Citation

Donnermeyer JF. Int. J. Rural Criminol. 2007; 1: 2-20.

Affiliation

Rural Sociology Program The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Ohio State University (US) and the Institute for Rural Futures, University of New England (Australia))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Rural crime has long been a neglected topic in criminology. Of greater significance, however, is the stereotypical picture of rural communities and rural crime in mainstream criminology. This article is a revised and expanded version of a keynote address given at the November, 2006 International Conference on Rural Crime, sponsored by the Centre for Rural Crime, University of New England, New South Wales. It describes the roots of rural crime’s neglect, and cites evidence from three advanced capitalist countries to illustrate the importance of studying rural crime and discarding poorly conceived notions that rural areas are crime free. The article suggests a framework for a more critical approach to the study of rural crime that incorporates both macro and micro level analyses. It recommends any approach to the study of rural crime begin by throwing out the idea that social disorganisation explains crime. Rather, crime is a function of social organisation. Exploration of this theme through consideration of previous research on agricultural crime in Australia and woman abuse in the rural US is discussed.