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CRIME IN RURAL COMMUNITIES 307

many of the same themes found within crim- more organized) (Ingram, 1993; Laub, 1983).
inology proper. In other words, at this point, Although we argue that these characteriza-
researchers with rural interests began to talk tions get dangerously close to a misinterpre-
to one another. tation of Tönnies’ original dichotomy, they
One theme was agricultural crime, sum- nonetheless helped contribute to the advance
maries of which can be found in Barclay and of rural crime studies.
Donnermeyer (2002) and Donnermeyer and The third theme concerns the victimiza-
Barclay (2005). Most of this research has tion experiences and attitudes of rural people
examined the relationship between physical toward crime and criminal justice. These
and layout features of agricultural operations studies have ranged from fear of crime
with the probable occurrence of various among ranchers and farmers (Saltiel et al.,
types of theft, vandalism, trespassing and 1992) to perceptions of incivilities (public
other crime. These studies either directly or drunkenness, litter, graffiti and other forms
unknowingly utilized what is known today as of so-called ‘broken windows’) in rural
situational crime prevention theory, that is, the Michigan (Reisig and Cancino, 2004).
theory which argues for a relationship between Recent studies of note include the Bouley
features of the immediate physical and social and Wells (2001) study of perceptions among
environments that either facilitate or constrain residents of a southern rural county, Ball’s
crime (Clarke, 1992; Tilley and Laycock, (2001) examination of opinions about crime
1999). In turn, the roots of situational crime and disorder in rural Maine, and Bachman’s
prevention go back to Newman’s (1972) pio- (1992) in-depth comparison of victimization
neering work on ‘defensible space’. In other rates from the USA Department of Justice’s
words, agricultural crime researchers adopted National Crime Survey.
a place-based criminology theory without the The next theme focuses more on criminal
Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft baggage. justice issues, such as studies of rural
A focus on the relationship of crime to police and courts (Brock et al., 2001; Decker,
rural community economic and social struc- 1979; Ellsworth and Weisheit, 1997; Feld,
ture and rural community change developed 1991; Golden, 1981; Kraska and Cubellis, 1997;
as a second strand of research. Scholars in Maguire et al., 1991; Marenin and Copus,
this area used classical sociology themes 1991; Myers and Talarico, 1986; Payne et al.,
derived from Durkheim, Weber and a variety 2005; Weisheit et al., 2006). Many of these
of twentieth century theorists who continue studies explicitly compare policing styles,
to inform the work of scholars of crime outcome/recidivism of probationers and
today, including proponents of social disor- court procedures and practices as exhibited
ganization theory (Barnett and Mencken, in rural and urban localities. The greatest dif-
2002; Freudenburg and Jones, 1991; Jobes, ferences are found in policing styles and are
1999a; Kowalski and Duffield, 1990; Lee related to the discretionary behaviour of
et al., 2003; Osgood and Chambers, 2000; police in relation to local community expec-
Petee and Kowalski, 1993; Rephann, 1999; tations, values and expressions of social class
Spano and Nagy, 2005; Wells and Weisheit, differentials (Weisheit et al., 2006). Not only
2004). One variation on this theme has a long in all the other major themes, but especially
tradition in mainstream criminology which with regard to criminal justice issues, the
touches upon issues of rural crime, and comprehensive summary of rural-related
harkens back to Wirth’s (1938) article on scholarship by Weisheit et al. (2006) has
‘urbanism as a way of life’. It is the idea of made a significant contribution to the
a relationship between crime levels and vari- advance of rural criminology.
ous measures of ‘urbanism’ (i.e., anonymity, The study of domestic violence (also
segmented, less organized) which by implica- known as intimate partner violence) is the
tion defines ‘ruralness’ (cohesive, integrative, newest development within rural crime