ABSTRACT
This chapter considers questions of rurality in the context of rural crime. Legal and criminology scholars debate rural crime definitions, in doing so adopting sometimes conflicting perspectives on whether rural crime is purely subject to a strict legalistic classification of being acts defined as such by the criminal code, or a moralistic or social legal one sometimes found in environmental or species justice discourse (Situ and Emmons, 2000; Wise, 2000). Rural crime is thus defined differently in legal and policy debates, and its practical enforcement affected by philosophical differences on the nature of rural crime and its enforcement requirements. This chapter critically evaluates different perspectives on rural crime and its law enforcement and policy imperatives.
