Crime and Policing in the British Countryside: Some Agendas for Contemporary Geographical Research

The study of crime has emerged as a rich and diverse area of human geography. However, the majority of research has been conducted in an urban environment and rural places have been neglected by comparison. Emphasizing the British countryside, this paper draws upon current thinking in rural geography to suggest a research agenda to fill this gap. Initial attention is given to advances in environmental criminology and how these may be applied to rural areas. Following a critique of this approach, emphasis is given to the fear of crime in rural areas and how this is influenced by constructions of rurality and criminality. Questions are raised about the nature of criminal threat in the countryside, the extend to which it is culturally constructed and whether it is leading to the exclusion of particular groups from rural space. In the final sections of the paper, the changing geographies of rural policing are reviewed in light of these issues. Attention is given to recent policing initiatives in the countryside and the implications these have for the governance of rural areas.