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Deterrence Vs. Cooperation And The Evolving Theory Of Environmental Enforcement, Clifford Rechtschaffen

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This Article critically examines the assumptions underlying the reform movement, and concludes that we should ease the rush to dismantle traditional, deterrence-based civil enforcement. While some of the underlying critiques of traditional enforcement have merit, they do not demonstrate that a wholesale shift to a primarily cooperative-oriented approach will improve compliance with environmental law. In fact, a deterrence based system of enforcement contains many attributes that are equally if not more essential to achieving compliance. Rather than discarding the current enforcement approach, we should move to a system of environmental enforcement that is grounded in deterrence theory but integrates the …