ASSA Rural Crime and Communities Workshop
About the workshop
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) through the ASSA Workshop Program 2018-19 sponsored the delivery of a multi-disciplinary workshop entitled Understanding Rural Crime and Rural; Communities: Theory, Policy and Practice.
The Workshop was held on the Gippsland Campus of Federation University Australia on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 February 2019. It was convened by Dr Alistair Harkness (Federation University), Dr Naomi Smith (Federation University), Dr Bec Strating (Latrobe University), and Prof Rob White FASSA (University of Tasmania).
21 participants were involved in the Workshop across the two days, from 12 different universities, and from four Australian states. The Workshop was attended by world-leading rural criminologist Emeritus Professor Joseph F. Donnermeyer from Ohio State University.
Workshop themes
With an overarching focus on space and place, the workshop explored notions of ‘place’ and ‘context’ in each session, assessing fixed geographic locations, online (and thus borderless) spaces, and broader notions of rurality. The diversity of scholarship represented at the workshop highlights the growing inter-disciplinarity of rural criminology scholarship.
Key themes that emerged from the workshop centred on participation in and access to justice; and on the unique spatiality of the rural and its relationship to urban centres. This includes making distinctions between space and place, and its connection to rural culture and community.
The materiality of rural places also shapes social and community networks, but it is important to understand that ‘the rural’ and rural crime are not homogenous, but rather are diverse and complex. Better understanding and appreciating the complexities of rural crime will enable us to change the narrative regarding rural crime and community; positively influence how it is governed and represented in Australian society.
The workshop highlighted the important research that is still to be conducted examining rural crime in rural communities. Rural crime cannot be treated as an undifferentiated social problem. Local context and culturally specific and appropriate interventions are needed to ensure rural communities survive and thrive.
In the news
The Workshop featured on WIN News Gippsland and in the Latrobe Valley Express. A review of the Workshop was published in the newsletter of the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Rural Crime.
