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The Extinction-Resurrection Paradox: Connecting Species Extinction and Resurrection to Criminology

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: We are living in an era of extinction the likes of which we have never seen before. There is no doubt that with the profound impacts on ecosystems, extinction remains a persistent issue. Questions of biodiversity have drawn significant attention in environmental ethics, yet there has been scant attention paid to it within criminology. Importantly, the main question we pose is as follows: as resurrection becomes increasingly possible, does it incentivize extinction? Drawing upon the environmental ethics and criminological literatures, we explore the ongoing challenges of extinction and resurrection, specifically how to both define and operationalize the terms and their complexities. Following on, we bridge extinction studies with criminology to produce critical insights into varied concerns related to the risk and harm produced by and through extinction and resurrection. We then bring together these challenges with our discussion of the extinction-resurrection paradox, a term we coin to refer to the potentially contradictory efforts to reconcile biodiversity conservation with the potentially risky and harmful considerations that resurrection (and advances towards a resurrection ‘industry’) poses. We believe the extinction-resurrection paradox is important to describe the current realities of the shifting relationship between humans, nonhumans, and nature. We contend our discussion of the paradox provides a useful, conceptual entry point for the analysis of species extinction and resurrection, and we conclude by arguing that the case for considering extinction and resurrection remain timely and warranted matters of criminological concern.
DOI: 10.54555/ccjls.14726.172017
Language: English
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7215086907
FWCI:
Cites: 60
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Related to: 10