The international emergence of rural criminology: Implications for the development and revision of criminological theory for rural contexts

Abstract

The objectives of this article are two-fold. First, it briefly reviews the historical development of rural criminology and rural crime studies. It argues that continued development of rural criminology requires two fundamental things: (i) rural criminology must avoid dichotomiesboth old (ex., gemeinschaft vs. gessellschaft) and new (ex., global south vs. global north)because dichotomies have great potential to retard development of a comparative scholarship about crime and criminal justice issues across the diversity of rural localities found throughout the world; and (ii) rural criminology must be inclusive, embracing an international network of scholars from every region of the world, regardless of arbitrary grid lines on a globe. Second, this article argues that rural crime scholarship must develop frameworks from which theories of the "middle range" (Merton, 1957) can be developed, and in turn, theories most suited to the international development of rural criminology should allow for comparisons across diverse research settings and facilitate the synthesis of rural literatures about crime and criminal justice. Rural crime studies should continue to move toward being more theoretically diverse, more critical by linking the local to larger social forces (Mills, 1959;Young, 2011;Donnermeyer & DeKeseredy, 2014), more international in scope, and more self-aware of its history and its future. To this end, the article describes a framework for understanding rural communities (Liepins, 2000) and explains how three rural-based "middle range" criminological theories already fit within the fundamental elements of this framework. The article concludes by urging rural scholars to develop additional frameworks from which middle range theories of rural crime and criminal justice issues can be launched.

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“…Such correlational research will also assist in the development of much needed theories. Donnermeyer (2019) is correct to spotlight that the explanation of violent acts and other types of crime in rural communities needs a firmer theoretical base than is currently found in the extant rural criminological literature.…”

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“…Spending 2007-2008 as a deeply embedded participant-observer in the community, Eason utilizes a case study method to explicate how Forrest City exemplifies rural southern towns where most of the U.S. mass incarceration prison building boom took place between 1989 and 1998. Grounding his methodology in the Chicago School social ecology model, the author also acknowledges his study's link to the work of rural critical criminologists (Donnermeyer, 2019) based on the study's focus on place and context (p. 171). Unfortunately, Eason's application of the concept of rural ghetto to characterize this community comprised of 61% African Americans and to label prison towns "a quadruple stigma of rurality, race, region, and poverty" (p. 16) detracts from his insightful observations on the intersections of racial stratification, power, poverty, and prison proliferation as an economic development strategy.…”

“…1 For an account of the history of rural criminology and its recent developments, see Donnermeyer (2019). On page 6 is included a graphic presentation of both sources of scholarship and selected highlights of events that mark the advancement of rural criminology, including publications and conferences.…”

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“…Za podrobnejši opis teh osrednjih elementov skupnosti glej izvirni članek R.Liepinsa (2000), za bolj poglobljeno razpravo o možnostih uporabe Liepinsovega pojmovanja skupnosti pri pojasnjevanju kriminoloških pojavov glejDonnermeyer ( , 2019a.…”