Policing the Global Countryside: Toward a Research Agenda

“The rise in rural crime has come about due to two main factors. Social and economic change has seen the number of farms fall and close-knit communities collapse. Modern transport links now enable thieves to steal farm machinery and move it into mainland Europe in a matter of hours” (NFU Mutual 2017 quoted in National Police Chief's Council 2018a, 3). This quote is taken from the introduction of the ‘Rural Affairs Strategy’ of the UK’s National Police Chief’s Council. It reflects an ‘uncritical glorifying of old-fashioned rural life’ (Pahl 1965, 265) that blames crime on the loss of ‘traditional’ rural structures and a subsequent ‘disintegration’ of society1 (Carrington, Hogg and Sozzo 2015). Although geographical research on rural crime has challenged the social ecological basis of these ideas (Donnermeyer 2016, Donnermeyer and DeKeseredy 2013, Hollis and Hankhouse 2019, Ceccato 2015a, Barclay 2007, Bottoms and Wiles 2007), this rhetoric continues to influence the policing of the country with important consequences (Yarwood and Gardner 2000, Young 1993)