Conventional criminology has long suggested that crime is, in essence, an urban phenomenon and that denser settlements are more crime prone. If this misnomer is taken at face value, ipso facto there are less rural victims. The reliability of this assumption is questionable when considering the challenges inherent in measuring and researching rural victimisation. This chapter provides an assessment of the issues surrounding the accurate measurement of rural victimisation, including problems with non-reporting, under-reporting and under policing evident in some rural communities and the use of police discretion in the context of high acquaintance density. It also contemplates the key considerations and challenges of researching rural victimisation. Suggested approaches to improve research with rural victims are made to optimise their involvement and to maximise the outcomes and impacts.

Disasters significantly reduce the accessibility of justice particularly in rural locations. The bushfires, which ravaged three states in the south-east of Australia in late 2019 and early 2020, have had catastrophic social and economic impacts on people, animals and places in rural areas. In the aftermath of disasters, people by necessity must inevitably avail themselves of legal advice and services: to negotiate new business contracts; re-mortgage property; access wills and testaments; attend court; and for a host of other matters. In rural communities, where access to legal services is already limited by distance and circumstance, disasters create increased demand, and access issues are accentuated. This chapter explores access to justice issues in post-disaster context and as they relate to rural, regional and remote communities. It draws upon post-disaster experiences nationally and internationally, outlining responses to improve access to legal services past and present, identifying effective responses. It argues that rurality creates additional barriers and reduces access to justice, and that disasters exacerbate existing access issues as well as creating new challenges.

Considerations of victimisation in the canon of criminological literature have hitherto been urban-centric; mostly focused on theoretical constructs of victimology and on specific types of victimisation; and overlooking issues and challenges in rural contexts. Missing from existing theoretical frames is consideration of 'rural' as a significant factor for inclusion. This chapter examines the need for further theorising rural victimology and empirical research on rural victimisation by: (i) conceptualising the rural victim through challenging uncritical and normative constructions of victimisation; (ii) understanding the impacts of space and place on vulnerability to rural victimisation, expanding the concept of the rural victim beyond human form; (iii) evaluating the appropriateness of existing victimological theories in explaining rural victimisation, encouraging the development of a specific theory of rural victimisation; and (iv) situating policy and practice reform and responses to victims in the rural space, advocating for positive change.

Whilst there is a plethora of scholarship in a multitude of forms which canvass a wide array of types of victimisation and theories of victimology, there exists no sustained body of work which assesses the intersection of 'rurality' and 'victimisation'. The majority of existing victimological literature focuses on urban settings. This book seeks to redress this through the examination of the intersection of place (specifically rurality) and victimisation. This chapter provides an introduction to the contemporary context of rural victimisation, canvassing the issues to be covered throughout the book set under three distinct themes - the representations, realities of and responses to rural victims.

Rural Victims of Crime offers a pioneering sustained assessment of 'the rural victim'. It does so by examining and analysing the conceptual constructs of a victim and challenging the urban bias of victimisation and victimology in criminological study. Indeed, far too much criminological scholarship is based on the false assumption that rural areas are relatively crime free – and thus free, too, of victims.

Providing international perspectives, chapters in this edited collection focus centrally on notions of place and space, and constructions of rural victims in a variety of contexts, exploring the impact that geographic location has on the type and prevalence of victimisation. The concept of victimisation is often considered in terms of interpersonal relationships between humans, neglecting the potent impact of victimisation of non-humans and the natural and built environment. Rural Victims of Crime discusses existing notions of victimology in relation to non-human subjects, broadening conceptualisations of the victim and associated impacts resulting from victimisation. Structured in three parts, Rural Victims of Crime conceptualises the rural victim, enhances understanding of the realities of rural victimisation and considers both formal and informal responses to rural victimisation. Chapters are accompanied by practical, contemporary case studies to connect theory with praxis.

This book is an essential and valuable resource for academics, students and practitioners alike in the fields of criminology, criminal justice, rural studies, victimology, geography, sociology and spatiality.