Att samla ägg från vilda fåglar – en kriminologisk orsaksanalys

Abstract

Aims and objectives: Collecting eggs from wild birds used to be one of the most popular forms of natural history collecting in nineteenth century Europe, including Sweden, until its criminalization in the 1950s. Egg collecting could be considered an outdated activity of the past, but recent court cases show that birds’ eggs are still subject to the illegal poaching and trading of wildlife that occurs in Sweden today. Previous research is sparse and primarily accounts for the motivations of egg collectors without considering environmental factors nor previous literature on collecting behaviors in general. This thesis aims to contribute to existing work by explaining why the illegal activity of egg collecting occurs by exploring its situational dynamics. This is achieved by describing the process of accumulating and owning eggs, identifying motives and characteristics driving individual egg collectors to offend, and identifying norms and external controls in environments where egg collecting occurs. Method and data: The study is conducted qualitatively by combining document analysis and interviews. The document sample consists of three contemporary cases and three historical cases of egg collecting. The sample is based on availability as few cases of egg collecting are discovered and prosecuted. The document analysis was supplemented by interviewing four individuals who possess specialized knowledge about egg collecting from professional experience and/or other experience. Results: The results indicate that egg collectors are motivated by material rewards (accumulating and owning symbolically valuable eggs), emotional rewards (positive emotions associated with poaching) and social rewards (companionship and cooperation within the informal group of egg collectors). Egg collectors were understood as offenders with a crimespecific propensity to find the illegal poaching and trading of eggs as viable actions in response to these motivations. The criminal activities are sometimes justified by minimizing or denying their harmful effects or by claiming a scientific purpose. It was also suggested that some egg collectors may experience an inhibited ability to act lawfully due to a psychologically compulsive need to continue accumulating eggs. Offences are generally not condemned nor ceased by informal nor formal control systems in environments where eggs are poached, processed, possessed and traded. The motivated and crime-prone egg collector is thus able to perceive the illegal collecting of eggs as both an acceptable and entirely possible action alternative in environments presenting opportunities to offend.