Criminal couture: consumer demand for luxury fashion sourced from the illegal wildlife trade

Abstract

This thesis investigates consumer demand for luxury fashion products made from exotic animal skins, a major driver of the illegal wildlife trade. Adopting a green criminological perspective, it examines how morally contentious consumption is sustained despite environmental and ethical concerns. The study uses an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, beginning with seizure data from UK Border Force to contextualise the scale of the problem, followed by a survey examining associations between narcissism, empathy, and positive attitudes toward exotic skins. Semi-structured interviews further explore consumer justifications, drawing on neutralisation theory and social comparison frameworks. The findings suggest that overt narcissism is positively associated with favourable attitudes toward exotic skin products, while empathy does not significantly deter such consumption. Participants often employed neutralisation techniques such as denial of responsibility and appeals to higher loyalties to rationalise their behaviour. The thesis challenges the assumption that increasing consumer empathy alone will reduce demand and instead recommends structural interventions, including policy reform, cultural messaging, and regulatory reforms. Ultimately, this research contributes to understanding the psychological, social, and criminological dimensions of nefarious luxury consumption and offers recommendations for targeted demand reduction strategies.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Arjun Awasthi: orcid.org/0000-0002-6285-3565

ORCID for Michelle Newberry: orcid.org/0000-0003-0085-3751

ORCID for Jasmin Godbold: orcid.org/0000-0001-5558-8188

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