About ISSRC
The International Society for the Study of Rural Crime Inc. was established in 2019 by a group of scholars with an interest in studying, researching and teaching rural crime and rural society.
The aims of the Society are to:
- unite cross-disciplinary international scholars with research interests in rural crime and rural society
- facilitate collegial alliances and collaborations between researchers and practitioners
- allow for the sharing of cutting-edge research for engagement and impact
- promote and organise events
- provide opportunities for post-graduate and early career researchers to disseminate their work
- to produce valuable evidence-based information that enhance the well-being of rural communities
- heighten international scholarly, community and industry awareness of the study of rural crime
Welcome messages
Rules of Association
Download the ISSRC Rules of Association.
Members of the Executive
Kyle Mulrooney
Dr. Kyle Mulrooney is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of New England and is passionate about building safe and healthy communities. Kyle’s current research agenda is centred in rural criminology which explores how aspects of cultural geography and locational context impact upon the types, incidences and responses to crime and access to related services. Here he has published on issues ranging from crime prevention and policing to drug consumption and criminal justice and is currently writing a monograph on Farm Crime for Bristol University Press (2023).
Kyle occupies a number of leadership roles in the field, serving as the Co-Director of the Centre for Rural Criminology (UNE) and as the President of the International Society for the Study of Rural Crime. He is a recognised international expert in rural criminology with his research and work having been utilised by policy-makers and industry in practice and called upon often in the media. Kyle holds a Ph.D. in Cultural and Global Criminology from the University of Kent and Universität Hamburg, an MA in the Sociology of Law from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law and a BA (Honours) in Criminology and Justice from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
Bridget Harris
Bridget is based at Monash University in Victoria, Australia. She works in the areas of: domestic and family violence; technology-facilitated violence, advocacy and justice administration; spatiality; access to justice; and legal advocacy. Bridget has been invited to advise police and legal bodies in these fields, and her research has informed policy and practice nationally and internationally (including in the Royal Commission into Family Violence and Law Council of Australia’s report, The Justice Project, focused on the state of access to justice in the nation). With Harkness and Baker (2016), she edited Locating Crime in Context and Place: Perspectives on Regional, Rural and Remote Australia (Federation Press, 2016) and she is lead editor of the Domestic Violence and Technology: Experiences, Perpetration and Responses (Routledge, 2021), with Woodlock.
Jessica Peterson
Jessica is an Assistant Professor at Southern Oregon University and is an Honorary Adjunct Lecturer at the University of New England, Australia. Her research interests include policing and law enforcement-community relations, rural criminology, and juvenile crime and policy. She enjoys using qualitative methods and working with practitioners to produce impactful research with practical applications. Her key research interests are in policing, rural policing, rural crime, juvenile justice and qualitative methods.
Alistair Harkness
Alistair is a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of New England where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students. His primary research interests are in acquisitive crime, with a particular emphasis on crime prevention, policing responses and community partnerships. Alistair leads the International Farm Crime Research Project, which is focussed on advancing knowledge of agricultural crime. He was lead editor of Locating Crime in Context and Place: Perspectives on Rural, Regional and Remote Australia (The Federation Press, 2016) and editor of Rural Crime Prevention: Theory, Tactics and Techniques (Routledge, 2020).
Joe Donnermeyer
Joe is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University. His specialization is rural criminology and he is the first chair of the Division of Rural Criminology, whose inaugural meeting took place at the November, 2018 annual conference of the American Society of Criminology in Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently completing a book titled “The Criminology of Food and Agriculture”, which will be the first in the new Routledge Monograph Series in Rural Criminology.
Kreseda Smith
Kreseda has recently completed a PhD in Behavioural Science and Farm Crime Prevention Decision Making: understanding the behavioural culture of farmers in England and Wales. She has an interest in farm crime, behavioural science, behavioural geography, and human trafficking and modern slavery within the agricultural sector. She is currently working on developing a project to further explore the impact of farm crime on the traditional rural masculinity, which featured prominently in her PhD research.
Willie Clack
Willie is involved in the field of Corrections and Criminal Justice and in 1992 joined academia and has been teaching since. In his academic career, he was appointed to various United Nation Development Programs in Sub-Sahara Africa to do Technical Needs Analysis and Needs Assessments in countries amongst others such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland, and Namibia. He also held International Positions as Vice-President Africa of International Corrections and Prisons Association and Vice President Correctional Officers Development Foundation. Apart from academia, Willie has been since 1990 a part-time agriculturalist, farming livestock and involved in different positions in organised agriculture such as Vice-chairperson of Red Meat Producers Organisation, National chairperson of the Livestock Theft Prevention Forum and others. He has published extensively on livestock theft in South Africa and Rural Crime.
Cameron Whiteside
Detective Inspector Cameron Whiteside’s twenty-four year career started in 1989 when he joined the New South Wales Police Force. He currently serves as the State Rural Crime Coordinator for the Rural Crime Prevention Team that covers approximately 95% of New South Wales. The Team supports Police Districts and Police Area Commands in the prevention and response to rural crime.
Danielle Watson
Dr Danielle Watson is an Associate Professor and Research Training Coordinator in the School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology. Her research focuses on security, policing, police/community relations, policing culturally and linguistically diverse communities and plural regulatory systems in the Caribbean and Pacific. She conducts research on (in)security in Pacific Island countries, capacity building for security service providers, recruitment and training as well as many other areas specific to improving security in developing country contexts. Her research interests are multidisciplinary in scope as she also conducts research geared towards the advancement of tertiary teaching and learning.
Artur Pytlarz
Dr Artur Pytlarz has recently finished is PhD in criminology at the School of Languages, Law and Social Sciences at the Technological University Dublin. His project Crime, Risk and Resilience in the countryside: Governing rural security was funded by the Irish Research Council as part of the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship scheme. Artur also holds an MA in Sociology from Wroclaw University in Poland and an MA in Criminology from the Dublin Institute of Technology. His research interest focuses on governing security, security networks and how safety is built around information flows in the Irish countryside. He is also interested in the consequences of rapid social changes associated with the transition towards late modernity such as globalisation, individualisation, exclusion/inclusion, and its impact on rural resilience.
Danielle Stoneberg
Danielle M. Stoneberg is a Ph.D. student at West Virginia University. Her service, teaching, advocacy, research, and creativity are not just tools that she uses but they are her personal commitment. They are her way of life. Before attending WVU, Stoneberg received both her MA in Crime and Intelligence Analysis in 2017 and her BA in Psychology in 2015 from the University of Central Oklahoma. While in Oklahoma, she also worked as a sexual assault survivor advocate, responding to numerous hospital exams to provide survivors with support and resources in the immediate aftermath of horrific events. As a scholar, Danielle has done qualitative research on drug use and policing in rural U.S. communities and violence against women in college and non-college settings. She works in the area of rural crime, drug use and policy, higher education in prisons, and violence against women. Danielle is not sure what the future will hold after WVU but knows it will involve using her education, advocacy, activism, scholarship, creativity, and passion to initiate change and help others on a variety of topics in various settings.
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