Course:LIBR559A/Scott, J. & Hogg, R. (2015)

Citation

Scott, J. & Hogg, R. (2015). Strange and stranger ruralities: Social constructions of rural crime in Australia. Journal of Rural Studies, 39, 171-179. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2014.11.010

Annotation

To analyze how difference and differentiation are achieved in small scale social setting by examining the social construction of crime in rural places in Australia. It is less concerned about problem solving and more focused on analyzing how social problems are constituted in rural places as a key aspect to which their rural identity is itself constituted.

Rural communities have often been viewed as exemplar. Sociology has usually constructed rural areas from the dominant social groups residing there. In Australia, white male landowners have been the iconic symbol of rural life. In popular cultural rural landowners are seen as having physicality, courage and persistence. However, rural women are seen as more fragile and not physically able to do rural labour such as mining or agricultural work. Therefore, women and their work is undervalued and invisible. Also, being excluded are Indigenous people, or others with differing ethnic, social or economic backgrounds who also have a legitimate right to be a representative of rural Australia. The “rural idyll” which views the rural landscaped as wholesome, having dense social networks, strong social bonding capital, settled by hard-working farming families as the symbol of rural inhabitants is highly gendered, classed and racialized. This rural idyll hides aspects of difference, fragmentation and division in rural areas. Many are excluded or marginalized from their community and also from the socially constructed definition of what it means to be rural. The attention is placed on the powerful groups, such as landowners while “rural Others” such as: queer, single mothers, travellers/Romany, and non-whites are being ignored. While the rural idyll creates rural areas as a place of desire and nostalgia because it is not urban, rural space can also be presented as a dreadful place because it is not urban.

Rural ‘fear of crime’ usually involves anything intruding on the rural. Crime-talk has an influence in the construction of policing rural communities. In one rural community where crime was non-existent, if a crime had been accounted for it was always associated with outsiders and events that brought outsiders to the town. Due to the strong social networks of this rural town many crimes occurring within the community were not seen as threatening. Blaming the outsider assisted in the promotion of internal social order. Also, labelling and social marginalization of insider groups assisted in the allocation of blame for many social problems. Crime-talk in rural settings ignores private interpersonal violence and exaggerate property crime and street disorder. Indigenous and non-white youth violence and disorder are highlighted while white violence is ignored. In return, these targeted groups have a low attachment to the community. Small town gossip and crime-talk leads to the construction of stereotypes and categorization of who is and is not accepted in the community. As a conclusion, crime is socially constructed by those in power who perceive behaviours as socially problematic.

The theoretical framework for this study is Social Constructionist.

An interesting observation of this article is that it views the general idea of rural communities in a positive perspective. Whereas, in other studies rural communities are not always seen as a valued and peaceful place in the 20th Century. On the contrary rural communities lack 20th century technology advancements and in many rural communities it is where the digital divide occurs. There are more factors to a community to consider when measuring crime and who is blamed for the crimes committed. Also, this article tries to show a distinction between rural crime and urban crimes in a different way. In the end, it is minorities and poor people who get blamed or when a crime is over sensationalized versus crimes committed by the white property owners where no charges may occurs and the crime is not talked about. The groups that are often marginalized in urban settings are also marginalized in rural settings. The marginalization of Indigenous people, women and different ethnic groups are important for libraries since libraries are a community location. By libraries representing everyone in the community, it could be one way to break down the marginalization of certain groups in a community.

Page Author: Irene Moreno