument for why the trade in wild animals, legal or illegal, must end.’Arjun R. Awasthi, The British Journal of Criminology, 2026, 00, 1–3 https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaf126`Sollund’s book offers a crucial and transformative contribution to green criminology, successfully recontextualising the wildlife trade, encompassing both illegal and legal exploitation, as a serious form of victimisation. Identifying and conceptualising these harms not only contributes to a holistic understanding of wildlife trade and animal victimisation, but may also supports the development of more effective preventive and reactive strategies. Sollund advocates for a cultural shift in which the protection of animal rights, grounded in their intrinsic value, is central to decision-making and given the highest priority.’Daan van Uhm, Crime, Media, Culture,DOI: 10.1177/17416590261451162

• Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Wildlife trade/trafficking; 3. Trends in seizure reports and case file material; 4. Reptile trafficking combined with other criminal offences; 5. Trafficking and keeping illegal animals as the sole crime; 6. The consequences of lifting the reptile ban; 7. Making a business from and laundering wildlife into legitimate enterprises; 8. CITES products from animals and trophies trafficked to Norway; 9. The development of wildlife trade enforcement in Norway; 10. Conclusion and the way forward; References