Rural crime is a fast growing area of interest among scholars in criminology. From studies of agricultural crime in Australia, to violence against women in Appalachia America, to poaching in Uganda, to land theft in Brazil -- the criminology community has come to recognize that crime manifests itself in rural localities in ways that both conform to and challenge conventional theory and research. For the first time, Rural Criminology brings together contemporary research and conceptual considerations to synthesize rural crime studies from a critical perspective.
This book dispels four rural crime myths, challenging conventional criminological theories about crime in general. It also examines both the historical development of rural crime scholarship, recent research and conceptual developments. The third chapter recreates the critical in the rural criminology literature through discussions of three important topics: community characteristics and rural crime, drug use, production and trafficking in the rural context, and agricultural crime.
Never before has rural crime been examined comprehensively, using any kind of theoretical approach, whether critical or otherwise. Rural Criminology does both, pulling together in one short volume the diverse array of empirical research under the theoretical umbrella of a critical perspective. This book will be of interest to those studying or researching in the fields of rural crime, critical criminology and sociology.
Industry Reviews
"Donnermeyer and DeKeseredy make a convincing case that critical criminology offers a theoretical frame that links macro-level issues to micro-level behaviors, and provide an important synthesis of conceptual and empirical studies of rural crime. The authors offer a counterpoint to traditional approaches to criminology but also construct an excellent argument for including ecological and structural factors to help understand crime in rural settings. Rural sociologists and criminologists will find this volume both relevant and challenging. Highly recommended."
- A. A. Hickey, Western Carolina University, Choice Magazine
"Rural Criminology makes a refreshing and unique contribution to our understanding of rural crime, and of crime in general. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on rural crime, using a critical perspective to frame that overview, and in the process challenge some deeply held myths about rural crime."
- Dr. Ralph Weisheit is a Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at Illinois State University."It's time for criminology to recognise the importance of the rural. Deconstructing the mythology about rural places and emphasising the diversity of crime and perpetrators affecting them, Donnermeyer and DeKeseredy have produced a long-overdue and critical rural criminology. This is a richly rewarding book covering numerous topics from crime prevention to indigenous justice, and from rural policing to the impacts of the crimes of the powerful. An immediate 'classic' contribution to contemporary criminology."
- Nigel South, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex, UK"This book explodes the many myths that abound about rural crime and violence; illustrates how to think critically about rural crime and localised systems of social control; and advances novel ways of re-conceptualising policy and practice in divergent (not homogenous) rural contexts.
Rural Criminology challenges criminological and sociological assumptions that have been ingrained in these disciplines for more than a century. It is a welcome and much overdue contribution, which extends criminology beyond its historically narrow focus on crime in cities. Rural Criminology is essential reading for a wide range of students, policy analysts and scholars across criminology, sociology, cultural studies, gender studies, and social policy more generally."
- Professor Kerry Carrington is Head of the School of Justice at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.
