Rural Criminology

Walter S. DeKeseredy is Professor of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He has published 18 books and over 140 scientific journal articles and book chapters on violence against women and other social problems. In 2008, the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma gave him the Linda Saltzman Memorial Intimate Partner Violence Researcher Award. In 1995, he received the Critical Criminologist of the Year Award from the ASC’s Division on Critical Criminology (DCC) and in 2008 the DCC gave him the Lifetime Achievement Award.Joseph  F. Donnermeyer is Professor at Ohio State University and Director and International Research Coordinator of the Centre for Rural Crime. Dr. Donnermeyer has conducted research on levels of victimization and attitudes toward crime among rural people, the extent and pattern of offending by rural populations, especially youth, and crime against agricultural operations. He is the author (co-author) of over 100 peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books on issues related to rural crime and rural societies.

"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.

• 1. Rural crime: myths and realities, 2. Thinking critically about rural crime, 3. Creating the critical in Rural Criminology, 4. Looking forward and glancing back: research, policy and practice.