ABSTRACT
Hundreds of rural and remote locations across the globe are suffering from the social ills associated with resource-based booms. Regardless of where these communities are located, there are a common set of social problems occurring in these places. This chapter describes how these social ills are a product of the rapid influx of workers needed for oil and gas extraction or mining, and the industrialisation occurring in these places. It provides an overview of the crime- and disorder-related problems associated with resource-based booms, and presents a set of ten crime prevention strategies that focus on making changes within a boomtown community. It argues that all of the social problems confronting boomtowns are inter-related, and it is difficult to disentangle crime from the other social ills, or to effectively address only one problem. A police chief from a rural locality in Canada provides a first-hand account of policing boom and bust towns.
