Locating crime in context and place: perspectives on regional, rural and remote Australia

Locating crime in context and place: perspectives on regional, rural and remote Australia, edited by A. Harkness, B. Harris and D. Barker, Sydney, The Federation Press, 2016, 223 pp., $31.43 (paperback), ISBN 978-1760020477In many ways, Australia is a living laboratory for the study of rural crime. Physically, the country is enormous, but, as the book's introduction notes ". 90.5 per cent of the population resides on 0.22 percent of Australia's land area" (p. 6). As is true in the United States (US) and Canada, Australia's rural areas are also home to a substantial number of native/Aboriginal people who receive fewer social services than urban residents, but attract higher attention from criminal justice authorities. Although many issues raised in this book match research in other countries, particularly the US, Canada and Great Britain, several authors take pain to describe the importance of Australia' s unique history and remind readers of differences among rural areas in Australia.Each of the 20 authors or co-authors works in Australia and, as such, provide insights that might be missed by outsiders. Many ofthe authors they cite are also Australian. Thus, the book reminds the reader of the volume of research on rural crime in Australia and the number of individuals who have taken up the study of this subject. The book comes on the heels of three fine edited books on rural crime (Barclay, Donnermeyer, Scott, & Hogg, 2007; Donnermeyer, 2016; Mawby & Yarwood, 2011) which include chapters specifically focused on Australia, while Barclay et al. exclusively addresses rural crime and justice in Australia. One unique feature of the book is the closing section where criminal justice practitioners who have worked in rural Australia do a splendid job sharing observations about the challenges and unique opportunities afforded by rural settings and articulating issues, putting a human face on the broader issues described by academics in previous chapters.The book is divided into three major sections. The first section "Locating Crime," includes four chapters that provide a context for understanding rural crime in Australia. These are the most general chapters covering rural crime. Chapter 1 tackles the difficult issue of defining "rural. " While not providing a specific answer, the authors remind readers that "rural" is about more than simply population density. Rural is also about cultural identities and is a complex phenomenon. The chapter highlights, but does not detail, the kinds of issues that might not be familiar to those learning about rural crime, including the influence of population growth and mobility, domestic violence (DV), illicit drugs, race, environmental crimes and the treatment of outsiders. The authors situate these issues within Australian outback stereotypes, sometimes portraying rural Australia as bucolic and crime free, and sometimes emphasising the horror of rural as a "dark or alien environment. " This chapter takes many concerns raised by rural researchers in other countries and places them within the historical, cultural and physical context of rural Australia. Though much of what is presented will be familiar to experienced rural crime researchers globally, the material lays the groundwork for chapters that follow.Chapter 2 disabuses readers of the notion that rural areas are relatively crime free, noting crime rates vary from among areas and some types occur at higher rates in rural areas. Declines in crime reported in other western countries are limited primarily to property crime. Declines are also larger in cities than the countryside. The utility of various crime and crime prevention theories, including environmental design, rational choice and defensible space, are considered and application of urban-based theories to rural settings is noted to have limitations. For example, while some rural areas are experiencing population growth, others see population decline, and the link between population shifts and crime, as varying across jurisdictions. …