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CRIME IN RURAL COMMUNITIES 309

important implications for criminological of actors communicate, solve problems and
theory in general and certainly for the conduct their daily lives (Liepins, 2000).
advancement of a rural criminology. Hence, community forms the starting point
Unfortunately, no one really knows. A few for the development of a comparative frame-
studies from other nations have been pub- work in which to understand rural crime, and
lished recently, but they hardly fill the to assist in the continued diffusion of rural
tremendous need that exists, given the large crime research to a diversity of settings.
rural populations of so many of these coun- There are three common features of rural
tries and the rapidity of global-based change communities (and their populations) which
(Erulkar, 2004; Fafchamps and Moser, 2003; justify the need for a specialized sub-field
Jobes, 1999b; Koenig et al., 2003; Jain et al., within criminology. Rural communities, by
2004; Krishnan, 2005; Panda and Agarwal, definition, have smaller populations and
2005). Furthermore, some aspects of rural lower population densities. Patterns of daily
crime are trans-national in scope. Drug pro- living are comparatively more limited than in
duction and trafficking is one example. The urban communities, and involve a greater
other is human trafficking. share of persistent personal face-to-face
The second problem is that rural criminol- interactions among people who know each
ogy has yet to develop viable conceptual other. Finally, rural communities are today
frameworks that allow scholars to synthesize rapidly losing their isolation and autonomy
current scholarship effectively and advance to the forces of globalization. Compared to
theory and research beyond the borders of a the past, nearly all rural places around the
single country, especially the USA. The world are influenced to some extent, and
remainder of this chapter proposes the begin- many to a great extent, by external cultural,
ning steps of a solution to both problems. economic and social forces. Proximity to
cities, industries with absentee ownership,
tourism and development policies of nation-
states are just a few of the factors that influ-
COMMUNITY AND RURAL CRIME ence the loss of autonomy of rural places
today. In turn, these factors must be accounted
C. Wright Mills (1959) stated a basic socio- for in conceptual frameworks designed to
logical relationship between macro-level improve the theoretical sophistication of
change, which he called ‘public issues’, and rural crime research. Issues interrelated with
the situation of individuals at the micro-level, crime, such as power, dominance, gender and
which he termed ‘personal troubles’. Without discrimination, further exacerbate external
knowledge of the context of broad structural- processes shaping the dynamics and the
level conditions and change, little could be attributes within and between rural commu-
understood about individual behaviours, nities throughout the world.
including criminality. It is context that Despite commonalities, as well as the
counts, and whether criminology research diversity, of rural places, why use the concept
utilizes quantitative or qualitative data, there of community as a starting point for the
is a need for conceptual frameworks that advance of theory in rural criminology? The
recognize the situated context of crime answer lies in the central roles of community
(Kitsuse and Spector, 1973). Definitions of in the formation of behaviour and attitudes
crime are indicators of the norms, mores (Oetting et al., 1988). As already mentioned,
and ideologies of groups who compete for community is a concept capable of linking
power and influence within various societies ‘personal troubles’ and ‘public issues’. The
(Greenberg, 1981). structural level study of crime, much
Most definitions of community agree that of which emerged from the Chicago School
it is a geographical place in which networks of sociology and continues in the work of