Las dificultades encontradas por los funcionarios encargados de aplicar las leyes medioambientales

Abstract

Environmental crimes are breaking of environment protection laws that involve behaviors that not everybody see as wrong (Mårald, 2001), although they can be punished by the criminal system or public administrations (Martín y Hernández, 2010). Public officers in charge for the enforcement of these laws have to cope with difficulties that are specific of their task. Previous research show that these professionals do not understand why environmental transgressions are illegal because no direct harm is caused and consequences are not important (Du Rées, 2001); they feel that they are losing their time instead of persecute “real” crimes (Situ, 1998). This study is aimed to analyze the difficulties that these professionals find when they have to accomplish their tasks in our close setting, taking into account the public administration they belong to. Participants were 128 public officers working in four public administrations in charge for the enforcement of environmental laws in a territory of high environmental protection. They answered a questionnaire on the human and material resources available for them, the training they have received, their work difficulties, the quality and satisfaction with their work unit, their self-regulation level and their perception of self-efficacy and group efficacy. Data show that their main difficulties are of organizational type, related to available resources and personnel. The results are discussed in terms of differences among administrations and in relation to previous research with officers who develop a similar work in other countries.