Rural Criminology in Global Perspective: State of the Art on the World's Continents

Session Submission Type: Author meets critics

Abstract

This author meets critics panel will critically assess the contribution of a new anthology on rural criminology across the globe. Rural criminology is emerging as an active sub-discipline within criminology, and Bowden and Meško’s book (Bristol University Press, 2025) aims to capture the state of this emerging field on each of the world’s continents. This endeavour sought to capture how far knowledge and research on rural crime, criminal justice systems and rural policing has developed; to identify gaps and opportunities for future rural studies. The book provides a capture from each of the continents on the current and recent research and scholarship. The book highlights how knowledge about rural crime and justice is uneven; how informal systems of justice often emerge in rural contexts; and how distinct issues emerge in the Global South in particular. Rural communities are remote based upon their geography and topography, but are distinctly remote by virtue of their distance from formal systems of justice, governance and regulation, and where access to justice is problematic.

Subtopic

• Topic 3: Crime Correlates / Rural Criminology (Rural Criminology WG)

Critics

• Kreseda Smith, Harper Adams University

• Emilia Jurgielewicz-Delegacz, Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok

Book Authorss

• Gorazd Meško, University of Maribor

• Matt Bowden, TU Dublin