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Abstract

This article examines how extractive development in Indonesia contributes to the criminalization of environmental defenders from a green criminology perspective. The study departs from the growing trend of intimidation, criminalization, violence, and legal retaliation experienced by communities resisting environmentally destructive projects in mining, coastal reclamation, plantation expansion, and National Strategic Projects (PSN). Using a qualitative socio-legal approach, this research analyzes statutory regulations, policy instruments, court decisions, academic literature, civil society reports, and documented cases related to environmental conflicts and environmental defenders in Indonesia. Data were collected through a literature review and document analysis, then analyzed using qualitative content analysis within the frameworks of green criminology, ecological victimization, and state-corporate crime. The findings show that criminalization against environmental defenders cannot be understood merely as isolated legal incidents or technical problems in law enforcement. Rather, it reflects broader structural relations linking extractive governance, state-corporate interests, developmental agendas, and coercive legal mechanisms. Criminal law increasingly functions not only as an instrument of punishment but also as a mechanism for disciplining resistance and narrowing civic participation within environmental conflicts. The study further demonstrates that environmental defenders frequently experience layered forms of victimization, including ecological degradation, economic insecurity, intimidation, legal retaliation, and social marginalization. This article argues that environmental harm and criminalization are deeply interconnected within Indonesia’s extractive development model. The findings highlight the importance of expanding criminological discussions beyond formal legal definitions of crime by addressing ecological harm, unequal power relations, and structural violence embedded within extractive development.

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