The results of this study support recent findings that there is an association between lead exposure and violent behavior.

In this study we investigate the spatial relationship between Superfund sites and the racial, ethnic, and economic characteristics of the areas surrounding those sites in the state of Florida. Unlike many previous environmental justice studies, we examine census tracts rather than larger aggregates such as counties or zip codes. We also look at the problem of environmental injustice longitudinally by analyzing Census data from 1970, I980, and 1990. Such an analysis not only allows us to detect potential environmental inequality, but also to postulate on the nature and origins of this injustice. Overall, our findings indicate that Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live near Superfund hazardous waste sites, but income and poverty indicators do not predict the location of sites. The spatial association between race, ethnicity, and Superfund sites is increasing over time, leading us to conclude that the likely cause of much of the recent environmental injustice uncovered in our results stems from indirect, rather than direct, forms of discrimination.Environmental justice (EJ) researchers have focused much of their research on the spatial relationship between race, ethnicity, economics and hazardous waste facilities.(1) However, the study of EJ encompasses more than the analysis of the placement of active waste facilities in minority and poor areas (Bullard 1996). It is also concerned with the social and economic processes that shape racial, ethnic, and economic demographic patterns around existing hazardous waste sites. For this reason, we have chosen to examine the issue of environmental justice by looking at the spatial distribution of Superfund sites. Such an endeavor contributes to the body of EJ research in three ways. First, our analysis helps shed some light on the recent debate concerning the existence of environmental injustice. This debate is most often framed in terms of the presence or absence of a statistical association between race, ethnicity, income, and hazardous waste. For instance, several studies provide evidence that demonstrates that nonWhites and the poor are more likely to live near hazardous waste than are Whites and the more affluent (e.g.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Self‐Policing Policy (more commonly referred to as the Audit Policy) waives or reduces penalties when regulated entities voluntarily discover, disclose, and correct environmental violations. This study draws upon a rational choice model of corporate crime to determine if traditional regulatory efforts such as inspections and enforcement actions are associated with the odds of disclosing an environmental violation under the Audit Policy. A case control design is used to compare companies that self‐police to companies that do not self‐police. The event group consists of all 551 companies that disclosed at least one environmental violation under the Audit Policy between October 1, 1998 and September 30, 2000. The control group consists of a simple random sample of 551 companies that did not use the Audit Policy but were discovered to have violated at least one environmental law during the same time period as the event group. There is no evidence that inspections and enforcement increase Audit Policy use. However, the results do suggest, first, that the Audit Policy is more likely to be used by large companies than by small companies and, second, that it is likely to be used for reporting violations as opposed to more serious emissions or permit violations. In terms of public policy these findings suggest that regulatory agencies such as the EPA can do relatively little to increase the self‐policing of environmental violations.

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This study investigates the association between air-lead levels and crime rates across 2,772 U.S. counties. Data for the analysis come from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Census, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Results suggest that air-lead levels have a direct effect on property and violent crime rates even after adjusting for general levels of air pollution and several structural covariates of crime. We also find that resource deprivation interacts with air-lead levels. The association between air-lead levels and crime rates-property and violent-is strongest in counties that have high levels of resource deprivation and weakest in counties that have low levels of deprivation. This interaction is consistent with arguments and evidence in the health care literature that populations most at risk of lead poisoning are least likely to get the resources required to prevent, screen, and treat the illness.

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