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Introduction to Part II: Rural Crime Studies
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 59-60
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Summary
This section considers an array of specific types of crime; all entries are focused on studies of particular crime types which are rural-specific.
One of the challenges in assembling this section of the encyclopedia, though, was determining what to include and what to exclude. Stock theft is a quintessential rural crime, so of course was included without hesitation. There are many other topics in criminology which equally apply to rural and urban settings, though – one example is cybercrime – but yet there exist specific nuances about this when considering rural contextualization.
We have been quite conscious in limiting the entries to those things with a critical mass of rural work. Some entries in this section draw upon an established and burgeoning suite of theoretical and empirical scholarship; others are topics upon which scant rural-specific study has hitherto been attempted.
This section has been divided into two. The first canvasses 17 different topics for which ‘people and crime’ is the predominant focus. That is, the offending and victimization for which rural people are either perpetrators or victims of offending behaviours. The second attends to 13 topics for which property, animals, the environment and other targets are the primary focus.
The entries contained within this section is not exhaustive. There remains scope for other topics to be studied, and the editors of the encyclopedia hope that these entries will prompt scholars and practitioners – emerging and established, and regardless of geographic location – to engage in original research, data collection and publication to expand further collective understandings of crime in rural settings.
74 - Rural Enclaves
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 294-297
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Summary
The definition of an enclave is multi-dimensional and can consider a mix of geographic, cultural, economic, ethnic, legal, religious and sociological features. Nonetheless, the two fundamental characteristics of enclaves are that they occupy a territory or space and, within these, the inhabitants (or, as least the vast share of them) are distinctive in some way.
Perhaps the best way to illustrate an enclave is through an example of two historically related religious groups: one in the two countries of Canada and the United States and the other in Mexico. One is not a rural enclave, and the other is. In the United States, there are now over 600 Amish communities. Clearly the Amish are distinctive with their horse-and-buggy lifestyle, plain dress and use of the Pennsylvania Dutch language (a variant of German). However, they are not an enclave. Non-Amish Canadian and United States citizens are neighbours to the Amish, sharing the same space and, in all but a few places, vastly outnumber the Amish. The area where the Amish live may have a distinctive flavour, such as ‘eggs for sale, no Sunday sales’ signs and horse droppings on the road, but it is not an enclave.
To the south in the Mexican state of Chihuahua is a related group known as Old Colony Mennonites. They, too, are distinctive from the majority population in that area, which also outnumbers them. However, what qualifies them as an enclave is that they live in segregated communities known as colonies, even though they may travel to a nearby town for supplies, medical care and other services. Similarly, other religious groups related to both Amish and Old Colony Mennonites are the Hutterites of the Great Plains states of the United States and prairie provinces of middle Canada. They also live in segregated colonies, where they communally share most of the property and are sometimes referred as the oldest socialist society in human history, having adopted this lifestyle over 400 years ago.
Introduction to Part V: Geographic Status of Rural Criminological Research
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 313-313
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Summary
Despite rural criminology’s origins dating back to the 1930s, the growth of rural criminology has not been even across the globe. The ‘big four’ academic bases of rural criminological study – the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and to a slightly lesser extent Canada – have hitherto dominated the scholarship landscape in book chapter and journal article form.
This is, in part, attributable to the lure of wealthier, better-resourced institutions which happen to be located in these parts of the world. That is, scholars will relocate across borders to where jobs and opportunities exist, and then develop to an extent localized research interests. There are, of course, barriers which exist which make scholarship challenging in certain geographic places too, not just in terms of resourcing but prevailing research priorities.
As with many other disciplines, much of the rural criminological literature is provided in English alone. The higher education sector places much weight on citations and other so-called metrics, which serves to isolate scholars performing vital and cutting-edge locally specific research. Many voices on crime and criminology beyond the urban places of the ‘big four’, therefore, have largely been excluded from traditional criminology.
This section seeks to identify the geographic status of rural criminology based on the seven continents. Here we have utilized the CIA Factbook maps as the delineation between continents.
Contributors were asked to restrict observations to approximately 1500 words – no mean feat when considering the huge and diverse populations, land masses and socio-cultural differences which exist between and within continents. However, what is presented here is a snapshot of key developments and, it is hoped, will serve as a portent of further geographical specific rural criminological work in the years ahead.
81 - Asia
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 324-328
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Summary
Asia is both the largest continent geographically and the most populated with over 4.5 billion people (60 per cent of the world’s population), dominated by the economies and populations of both China and India. The average rural population of the 48 Asian countries is 38.2 per cent, although this varies enormously: from the city-state of Singapore with no rural population, to Sri Lanka with 81 per cent of residents residing in rural locations. There is, indeed, enormous diversity across the countries which constitute Asia, as well as diversity across regions within a country such as China – socially, economically, politically, religiously, culturally and geographically.
With Asia’s unique dimensions of size and diversity, it is unsurprising that there are no single texts which assess rural crime and victimization across the continent as a whole. There are, though, locational specific studies which address a variety of topics such as the spatial distribution of rural crime mapping, child labour, green crime and violence against women in rural India; juvenile crime in rural Vietnam; lethal violence in rural Cambodia; juvenile delinquency, gangs, violence against women, women trafficking, law enforcement, drugs, corruption and land use expropriation in rural China; violence against women in rural Sri Lanka; women trafficking and child abuse in rural Thailand; drugs in Golden Triangle areas; and so on.
Many of the empirical studies accessible with a Google Scholar search are rural-urban comparative works and mostly all in English, owing to a large extent to the conventions of academic publishing. Another disconnect exists between China and the outside world because of the technical inaccessibility of Google in China. A key issue, then, is the need to develop the capacity for further Asian theoretical and empirical studies specifically on rural criminological issues – across regions, across countries or offering a holistic Asian continent approach. Donnermeyer’s edited International Handbook of Rural Criminology (2016) has only three of its 42 chapters with a focus on Asia: the unevenness of this geographic representation is a regret he expresses in the introduction to the volume.
Though the discipline of rural criminology is thriving in some parts of the world, there are many criminal justice issues worthy of greater exploration in a rural Asian context.
Introduction
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 1-8
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‘Rural’, most crudely, is defined as ‘non-urban’, but this dichotomous delineation is grossly inadequate because it neglects the consideration of the nuances of geography, demography, attitudes, culture and issues of access both tangible and amorphous. These are vitally important considerations: there exists significant cultural and spatial separation between urban and rural because what is taken for granted in the city is not accessible or available outside of it.
There exists, most certainly, definitional difficulties about rural that will never go away. Should we just consider physical and demographic measures, such as population size and density, accessibility and remoteness? Such imprecision is typified by the existing definitions even within the same jurisdictions by different organizations and agencies of the same governmental units. Adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach is unwise, though, as a universal measure will not account for the non-homogenous nature of geographic location, both within and across jurisdictions.
For instance, a coastal location in Australia dominated with former city dwellers cannot be easily compared to a rapidly populated boom town in Canada reliant on imported labour, to a primarily agricultural community in Ireland with multiple generations of the same families present, to the Yanomamo and Kayapo and other tribes in the rain forest regions of South America, nor to a remote settlement in the Siberian region of Russia or in the state of Alaska in the United States. Indeed, different places have different cultural origins – as scholars such as Hayden, Weisheit et al, Donnermeyer and DeKeseredy, Ceccato, Harkness (see suggested readings) and many other scholars already have observed. Hence, the rural can also be considered a state of mind as much as a particular place found on a map. There is just no way to define all the diversity of rural localities with a single word, sentence, paragraph and, perhaps, even in a single book.
Definitional contestation is a source for healthy and constructive debates amongst rural criminologists, but it also complicates comparisons of the incidence of crime across rural localities in different regions of the world, and of comparisons with urban crime. And the rural, howsoever defined, is changing.
83 - North America
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- Book:
- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 333-337
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The development of the social sciences in Canada, the United States and Mexico and other countries in Central America has been heavily influenced by these countries’ European counterparts. This common root can be traced back to their colonial histories, but also to the constant waves of European immigrants after they gained independence, which contributed to shaping the populations in these three countries. Intellectuals and scholars were also part of these European immigration waves, especially in the context of the two world wars.
To some extent, these countries can be considered settler societies; that is, their histories are replete with the decimation and ongoing marginalization of the Indigenous and Black populations by European immigrants. This shared past informs current responses to crime, as these countries adopted the laws and justice systems of their colonizing nations. To a considerable extent the criminological research carried out in North America today also displays a distinctively Western orientation and has focused primarily on urban crime and justice.
Canada
Canada’s rural population has been decreasing for decades, but the overall rural property and violent crime rates have been increasing and are now higher than the city rates, according to a study by Perrault (2019). Despite those trends, studies of rural crime and justice have traditionally been relegated to the periphery of criminological research.
A review of the historical literature shows that issues such as access to justice for rural peoples, rural policing and delivering community correctional services outside the cities were often addressed indirectly. Grygier’s review of the criminological research of that era, for example, did not cite any exclusively rural research. Grygier’s review also found that most crimerelated studies were carried out by law professors, sociologists and social workers, although historians such as Marquis also increased understandings of the economic, political and social arrangements that shape responses to urban and rural crime.
The focus of Canadian scholars has often been on crime and the operations of justice systems, rather than developing theoretical explanations for rural crime. Hagan’s work on sentencing disparities for Indigenous peoples in the 1980s, for example, increased awareness of their over-representation in Canada’s justice system.
1 - Civic Community Theory
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- Book:
- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 13-15
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Summary
Civic community theory is one of several ecological approaches to understanding the associations of crime with various characteristics of places. It was developed by Matt Lee, an American rural sociologist, and his colleagues, who published extensively on the results of various statistical tests using the theory’s framework in both criminological and other social science journals, mostly during the first decade of the twenty-first century.
It is similar to social disorganization theory, yet very distinctive from it. First, its approach begins from a non-criminological literature about the core elements of a civil society that define civility based on the strength of community groups and a culture whereby local citizens are involved in activities at the places where they live. Indicators for a strong local ecology includes such social characteristics as home ownership, locally-owned businesses and voter turnout, amongst others.
A second distinctive characteristic of civic community theory is that its origins are not based on an urban criminology, but on a body of previous scholarship in rural sociology. Rural sociologists have long examined how social change impacts the socio-cultural make-up of smaller places. Subsequently, some of these rural scholars turned their attention to examining how change influences the emergence of various social problems, such as crime. It is from this heritage of research and theory that civic community theory emerged.
It is similar to social disorganization and most other criminological theories of place because it views crime as a product of social change, assuming that change disrupts established forms of social control within a community. As civility declines, crime increases. In this sense, it resembles the systemic version of social disorganization theory which seeks to explain variations in crime rates based on the structure of localized networks of residents that, in turn, are presumed to control delinquent and criminal behaviours. Historically, much of this thinking recalls Durkheim’s ideas about social change and its impact on social solidarity that produces anomic conditions. Hence, patterns of crime are reflective of changes with major shifts in norms, values and social mores.
All of the research by Lee and colleagues relies on secondary data aggregated to the level of a United States county or other geographic entities, such as towns and cities.
10 - Primary Socialization Theory
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- Book:
- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 43-45
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Primary socialization theory attempts to explain involvement in substance use and misuse, especially amongst adolescents. It is one of three theories attempting to explain criminal behaviour that has substantial rural roots. The other two are civic community theory created by Matt Lee and colleagues, and male-peer support for violence against women led by Walter DeKeseredy and associates.
Primary socialization theory was developed during the 1990s by Eugene Oetting and colleagues who worked at the Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research, Colorado State University in the United States. Their academic backgrounds were in psychology and social psychology, although their work was informed later by the sociological concept of community. The name ‘Tri-Ethnic’ derives from a focus on three important ethnic and cultural groups who live in areas outside of the cities and suburbs in the western region of the United States. These rural populations, especially in the Western United States, are Hispanic–American, Native American and White American. Even though primary socialization theory has its origins in the study of drug use amongst rural populations, it can also be applied to an urban context.
The predecessor theory to primary socialization theory developed by Oetting and associates at Colorado State University was called ‘peer cluster theory’. This theory has a basis in social learning theory whereby it attempted to model factors that either constrain or enable adolescent substance use by positing that interaction with close friends, not merely a generic form of peer culture, is the key explanatory variable. Attitudes and behaviours must be learned, and those closest to adolescents, especially peers they know well, form a reference group for what they decide to do.
Accounting first for individual-level personality characteristics such as risk-taking, it sees the learning of attitudes and the modelling of behaviours associated with either drug use or abstinence as a product of friends with whom an adolescent may associate. However, these associations are in turn affected by the strength of the bonds which adolescents possess, both within their immediate family and in the schools they attend.
17 - Cybercrime and Cybersecurity
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- Book:
- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 74-77
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Summary
It was not that long ago that cybercrime and concerns about cybersecurity would be considered as an exotic type of crime, one that only happens in the high-tech world of computers and software, far removed from the everyday lives of people and businesses around the world. Those days are now long gone.
Cybercrime may be defined as an action that is considered illegal by governmental laws and regulations related to electronic forms of communication and communication networks. It involves the use of the internet, computers and related technologies in the commission of crime. Cybersecurity is the actions taken to protect computer systems and networks from attacks that steal information and disrupt the flow of information.
One primary reason why cybercrime has shifted from an exotic crime to an everyday crime is quite simple. The information environment is now hyper-connected, dynamic and evolving – and ownership of computers increases every year. For example, the World Bank estimated in 2019 that nearly half of all households worldwide have a computer in their homes, even though the presence of computers in private residences can vary widely. In countries with advanced market economies, the rates exceed 80 per cent, whilst in less developed and poor countries rates are as low as 30 per cent.
The adoption and ownership of computers has multiplied the amount of e-commerce, which is now a large part of the economies of many societies around the world. Over 2.4 billion people, it is estimated, now make online purchases, and that number rises steadily from year to year. Further, nearly two-thirds of shopping begins online, even though the actual purchase may be in-person or by telephone. Add in the number of people who rely on computers for personal and business communication, and the ubiquity of the cyber world is revolutionary when compared with the 1990s.
Also, the widespread use of tablet devices and smart phones now makes everyday lifestyles for most of the planet’s population at least partially dependent on the maintenance of the internet. As documented by Koeze and Popper (2020), the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this dependency, from countless Zoom meetings for businesses, schools and to replace face-to-face visits with distant family and friends, to shopping for everything, from food to prescriptions and clothes.
2 - Classical Theories and Contemporary Legacies
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 16-19
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Theory in criminology is a socially constructed framework to explain why people commit crimes, what kinds of crimes they commit and why some people are more likely to be victims than others. One important point made in popular contemporary criminological theory books, such as by Lilly et al and Burke, is that theory is socially constructed because the main authors and proponents of a particular theory acquired their perspective by attending university classes in criminology or an allied scientific discipline, reading numerous books and articles, discussing their ideas with colleagues at professional meetings such as the European Society of Criminology, writing down their version of a criminological explanation, sharing it with colleagues, publishing it as a book or article and then revising it based on the suggestions and criticisms of peers. Hence, criminological theory is a living thing, not a static thing.
Criminology as a science began to develop in the nineteenth century, and matured into its present form during the twentieth century. Its development continues in the twenty-first century. The first fully articulated theories of crime were very much biased toward individualistic explanations of criminal behaviour. Early scholars associated with such names as Beccaria, Bentham and Lombroso, amongst others, sought to explain criminal behaviour and its deterrence by considering the traits that lead to illegal actions and how they could be deterred through punishment. They did consider macrolevel factors in the context of juxtaposing concepts of human free will with constraints imposed by society.
As the field of criminology advanced, these theories become increasingly less salient. In the twenty-first century, however, biosocial theories of criminal behaviour have emerged. Instead of Lombroso’s so-called bumps on the head, today’s biosocial theories seek to understand how such individual traits as hyperactivity, susceptibility to alcoholism and other addictions and a slew of other physical, mental and psychological traits are correlated with criminal behaviour. A second contemporary variant on biosocial theories focuses on traits that reduce the chances of criminal behaviour, such as a more developed empathy for others.
Succeeding various nineteenth-century criminological theories came a much greater sociological focus on crime and society in the twentieth century.
27 - Tourism, Crime and Rurality
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- Book:
- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 108-110
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The dominant images of tourism are romanticized visions of majestic mountains, azure oceans, white sand beaches, historic monuments, grand examples of architecture, exotic cultural settings and, of course, a happy, smiling tourist couple or parents with children in-hand, enthralled by the wonders before them. Nowhere in a brochure is there an image of a tourist frantically searching for his attaché case which housed his laptop, stolen whilst he waited in line to register at a hotel, or the panicked visage of a woman whose wallet is missing from a purse slung over her shoulders whilst she stood with a group of her friends about to board an excursion boat – both were the victims of well-trained and experienced thieves, individuals whose presence is as ubiquitous as the attractions themselves.
As Jones, Barclay and Mawby point out (2012), where there is tourism there will be crime. There should be nothing unusual about that observation, because all human endeavours display examples of deviance and crime. Further, as noted by many scholars interested in the criminological dimensions of tourism (see Sharpley and Stone, 2009), a great deal of tourism itself makes money off of heinous crimes, such as tours of the streets of London where Jack the Ripper stalked his victims in the late 1880s, or the house where Lizzie Borden allegedly killed her parents with an axe in the town of Fall River, Massachusetts (there is even a children’s rhyme about that case).
One distinction to be made is the difference between leisure and tourism (see Botterill and Jones, 2010). A leisure activity, such as sitting at a table in one’s backyard reading a book on a warm sunny day, or building a snow fort with one’s children in the bright whiteness of newly fallen snow, is not tourism, but is certainly leisure. Tourism requires travels away from one’s abode or usual surroundings to new places where new things can be seen and new experiences can be gained – and where new risks can be encountered.
As White points out (see Raymen and Smith, 2019, chapter 13), although crimes related to tourism can happen anywhere, a great amount of the crime–tourism relationship is within the context of a rural environment, from small, quaint, historic towns to remote, rugged regions of the world.
53 - Community Corrections
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 215-217
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Community corrections are non-custodial criminal sanctions that have been adopted by courts and other criminal justice agencies, with a basic philosophy that, rather than relying on incarceration, the preferred approach is community-based alternatives to supervise, manage, rehabilitate and educate offenders. Alternatives to imprisonment include diversionary schemes for defendants, probation or suspended sentences for convicted offenders and parole or early release for prisoners. They are relatively low-cost sanctions and measures that do not consume prison space (see Groves, 2017).
Community corrections consist of two basic types of programmes: (i) sanctions that serve as alternatives to incarceration and (ii) programmes that assist prisoners in community re-entry after prison (see Cromwell et al, 2002). Community sanctions combine the purposes of controlling and reforming the offender. These diversionary schemes attempt to redirect certain offenders from the formal criminal justice system to various services that improve their chances for rehabilitation and improve re-entry back into the community, thereby reducing recidivism.
As Klingele (2021) points out, offenders may face many challenges in the communities where they live, including adequate housing, access to healthy and affordable food, addressing chronic physical and mental health issues, the need for vocational training and employment, transportation to various human services, childcare and so on. By meeting these needs, there is a greater chance that the supervision, management and rehabilitation of offenders who are on probation or have suspended sentences will be improved and thereby reduce re-entry back into a criminal lifestyle, potentially leading to additional arrests and jail time.
Rural community corrections
From a global perspective, and compared with urban areas, rural community correction work faces more challenges. First, there is an overall shortage of corrections workers in rural communities. In urban areas, there may be three or more staff per judicial institute, whilst in rural areas there are relatively few full-time staff. Coupled with the fact that in many instances rural residents live scattered across the jurisdiction and in relatively distant locations with inconvenient transportation options, correctional work in the community is more difficult.
Second, in some jurisdictions, the quality of corrections staff can be relatively low.
3 - Crime and Place
- Edited by Alistair Harkness, University of New England, Australia, Jessica René Peterson, Southern Oregon University, Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Cassie Pedersen, Federation University Australia, Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University
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- Book:
- The Encyclopedia of Rural Crime
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- Bristol University Press
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- 20 June 2023
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- 21 November 2022, pp 20-22
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It can be argued that theories of crime and place are the most prolific amongst all genres of criminological theory. As Wilcox and others demonstrate, the variety of place-based theories in criminology span nearly its whole history and include an incredible variety of perspectives. Often associated with the Chicago School of Sociology, the theory of social disorganization was one of the earliest attempts to examine the economic, normative and social milieu of neighbourhoods and variations in levels of crime, especially juvenile delinquency.
Subsequent generations of criminological theories about place arrived when the focus shifted away from a neighbourhood-level examination to smaller sub-units, such as ‘hot spots’, the situational nature of crime, routine activities and crime, the concept of broken windows and crime, crime prevention through environmental design and crime mapping. The shift from larger units of analysis to smaller ones was also accompanied by a significant transition from a focus on places as generators of criminal behaviour to localities with relative differences in risk to victimization.
Even though they are urban-based theories, considerations of crime and place were and continue to be instrumental in the development of rural criminology. The one exception to the urban-centric origins of crime and place theories is the one known as civic community theory.
Social disorganization theory was first developed by Shaw and McKay, both academics from the Chicago School of Sociology in the first half of the twentieth century. Their focus was on explaining why certain neighbourhoods of Chicago differ so greatly in rates of delinquency, describing these areas as possessing such characteristics as high levels of poverty and population turnover. Their essential argument was that those forms of social control as expressed through a strong, locally based social order – both through various social institutions such as schools and the willingness of neighbours to watch out for each other – displayed lower rates of delinquency because they were not disorganized.
The significance of this original formulation is three-fold. First, it shifted thinking about crime away from explanations that emphasized the pathologies of individuals to a more sociologically focused explanation.
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