RURALITY, CRIMEAND SOCIETY

Volume 1 Issue 2October 2020

ISSN: 2652-8673

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IN THIS ISSUE

• Message from the Director– Dr Kyle Mulrooney University of New England

• Message from the editor– Dr Jenny Wise University of New England

• The latest news from International Society for the Study of Rural Crime (ISSRC)– Dr Bridget Harris (QUT) and Dr Alistair Harkness (UNE)

• Rural Criminologist Profile – Dr Danielle Watson Queensland University of Technology

• Graduate Student Profile – Melina Stewart-North Federation University

• Research Feature – Associate Professor Megan Williams: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice and health

research: More than themes and stories”• Research Feature

– Dr David Rodríguez Goyes and Professor Nigel South : “The neglected rurality: Crimes against and within Indigenous societies”

• Research Feature – Professor Lisa Waller : “Set up for storytelling: Television representations of ‘ice’ use in rural

Australia ”• PhD Research Feature

– Alexander Baird: “Drain the State: A Case Study of Water Theft in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia”

• Media Releases– Conversation Piece: “Illegal hunters are a bigger problem on farms than animal activists – so

why aren’t we talking about that?”• News and Announcements

– International Society for the Study of Rural Crime (ISSRC)– Vodcast Series: Issues in Rural Crime & Society– New book series: Research in Rural Crime – 2020- 2021 Conferences– Introducing the new editor: Dr Louise Nicholas

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MESSAGE FROM DR KYLE MULROONEYDIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR RURAL CRIMINOLOGY

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Dear colleagues

The Centre for Rural Criminology was launched a year ago on the 9 September 2019. We would like

to take this opportunity to sincerely thank members of the rural criminology community for the ongoing support of the Centre.

Let’s reflect on some of the key milestones that the Centre has achieved over its first year:

• There are almost sixty members of the Centre, linking national and international academics,

practitioners and students together

• Five thematic groups have been created to accomplish the Centre’s aims with the following

passionate leaders to guide them:

1. Policing, justice and ruralityLeaders: Dr Bridget Harris and Dr Alistair Harkness

2. Criminological dimensions of food and agricultureLeaders: Dr Richard Byrne and Emmanuel Bunei

3. Drug use, production and trafficking in the rural contextLeaders: Dr Katinka van de Ven and Dr Natalie Thomas

4. Violence and ruralityLeaders: Dr Tarah Hodgkinson and Dr Ziwei Qi

5. Environment, climate and crimeLeader: Dr Laura Bedford

Thank to these leaders for stepping into this role and promoting these key research areas.

• Researchers within the Centre have attracted several grants, including an evaluation of Ceres

Tag for the interruption and reduction of livestock theft. See ‘Our work’ for more

information: https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/faculty-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education/hass/humanities-arts-and-social-sciences-research/centre-for-rural-

criminology

• The Centre launched a YouTube channel and vodcast series: Issues in Rural Crime and Society

• The Centre hosted NSWPF Commissioner Mick Fuller and the Rural Crime Prevention Team for

the launch of Operation Stock Check.

In addition, the Centre has been associated with numerous publications from our members. If you

would like your rural crime research to be listed on our webpage, please send through the details

of your published research to rucrim@une.edu.au.

We very much look forward to your continuing involvement with the Centre and with rural criminology as we enter our exciting second year.

MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORDear members,

I hope everyone is staying well and keeping safe. The second edition of Rurality, Crime and Society features numerousresearch pieces on crucial issues within rural criminology. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this latestedition.

This edition opens with a report from the International Society for the Study of Rural Crime (ISSRC) by Dr BridgetHarris and Dr Alistair Harkness. Make sure you familiarise yourself with all of the wonderful opportunities that theyare creating, including roundtables, blogs and award programs!

Both Dr Danielle Watson from the Queensland University of Technology and Melina Stewart-North, a postgraduatestudent from Federation University are profiled in this edition. Dr Watson is researching police/communityrelationships in the Global South, with a focus on trying to improve these relationships; while Melina outlines herHonours project on problems with access to criminal courts within rural Victoria.

We are fortunate enough to feature three research articles from a range of national and international scholars, aswell as a introducing ongoing research on water theft by a postgraduate research student. Associate Professor MeganWilliams presents the Wayarang list and 10 research projects aimed at improving the health and wellbeing ofAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with relevance to rural criminology. Importantly, Associate ProfessorWilliams argues that innovation within evidence-based practice to reduce over-representation of Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people in Australian prisons is not only necessary, but overdue. Dr David Rodriguez andProfessor Nigel South argue that there is a need to “Indigenise rural criminality” and provide reflections on theirexperience of utilising peer-research methodology. Their methodology highlights a truly inclusive way for collectingand analysing data that involves Indigenous people and communities through the entire research process. ProfessorLisa Waller returns to her work on crime and the media, and writes about her current research with Dr KatrinaClifford that focuses on three televisions representations of the ‘ice epidemic’ in rural Australia. From this, ProfessorWaller and Dr Clifford identified three overarching narratives being presented: “ice as a small-town epidemic, ice aseveryone’s problem and the dualism inherent in agrarian imaginaries”. Alexander Baird presents a case study of hisPhD research on the ongoing prominent issue of water theft in the Murray-Darling Basin. Alexander aims to establisha database of the factors associated with water theft that can be used to inform crime prevention strategies andinform future policies around the use of water in the area.

A new section to the publication has been added and highlights relevant media stories focusing on rural crime issues.This edition features a media piece first published in the Conversation: “Illegal hunters are a bigger problem on farmsthan animal activists – so why aren’t we talking about that?”.

The publication concludes with a selection of important news items and announcements. As with the first edition, it isimportant to note that COVID-19 has had an unparalleled impact on the ability for scholars to meet (face-to-face) andshare ideas; and the same uncertainties over events are likely to continue into 2021. However, in response to this,many scholars are turning to online alternatives, such as the ISSRC’s roundtables, and in August this year, the Centrefor Rural Criminology launched its very first vodcast with our very own Director, Dr Kyle Mulrooney as the host (aspecial thanks to ANZSOC for providing financial support for the credits to the program). Thank you to Dr AlistairHarkness for being our inaugural guest on the series, and Dr Tarah Hodgkinson and Dr Richard Byrne for presentingshorter vodcasts on the thematic groups of the Centre. We have more exciting vodcasts lined up with our thematicleaders and others. Please make sure you reach out to us if you would like to feature on the vodcast.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their support and contributions during this inaugural year of thepublication. In 2021, we hand Rurality, Crime and Society over to the ISSRC for compilation with Dr Louise Nicholas asthe editor.

Best wishes,

Jenny

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CENTRE FOR RURAL CRIMINOLOGY

EXECUTIVE BOARD

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Dr Kyle J.D. MulrooneyDirector of the Centre for Rural CriminologyLecturerCriminologyUniversity of New England

Associate Professor Glenn PorterDirector of the Centre for Rural CriminologyAssociate ProfessorCriminologyUniversity of New England

Professor Joseph DonnermeyerProfessor Emeritus School of Environment and Natural ResourcesOhio State University

Dr Bridget HarrisSenior LecturerSchool of JusticeQueensland University of Technology

Dr Alistair HarknessSenior LecturerCriminologyUniversity of New England

Dr Jenny WiseSecretary Senior LecturerCriminologyUniversity of New England

THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF RURAL CRIME

It has been a very busy and active time for ISSRC since the first newsletter of 2020. The Society is growingquickly, with a broad range of interests represented by both scholars and practitioners alike across all fourcorners of the world.

ISSRC Roundtables

A particular highlight of the year was the inaugural ISSRC roundtable. In examining Rural Access to Justiceacademics, advocates and practitioners considered: emerging issues, potential responses or solutions toinequalities and future research and practice that could enhance access to justice.

Our fantastic panellists were: Dr Danielle Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Justice at Queensland University ofTechnology; Dr Liz Curran, Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University and Principalat ‘Curran Consulting: Enhancing Justice and Human Rights’; and ISSRC President and Emeritus Professor atOhio State University, Joseph F. Donnermeyer.

They discussed the notion of ‘postcode [or zipcode] justice’ – variances in justice system delivery andoutcomes based on the location of the criminal justice agency, offence or offender. Also explored was thelimitation of theoretical models and gaps in curriculum and training that hinders understandings of andinitiatives to bolster access to justice. Limitations in western models were also noted, as were tendencies toemploy Northern initiatives in Southern contexts, without considering the context and limitations ofimported models.

Technologies (Zoom and social media) ensure we could connect with scholars, practitioners and advocatesacross the globe. We had an engaged audience and rigorous discussion and, hopefully, helped buildnetworks and directions to move forward in this arena. Thanks again to our panellists and audiencemembers! We appreciated your attendance and also feedback (which has guided how we will develop anddeliver future events).

A recording of the event can be accessed by ISSRC members via the members only section onwww.issrc.net. You can also see Twitter commentary and discussion of the event via: #ISSRC2020. Pleasenote that this hashtag will be utilised in future roundtables held this year, so you will be able to search forand follow events via this channel.

Do you have you an idea for a future Roundtable? If so, let us know! Proposals should be submitted toadmin@issrc.net for consideration and should include:

• An overview / rationale for the event (minimum of 200 words)• Details of the organising committee and roles identified• A draft schedule / run sheet• Proposed speakers (with 100-200 word biographies): Note that ideally speakers will include a range of

advocates or practitioners and advocates; more senior and junior participants; a diverse range ofparticipants (e.g. should reflect gender, ethnic, geographic diversity)

• A promotion and social media strategy (minimum 100 words)

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DR ALISTAIR HARKNESSSenior Lecturer in Criminology

School of Humanities, Arts and Social SciencesUniversity of New England

DR BRIDGET HARRISAustralian Research Council DECRA Fellow

Senior LecturerSchool of Justice

Queensland University of Technology

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Next Roundtable

The next Roundtable on “Policing Rural Communities” will take place on Tuesday 20 October 2020 at5.30pm AEST.

This practitioner-focused roundtable investigates challenges and innovations in international contexts onissues surrounding rural policing.

This roundtable will provide an opportunity for participants to hear first-hand from four leaders in ruralpolicing about work being done in both hemispheres to police rural crime.

We ask our panellists two key things:

What are the key challenges for rural policing?

What innovations are being deployed internationally to address these challenges?

Ample opportunity will be provided for attendees to engage with the panel.

Further details and registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/issrc-roundtable-policing-rural-communities-tickets-120899326139

Annual General Meeting

The AGM will be held on 2 December 2020. Members will be advised by email of further details.

Call out to multi-linguists!

We are keen to translate a welcome message for the ISSRC website into a variety of different languages. Themessage would only be a few paragraphs long, essentially briefly outlining the purpose of the Society andencouraging membership, but aimed at providing a warm and friendly welcome.

Would this be something you might be able to do? If so, please email admin@issrc.net

Call for blog contributions

The blog on www.issrc.net provides an opportunity for pithy observations or reflections on topical ruralcrime news and developments, a summary of research, promotion of publications, advertisements forupcoming events… and more! Blog posts are a crucial way of sharing ideas amongst ourselves and alsomore broadly.

If you would like to contribute something for the blog, email a submission of between 100 and 500 wordsto admin@issrc.net

Establishment of an awards program

ISSRC has established an awards program to champion students, early career researchers and practitionersmaking a strong contribution to the study of rural crime. The first award is the Joseph F. DonnermeyerAward New Scholar Award. More details and application requirements are available athttps://issrc.net/awards/

Member profiles

Are you a member of ISSRC and want to publicise your research interests? We are in the process ofassembling a member profile section on the ISSRC website. A name, photo and key words will be presentedand visitors to the site can click through to a more fulsome biography of members. This will allow people toconnect their interests more quickly and clearly.

If you would like to appear on the website, please email your name, title, research interest keywords, photoand brief biography to admin@issrc.net

Social Media

We are keen to support and promote rural work and events! If you have a publication, conference or projectyou would like promoted, please email bridget.harris@qut.edu.au with information / links / photos and soon, or tag us at @RuCrimSociety

RURAL CRIMINOLOGIST PROFILE:DR DANIELLE WATSON

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Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you are currently working on?

I’m originally from a rural community (Moruga) in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago. Though Iwas born in Trinidad, I have familial ties to Barbados, St Lucia, Guyana and Montserrat, and I spent asignificant amount of time in Jamaica. In 2014, I was awarded a Caribbean-Pacific Mobility Scholarship(CARPIMS) to complete a part of my PhD studies in Fiji. I was exposed to a region very similar to my own inso many ways, yet so different. I fell in love with the place… After completing my PhD in 2016, I moved backto the South Pacific. There I began researching police/community relations in Pacific island countries.

To date, I continue to research police/community relations in the Global South with a strong emphasis onimproving policing practices.

Can you please tell us why you started to research in rural criminology, and why you continue to researchin this space?

When your research focus is policing in places like the Caribbean and the Pacific, it’s more of a necessitythan a choice. Pacific Island Countries (PICs) for example cover large geographic areas with territories beingcomprised of multiple islands and atolls. Each country has a mainland, where the capital is based, and manyother islands referred to as outer or offshore islands. Most of these outer islands would be considered ruralspaces. The police responsibility for maintaining law and order applies to both mainland and offshorespaces within the country’s jurisdiction. It would therefore be irresponsible to conduct policing research insuch spaces without acknowledging how contexts, in this case rurality and issues of access to justice,frames the narrative for police/community relations.

What areas of research are you most passionate about?

I’m most passionate about research geared towards improving the applicability of policing practices insmall-island developing countries. My view is that policing must be context specific. For many developingcountries, there is a tendency to borrow policing policies and practices from more developed contexts.While borrowing can sometimes be a good thing, I think adaptation before adoption is critical. I also believethat there is value in developing local solutions to local problems. If the police are there to protect andserve the people, what harm can come from initiating dialogue among stakeholders about how best the‘people’ can be protected and served?

What is next for you?

More of the same. There is much to be done on policing in developing country contexts and I intend tocontinue working with police organizations across the Pacific as they attempt to improve service provision.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us?

I’d be very interested to collaborate with other researchers with shared interests.

Dr Danielle WatsonSenior LecturerSchool of Justice, Faculty of LawQueensland University of TechnologyDanielle.Watson@qut.edu.au

GRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE:MELINA STEWART-NORTH

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Melina Stewart-North is a PhD candidate at the Federation University campus in rural Gippsland in EasternVictoria, Australia. Her project focusses on the intersectionality between the nature, influences and impactsof online vigilantism. Although, not the prime aim of this project, she is nonetheless interested to see ifthere is a difference in behaviours based on geographical location.

As well as working full-time on her PhD project, Melina is a volunteer firefighter.

Melina’s honours project – entitled ‘'Good accessibility, is good business': A study of the intersection ofrurality and access to criminal courts’ – was based on principles of ‘access to justice’ in rural areas and wasspecifically chosen because it was a vastly under researched area. Melina says that being a local resident ofa rural community, undertaking this project helped her see how under-resourced and disadvantaged rurallocations are, purely because of postcode.

She investigated with the aim of creating some solutions for not only her own locality, but with theobjective to help out other citizens in regional, rural and remote areas.

“I focused on a case study of the Latrobe Valley in Gippsland where I surveyed a group of individuals whohad close ties to the Criminal Justice System. My supervisor Dr Alistair Harkness helped my research processrun smoothly, and ultimately giving me a great final thesis”, Melina says.

The key findings that were highlighted by her research found that transportation was a major barrier inaccess to justice, alongside lack of alternative resources. The justice system tends to use a ‘one size fits all’approach, and this was clearly not the case when individuals had geographical disparity.

Melina is working with Alistair Harkness and Rachel Hale on a series of articles for publication on access tojustice issues, including on how rural residents access legal services in post disaster contexts – and with aparticular interest in the context of the bushfires that swept over East Gippsland in early 2020.

“The rural aspect has, and always will, play a role in my research”, Melina says. “This is my background, andit would be remiss of me to not include it in shaping my future projects.”

RESEARCH FEATURE

Acknowledgement

On behalf of colleagues, I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the many lands on which this body ofwork has occurred, and pay respects to ancestors across countless generations, as well as Elders andleaders of today. This work is dedicated to improving the lives of all people in Australia, by promoting thevalue and values of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures to guide current and future generations.

Introduction

Few criminology or justice health researchers could have avoided wondering why Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander people are so persistently over-represented in Australian prisons. But in response, how manyhave sought partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to bring about solutions?How many use Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s research and community-driven solutions intheir work with general populations? Do many know how to translate findings about Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander people from large data sets, particularly in an ethical manner that reduces reinforcing themessage that Aboriginality is a risk factor? How many feel confident informing evidence-based decisionmaking to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander over-representation? It seems not the majority, byvirtue of over-representation rates, and the recent calls for better allyship of Australians for Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people since the videoed death of 46-year old black man George Floyd at the hands ofMinnesota Police hit headlines around the world, which highlighted regular deaths of Aboriginal people inpolice custody and prisons in Australia.

It seems the lens is shifting, though, from ‘the gap’ in the Australian government’s Closing the Gapframework to reduce health inequity being the deficits of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people inrelation to other Australians (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2018). ‘The gap’ is more criticallybeing framed as the knowledge and skillset deficits that the mainstream Australian health, welfare andjustice workforces demonstrate in being unable to deliver through their programs and policies to reduceover-representation in prisons, or genuinely support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership andcommunity-driven solutions. There is a real concern systematic and systemic bias and institutional racism isat play, and/or good intentions have gone wrong, or there is ‘just’ a lack of cultural awareness. Whicheverway, the workforce is a social determinant of health and wellbeing; it is failing and there is an obvious voidin opportunities for learning and challenging assumptions about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoplein a way that brings about system improvements (Jackson Pulver, Williams and Fitzpatrick, 2019).

This paper aims to bring to light a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led research projects at thenexus of justice and health disciplines and systems, as well as core concepts from Indigenous knowledgesystems that bring about rigour in research. In doing so, this paper encourages the emerging field of ruralcriminology to gain confidence in collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communityorganisations and Elders, and to use existing research in new and efficient ways, including identifying topicsabout which mainstream workforce development might be useful.

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Associate Professor Megan WilliamsResearch Lead and Assistant DirectorNational Centre for Cultural CompetencePortfolio of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services)Member, Sydney Institute of CriminologyThe University of Sydneymegan.williams@sydney.edu.auResearch Associate, Centre for Rural Criminology, UNE

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER JUSTICE AND HEALTH RESEARCH: MORE THAN THEMES AND STORIES

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Background

The ongoing and worsening over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australianprisons, who make up 28% of the prison population (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019) but 3% of thegeneral population (ABS, 2018), shows more than just ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people commitmore crime’: it shows systems unable to respond, programs unable to realise outcomes and Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander community health protocols not being met. Underscoring this is the criminal justicesystem workforce, of which less than 1% are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is lower thanthe target of 1.6% (NSW Public Service Commission, 2019) and lower than Australian communitypopulation parity of 3%.

Corrections policy makers are warned against decision making without evidence (McGuire, 2001), but withfew Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff or community partnerships to meet ethical researchrequirements, the avenues to generate evidence from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’sperspectives are minimal. Further, Indigenous methodologies and community-driven research have metwith criticisms for being ‘too subjective’, ‘unscientific’, and lacking rigour (Denzin, Lincoln and Smith, 2008;Nakata, 2007). That criminology and justice health research groups currently have few actions identified tobuild the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researcher workforce of the future or enhance the culturalresponsiveness of current researchers suggests the likely replication of current gaps and inequity goingforward: there is nothing particularly strategic occurring to not reproduce actions and mistakes of the past.

Because of the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the criminal justicesystem, any research in the criminal justice system will be of interest to and will affect Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander people and thus researchers are required to follow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderresearch guidelines (Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 2012; NationalHealth and Medical Research Council, 2018). To follow the guidelines, in simple terms, partnerships withAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations are required, before research design, to influenceresearch design and its conduct, in the analysis and interpretation of results and in the translation of theseto policy and practice – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the right to lead and participateacross all of these. It follows then that any researchers in the criminal justice system that do not havepartnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and leaders must begin there – developthem. Though, there are precursory self-preparation steps: querying why such partnerships have not beendeveloped, and what needs to be overcome for them to be developed such as lack of knowledge aboutAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, Australia’s colonial history or local Eldership and protocols?

This article introduces Wayarang, meaning ‘teachable’ in Wiradjuri language, which is a list of 12 knowledgeelements to guide thinking and data analysis in research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Asummary is also provided of 10 research projects about the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander people with relevance to rural criminology. While there are many gaps, this is a taste of whatis possible by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and allies.

Indigenous knowledges

Indigenous knowledges come from the world’s longest continuing cultures including Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander peoples. In contemporary criminology and justice health projects, Indigenous knowledgescan be used to inform research design, and to analyse new and existing data and translate findings intomeaningful action. They do not necessarily have to be precluded from use with existing data due but arecomplementary and can extend thinking about how to produce healthier communities. There need be no‘either or’ but a ‘both’ so long as researchers involved have a commitment to strong working relationshipsand critical self-reflection in the conduct of research.

Developed over the last 10 years of research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in thecriminal justice system, including about health and wellbeing, the Wayarang list below includes 12 elementsof Wiradjuri knowledge and thinking for quality research (drawing on Minmia, 2007; Sheehan, 2011;Sheehan, 2004) to identify:

(1) connections – a spiritual concept that occurs through actions, meeting points and similarities

(2) patterns in a similar way that grounded theorists might, or epidemiologists might in trying variables inmodels and noting impacts

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(3) relationships between people

(4) clarity about roles people play

(5) influences of context

(6) improvements to the environment, on which all humans are dependent

(7) place-based perspectives acknowledging the profound influence of the local environment, cultures andresources

(8) movement – change over time and ultimately growth toward goals

(9) holism – whether connecting past influences with the present or the future, the various elements of theself (mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, social), or systems (community, services, policy and politics)

(10) equity – not only equality but an equity that understands needs and trajectories for wellbeing and theresources required

(11) negotiation – for which time, safe processes and spaces is required, and about which data must begathered, especially to ascertain where power lies and how that will influence future wellbeing

(12) intergenerational transfer of knowledge that deliberately brings learnings from the past into thepresent for the survival of future generations.

These 12 elements of Indigenous knowledge and thinking can help bring about a comprehensiveunderstanding of and response to an issue. They can be used as a checklist for research design, as part of aconceptual framework for data analysis, and for critical self-reflection.

The following section outlines 10 research projects premised on and using both Indigenous knowledges andethical guidelines for the conduct of research by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The projectsare diverse and demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research is more than themes and stories.There is nothing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures or Indigenous knowledge systems thatprecludes working with numbers as data, randomised controlled trials or as one example below outlines –data linkage. What must improve is the extent that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance andleadership are included, drawn on, respected and resourced.

More information about each of the projects is available by contacting this paper’s author.

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER-LED RESEARCH EXAMPLES

SYSTEMS AND WORKFORCE FOCUS: THREE PROJECTS

CRE-STRIDE

Looking big-picture, the STRengthening systems for InDigenous healthcare Equity (CRE-STRIDE) centresIndigenous knowledges in all it does (CRE-STRIDE, 2019). It is an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellencefunded at the University of Sydney from 2019-2024 to progress two decades of work on continuous qualityimprovement (CQI) in primary health care, which embedded systems of data collection, analysis andreporting in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. CRE-STRIDE has been established to translateCQI to other disciplines including health promotion and is highly relevant to corrective services and justiceheath.

CRE-STRIDE has four areas of focus to improve systems indicated by the circles in the centre of Figure 1below: 1) Community involvement, 2) strengthening health system capacity, 3) enhancing social andemotional wellbeing, and 4) strengthening health promotion and prevention. For all, there are cross-cuttingthemes of quality improvement, knowledge translation, ‘all teach, all learn’ capacity building andpurposeful engagement, as well as Indigenous research methodologies, economic and impact evaluation,systems thinking and participatory action research.

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Figure 1: STRengthening systems for InDigenoushealthcare Equity (CRE-STRIDE) project

Over half of CRE-STRIDE’s investigators areAboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, andactivities occur in partnerships with Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander organisations including GidgeeHealing. Overall, the work has a focus on healthsystem integration issues including via workforcedevelopment.

Banga-ma-la-nha

Also focusing on the workforce is Banga-ma-la-nha: A collaborative throughcare program for youngAboriginal women transitioning from prison to community. It is NHMRC-funded across 2019-2023,administered through the University of Newcastle and occurring in partnership with Waminda AboriginalCommunity Controlled Health Organisation and the NSW Health Justice Health and Forensic Mental HealthNetwork. Banga-ma-la-nha means ‘to share’ in Wiradjuri language from whom three of the research teamare descended. It uses the Lowitja Institute’s collaborative decision making process, the FacilitatedDevelopment Approach (Arabena and Moodie, 2011), to share and synthesise meanings from six existingdata sets and translate them into a ‘workforce capability framework’ including co-creating training, andpiloting and evaluating this, as outlined in Figure 2.

The research projects being translated for workforce development implications are the following, all ofwhich are of a substantial size and most of which are mixed-methods. They have all included Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander researchers:

1. Connections (Sullivan et al, 2019)

2. Network Patient Health Survey (JH&FMHN, 2015)

3. SCREAM: Social and cultural resilience and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal mothers in prison (Wilsonand Jones, 2017)

4. Returning Home, back to community from custodial care (Haswell, Williams, Blignault, Grand Ortega,and Jackson Pulver, 2014)

5. NSW Access 3 (Kang et al, 2017)

6. Connective Services (Williams, 2015).

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IMHIP-Youth

IMHIP-Youth is based on the Indigenous Mental Health Intervention Program, Australia’s first Indigenous-ledsocial and emotional wellbeing service for Indigenous adults in custody. After its trial and evaluation, it wasretained as a funded program, and program providers were approached to trial a similar program in a youthdetention centre. To do so, a Medical Research Futures Fund grant administered at the University ofQueensland includes allocations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and students across 2020-2024. IMHIP-Youth is a multi-level mixed-methods design, comprising co-designed research with Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander governance, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culturally-validated toolsincluding the Growth and Empowerment Measure (Haswell et al, 2010), and process, outcomes and impactevaluation guided by the Ngaa-bi-nya Aboriginal evaluation framework (said ‘nar bin ya’ in Wiradjuri;Williams, 2018).

INTERGENERATIONAL ANALYSIS: FOUR PROJECTS

Ngadhuri-nya ‘to care for’Ngadhuri-nya ‘to care for’ (said nar-jury-nyah in Wiradjuri) hasoccurred in partnership with the NSW Child Development Study(Carr et al, 2016) and a community working group and wasfunded by the Lowitja Institute. It is a process for engagingAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in data linkageresearch, beginning with a community roundtable and using theFacilitated Development Approach (Arabena and Moodie, 2011)to decide which data to report, in what order, and by whom.Efforts to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communitymembers in data linkage are essential, particularly because of thehigh likelihood that on almost every indicator Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander children fare worse than others. The NSWChild Development Study linked parents’ criminal justice systemdata with health and social outcomes data of children and youngpeople – an intergenerational analysis. Such data must be treatedwith utmost sensitivity so as not to further stigmatise Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander people and not traumatise researchersand community members engaging with it (Williams, 2019).Keeping Us Together evaluation

The SHINE for Kids Keeping Us Together program evaluation has been funded by Queensland Department ofChild Safety, Youth and Women during 2020, and is led from the University of Newcastle in partnership withMibbinbah Spirit Healing Pty Ltd. It uses the Ngaa-bi-nya Aboriginal evaluation framework (‘nar bin ya’;Williams, 2018) to examine contextual landscape factors influencing the adaption of a mainstream programto an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context, as well as resources used for the program, ways ofworking that reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values, and learnings for future planning.

Mibbinbah Mad Bastards Be the Best You Can Be

Mibbinbah also uses the Ngaa-bi-nya Aboriginal evaluation framework (‘nar bin ya’; Williams, 2018), for aprocess and outcomes evaluation of its Be the Best You Can Be program (Mibbinbah Spirit Healing, 2020).The program uses the Australian feature film Mad Bastards in groups to explore social and emotionalwellbeing and prioritise next steps for individuals in their journeys of healing as well as organisations inplanning local programs. Be the Best You Can Be has been undertaken with urban, regional and remotecommunities and diverse groups including workplaces for staff Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culturalawareness.

Aboriginal Family Wellbeing Program and Growth and Empowerment Measure

The Aboriginal Family Wellbeing Program (FWB) was developed over 30 years ago by members of the StolenGeneration to provide multi-level healing and empowerment in their communities. This recognises thatindividual empowerment is tied to family and community empowerment, to influence systems, and viceversa (Tsey et al, 2010). To measure outcomes and impacts of FWB, the Growth and EmpowermentMeasure (GEM) was developed, which has since been psychometrically evaluated and is known as aculturally validated measure of social and emotional wellbeing (Haswell et al, 2010). Both FWB and theGEM have been used among a wide range of populations including people in the criminal justice system and

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in rural and remote locations and there are over 40 associated publications. It has also been found valuablefor non-Indigenous forensic and health workforce education (Fitzpatrick et al, 2019).

WORKFORCE RESEARCH: THREE PROJECTS

We Are Working for Our People

Aboriginal allied health career pathways

Benefits of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff were also explored in 50 in-depth interviews and 8focus group discussions held across NSW in 2019, particularly about allied health, including those workingin the criminal justice system. Funded by NSW Health, the research report has not yet been released. Froma seven-step data analysis process, it identifies critical success factors to use to increase Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander staff numbers, verified by experts in the field (Williams, Ragg and Manton, submitted).

Gari Yala

Soon to be released is the Gari Yala research, the first National Aboriginal Workforce study, conductedonline by the Jumbunna Institute at UTS and the Diversity Council of Australia, and funded by NAB andColes (UTS, 2020). The Gari Yala report outlines reasons over 1000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderpeople succeed at work, why they leave employment, and what their training levels and aspirations are.Gari Yala was guided by a multi-disciplinary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce developmentExpert Panel.

Conclusion

Innovation is not only necessary in evidence-based practice to reduce over-representation of Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people in Australian prisons – it is overdue. But the issues are circular – until themainstream workforce becomes confident working well with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,the soil is not ready for having Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, and criminology and justice healthworkforces and research then suffer from not including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives,which in turn is a ‘turn off’ to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The irony is that includingAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives does not come at a cost – it is a gain to include the world’soldest continuing cultures in the way forward. The Wayarang Indigenous knowledges list and the researchprojects outlined here show what is possible if the emerging field of rural criminology is willing. The newmantras could easily be ‘put First Peoples first’ and ‘If you get it right for Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander people, you can get it right for everyone’.

The We Are Working for Our People report of the Lowitja Institute-funded Career Pathways Project was released in August 2020 (Baileyet al, 2020). The mixed-methods research was undertaken by theAboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT), BilaMuuji Aboriginal Health Services from central NSW, consultantsHuman Capital Alliance, UNSW and Western Sydney University. Itsurveyed almost 400 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthprofessionals, interviewed almost 250 people in groups and undertook70 career trajectory interviews. It highlights Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander staff strengths: cultural knowledges and values,culturally safe clinical practices, respectful communication,trustworthiness, ability to address individual and community needs,and leading system change.

These benefits were recognised success factors in highly accessedAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled healthorganisations, some of which have over 50% Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander staff.

References

Arabena, K. & Moodie, D. (2011). The Lowitja Institute: Building a national strategic research agenda toimprove the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Medical Journal ofAustralia, 194(10), 532-534.

Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. (2012). Guidelines for ethical researchin Australian Indigenous Studies. Canberra: Author. Retrieved fromhttps://beta.aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-09/gerais.pdf

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2019). Prisoners in Australia. Canberra: Author. Retrieved fromhttps://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/prisoners-australia/2019

ABS. (2018). Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, June 2016. Cat. No.3238.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS. Retrieved fromhttps://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/88b47d60dbd6c988ca2574a900132f99!OpenDocument

Bailey, J., Blignault, I., Carriage, C., Demassi, K., Joseph, T. … Williams, M. (2020). We are working for ourpeople: Growing and strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce. Melbourne:Lowitja Institute. Retrieved from https://www.lowitja.org.au/page/research/research-categories/health-services-and-workforce/workforce/projects/career-pathways

Carr, V. J. , Harris, F., Raudino, A., Luo, L., Kariuki, M., Liu, E. et al. (2016). New South Wales ChildDevelopment Study (NSW-CDS): An Australian multiagency, multigenerational, longitudinal record linkagestudy. BMJ Open, 6(2), [e009023]. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009023

CRE-STRIDE. (2019). Centre for Research Excellence: STRengthening systems for InDenous health care Equity(CRE-STRIDE). https://ucrh.edu.au/cre-stride/

Denzin, N.K., Lincoln, Y.S., & Smith, L. T. (Eds). (2008). Handbook of critical and Indigenous methodologies.Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. (2018). Closing the Gap Prime Minister’s Report 2018. Canberra:Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from https://closingthegap.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/ctg-report-2018.pdf

Fitzpatrick, S. A., Haswell, M. R., Williams, M., Nathan, S., Meyer, L., Ritchie, J., Jackson Pulver, L. (2019).Learning about Aboriginal health and wellbeing at the postgraduate level: Novel application of the Growthand Empowerment Measure. Rural and Remote Health, 19(2), doi.org/10.22605/RRH4708

Haswell, M. R., Kavanagh, D., Tsey, K., Reilly, L., Cadet-James, Y., Laliberte, A., . . . Doran, C. (2010).Psychometric validation of the Growth and Empowerment Measure (GEM) applied with IndigenousAustralians. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 44(9), 791-799.

Haswell, M.R., Williams, M., Blignault, I., Grand Ortega, M., & Jackson Pulver, L. (2014). Returning Home,Back to Community from Custodial Care: Learnings from the first year pilot project evaluation of three sitesaround Australia. Sydney: UNSW Australia.

Jackson Pulver, L., Williams, M. & Fitzpatrick, S. (2019). Social determinants of Australia’s First Peoples: Amulti-level empowerment perspective. In. P. Liamputtong (Ed.). Social Determinants of Health (pp. 175-214). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network (JH&FMHN). 2015 Network Patient Health Survey:Aboriginal People’s Health Report. Sydney: Author.

Kang, M., Robardsm F., Sanci, L., Steinbeck, K., Jan, S., Hawke, C. et al. (2017). Access 3 project protocol:Young people and health system navigation in the digital age: a multifaceted, mixed methods study. BMJOpen, 7(8): e017047.

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McGuire, J. (2001). What works in correctional intervention? Evidence and practical implications. In G. A.

Bernfeld, D. P. Farrington, & A. W. Leschied (Eds.). Offender rehabilitation in practice: Implementing and

evaluating effective programs (pp. 25-44). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Mibbinbah Spirit Healing. (2020). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing.

https://www.mibbinbah.org/

Minmia. (2007). Under the quandong tree. Mogo, NSW: Quandong Dreaming Publishing.

Nakata, M. (2007). Disciplining the savages, savaging the disciplines. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

National Health and Medical Research Council. (2018). Ethical conduct in research with Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities: Guidelines for researchers and stakeholders. Canberra:

Commonwealth of Australia.

NSW Public Service Commission. (2019). NSW Working together for a better future 2019-2025. Sydney:

NSW Public Service Commission. Retrieved from https://www.psc.nsw.gov.au/workplace-culture---

diversity/diversity-andinclusion/aboriginal-workforce-/aboriginal-employment-strategy

Sheehan, N. (2011). Indigenous knowledge and respectful design: An evidence-based approach.

DesignIssues, 27(4), pp. 68-80.

Sheehan, N. (2004). Indigenous knowledge and higher education: instigating relational education in a

neocolonial context [dissertation] Brisbane: University of Queensland.

Sullivan, E., Ward, S., Zeki, R., Wayland, S., Sherwood, J. … Chang, S. (2019). Recidivism, health and social

functioning following release to the community of NSW prisoners with problematic drug use: study protocol

of the population-based retrospective cohort study on the evaluation of the Connections Program. BMJ

Open, 9(7), http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030546

Tsey, K., Whiteside, M., Haswell-Elkins, M., Bainbridge, R., Cadet-James, Y., & Wilson, A. (2010).

Empowerment and Indigenous Australian health: A synthesis of findings from Family Wellbeing formative

research. Health and Social Care in the Community, 18(2), 169-179. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2524.2009.00885.x

UTS. (2020). Gari Yala: First National Survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workers.

https://socialimpact.uts.edu.au/case-study/gari-yala-first-national-survey-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-

islander-workers/

Williams, M. (2019, June 7). The Ngadhuri-nya process for engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

people in data linkage research. https://www.croakey.org/the-ngadhuri-nya-process-for-engaging-

aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people-in-data-linkage-research/

Williams, M. (2018). Ngaa-bi-nya evaluation framework. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 18(1), 6-20.

Williams, M. (2015). Connective services: Post-prison release support in an urban Aboriginal population

[dissertation] Sydney: UNSW Australia.

Williams, M., Ragg, M., & Manton, D. (submitted). Aboriginal allied health workforce pathways scoping

project: Final report. Sydney: UTS.

Wilson, M. & Jones, J. (2017). The social and cultural resilience and emotional well-being of Aboriginal

mothers in WA prisons… and beyond. Drug and Alcohol Research Connections, May. Retrieved from

http://connections.edu.au/researchfocus/social-and-cultural-resilience-and-emotional-well-being-

aboriginal-mothers-wa-prisons%E2%80%A6

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RESEARCH FEATURE

Bias and blindness

Criminology has expanded through processes of identification of and reaction to its gaps, blind spots, andbiases. From embracing a harm and human rights perspective to counter the dominance of a legalistic view(Schwendinger & Schwendinger, 1970), to the inception of a global criminology to surpass methodologicalnationalism (Aas, 2007), criminologists have built upon the detection of knowledge lacunae to generatetheoretical, conceptual and empirical innovations. Such abysses are as much created by the professionaltraining around the topics ‘that matter’ (Goyes, 2019; Kuhn, 1962), as by the social everyday frameworkswithin which most criminologists live their lives (Aas, 2012). Santos (2014) referred to the root cause ofacademic biases and gaps as epistemological blindness, a concept which Goyes and South (2017, p. 168)synthesized as ‘the conscious or unconscious preference to accommodate only that which accords with ourexisting epistemological and methodological configurations, leaving other possibilities and data ignored.’Because ‘criminology’ is a discipline originating in and dominated by anglophone, core, northern countries(Agozino, 2003; Carrington, Hogg, Scott, Sozzo, & Walters, 2019; Morrison, 2006) it is unsurprising that it isstill informed by many consequential biases, among which are its over-concentration on urban issues(Donnermeyer & DeKeseredy, 2013; Hollis & Hankhouse, 2019), and its exclusion, until quite recently, of thewider natural environment (South, 1998) and continuing neglect of Indigenous issues (Goyes & South,Unpublished manuscript-a). Although rural criminology has made extensive contributions to shifting thefocus of the discipline from cities to the countryside, it has not achieved much in remedying the neglect ofIndigenous societies as a central component of ‘the rural.’ Indeed, we might argue that rural criminology isinformed by the same limitations as rural sociology, described by Zabłocki (2013, p. 9) as retaining anapproach based on ‘strictly regional profiles’ and falling short of being ‘the science of social phenomena inworld-wide rural areas.’ Within both, there is the lacuna of a neglected rurality and in this essay we arguethat there is a need to Indigenise rural criminology, conceptually, theoretically, and methodologically.

Enabling, redefining, and protecting the rural

For Donnermeyer and DeKeseredy (2013, pp. 5-6), the rural has four characteristics: (1) ‘smallerpopulations sizes and/or densities’, (2) ‘higher densities of acquaintanceship’, (3) less autonomy thanbefore, and (4) more obvious ‘cultural, social, and economic divides’ within them. Because this approach tounderstanding the rural is primarily relational — reflecting material and historical relations — and primarilyinformed by observations of societies in the global north, its application to a myriad of southern settings isproblematic given that these defining characteristics are not necessarily present. Meanwhile, Zabłocki(2013, p. 11) provides a more restrictive and concrete, although also not entirely unproblematic, definitionof rural communities as ‘those which in many countries were and in others could be encompassed by …[collective] forms of agricultural production.’ It is on this basis that we argue Indigenous communities inmany locations of the global south are at the centre of the rural.

Professor Nigel South Department of Sociology,

University of EssexAdjunct Professor, School of Justice,

Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology

n.south@essex.ac.uk

THE NEGLECTED RURALITY: CRIMES AGAINST AND WITHIN INDIGENOUS SOCIETIES

Dr David Rodríguez GoyesPostdoctoral Fellow

Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law University of Oslo

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Antonio Nariño University, Colombiad.r.goyes@jus.uio.no

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This argument, once more, leads us to the dangers of definitional processes, which are particularly trickywhen dealing with Indigeneity. Historically, those procedures of defining and categorizing have tended to be‘driven by non-indigenous, liberal agendas that set indigenous peoples up as foils for the excesses andshortcomings of western industrial society’ and have thus been prone to freezing Indigenous communities‘in a specific time, space, and relationship to others’ (Coates, 2004, p. 8). Furthermore, definitions ofIndigeneity tend to collapse all concerned into ‘an undifferentiated mass’ (Heydon, 2019, p. 83) therebycreating a ‘false and distorted identity through a false concept’ (Apaza Huanca, 2019, p. 4). As Greymorning(2019) documents, colonial governments and academia have historically self-arrogated the right to definewho is and who is not Indigenous, as well as the criteria to define indigeneity. Those dynamics side-lineIndigenous voices —an issue to which we return later.

Despite the dangers and difficulties they have faced, Indigenous peoples themselves argue for the use ofcharacteristics and properties of ‘mindset, spiritual orientation, and attachment to traditional matters’ ascentral to any definitions of Indigeneity and as mattering more than ‘bloodlines and […] externally imposedlegal descriptions’ (Coates, 2004, p. 2). Indeed, the definition proposed by José Martínez Cobo (1987),United Nations special rapporteur and the sub-commission of the Working Group on IndigenousPopulations, embraces such a cultural approach by conceptualising Indigenous peoples as those descendedfrom the ‘original inhabitants of regions colonized or invaded by what became a dominant population’ andwho had ‘maintained cultural continuity distinct from other groups of state populations’ (Samson & Short,2005, p. 170). Inspired by these reflections, we argue that there are four features1 that characteriseIndigenous peoples, and that they are different from current Indigenous’ circumstances.2 Of relevance forthis essay are Verne’s (2019, p. 175) listing of two central Indigenous characteristics: first, ‘a spiritualrelationship to their territories’ upon which they build their identity, and, second, the placement of thecollective over the individual. The combination of these two elements of Indigeneity implies that Indigenouspeoples ‘are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories’(Martínez Cobo in Coates, 2004, p. 6) and that ‘the collective responsibility of the group is to the lands andterritories that the colonizers want to destroy’ (Verne, 2019, p. 173).

It is precisely these two characteristics which place Indigenous communities at the centre of ‘the rural.’Indigenous communities have laid the foundations for agricultural production, and still —despite theprocesses of global monopolisation by northern corporations— are responsible for much of it. Indigenouscommunities have actively contributed to increasing the biodiversity of the world (Goyes & South, 2019;Shiva, 2000) on which food production systems rely (Goyes, 2018); and via their traditional practicescontinue nourishing millions of people around the world (Vargas Roncancio, 2011). Furthermore, in theempirical research project we have been conducting for the past three years —described below— weidentified that our sample Indigenous communities host environmental ontologies conducive to protectivebehaviours. Those environmental ontologies have, as first principles, that (1) human wellbeing is dependenton, or influenced by, the actions of nonhuman animals and the spirits of the jungle – plants and trees, and(2) all components of nature, not only humans, have a mystical, deeply spiritual story to be told, whichmeans that humans should consider them sacred (Goyes et al., 2021). In sum, Indigenous communitiesenable, maintain, develop, and protect the rural.

Nevertheless, criminology —including its specialised green and rural branches—has remained largelyoblivious to crimes and harms against Indigenous communities. By extension, within our conceptualisation,this also means crimes and harms against the very foundations of rurality. This implies being unaware oruncaring regarding the plurality and variety of visible and hidden threats to the existence of Indigenouscommunities and ways of living (Goyes & South, Unpublished manuscript-b). Indigenous ways of life andmemory are currently threatened with erosion as a result of several global dynamics. While many of themost powerful forces involved in the extinguishment of Indigenous peoples and their cultures are visibleand direct forms of violence, such as murders, forced displacement, and intimidation, there are alsostructural, systematic, and invisible factors at play. Elements like governmental intervention, and thecontents and effects of exogenous educational systems, are producing the extinction of Indigenous cultures.These forces produce a form of ethnocide, which simultaneously creates a form of ecocide and thedisappearance of myriad non-Western ruralities. That is the reason for our call to Indigenise ruralcriminology. As Cunneen and Tauri (2017) point out however, a real Indigenous criminology —including arural Indigenous criminology— must have Indigenous peoples at the centre of the process of knowledgecreation.

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Of decoloniality and method

This essay draws upon some of the reflections gathered throughout an ongoing set of projects funded bythe Global Challenges Research Fund of the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council. Thefirst part of the project consisted of mapping the cultural representations of nature in the cosmologies offour Colombian Indigenous Peoples. The second stage explored the social dynamics that threaten theexistence of those Indigenous representations and indeed the communities themselves. The third phasewill study the topic of Indigenous communities and health justice. Finally, a fourth phase will deal with thegendered effects of mining in Indigenous territories.

From the outset, these projects were concerned to avoid neo-colonial practices that could endanger thecontinuity of Indigenous cultures. Indeed, Friedemann (1975) points out that the genocide of Indigenousgroups in Colombia has followed not only from ill intended physical actions, but also as a result of theintervention of well-intended outsiders. Friedemann proposes that the distinction between genocide andethnocide is that whereas the former views the Indigenous as ‘different’ and ‘bad’, the latter sees them as‘different’ and ‘good’ but in need of education or salvation (or - we could add – research) to help thembecome more ‘civilized’ and adopt the norms of Northern or Western societies. However, the application ofsuch practices is conducive to the slow but sure erosion and eventual destruction of Indigenousrepresentations of their cosmologies and ways of life because it forces Indigenous people into an image ofwhat outsiders think ‘Indigenous peoples’ should be. Consequently, our project, with a team consisting offour Indigenous researchers and two professional criminologists (us) could potentially have similarconsequences. Therefore, from the beginning we reflected on and discussed ways to prevent the‘aboriginalisation’ of the peer researchers and participants engaged in the project. For our reflections wehave used some of the available literature on the topic (Archibald, Xiiem, Lee-Morgan, & Santolo, 2019;Kovach, 2009) but have mainly been guided by the exchanges we had with members of the four Peoplesthat participated in the research.

We chose a peer-research methodology, and will strongly argue for its further use. This approach meansthat it was ‘peers’ of the researched communities who gathered the primary data. Peer-methodology is anunconventional research method that attempts to (1) increase the visibility of social groups usuallyexcluded from academia as producers of knowledge, (2) enhance the understanding of an issue, and (3)gain deeper access to information considering that usually interviewees are more willing to talk with peerresearchers than with academic researchers (Lushey & Munro, 2015). In our case, as one example, followingprevious experiences in which they felt outsiders had taken their knowledge and never reappeared, theColombian Indigenous Barí community has a policy of avoiding participation in externally organisedresearch projects.

Of course there are challenges and limitations involved in adopting this methodology, and Lushey andMunro (2015, p. 525) warn that ‘the relative inexperience of peer researchers does raise importantquestions about whether the [peer] methodology can secure high quality data.’ The potential shortcomingsof this method play out in two specific fields: that of ethics, and that of the production of high-quality,reliable data. Regarding the ethical issues, poor preparation of the peer researchers can be a way of ‘settingthem up to fail’, thereby being a potentially counterproductive approach. Second, inadequate training ininterviewing skills can result in problems or harm arising from interviews and affecting both researchers andinterviewees. Third, as with most research projects, there is a fear that senior researchers use peerresearchers to mine for information but then exclude the latter from the analysis, writing of results andpublication. Cunneen and Tauri (2017, p. 9) concur with this point when stating that ‘despite some commonconcerns around a focus on race and prioritising the voices of the oppressed, the work of many postcolonialand CRT [Critical Race Theory] advocates has largely side-lined the Indigenous experience.‘ Regarding thequality of the data, pre-existing relationships of peer researchers might influence responses —i.e. couldcreate bias— and heighten concerns about confidentiality. Second, peer researchers might not have theexperience to react quickly in an interview situation and ask adequate follow-up questions, thereby failingto probe for explanatory information. Additionally, we have considered whether the closeness of our peerresearchers to the research topic and to Indigenous culture might mean they take for granted findings andobservations that are not at all obvious to others outside their social and cultural worlds.

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To address these potential problems, we implemented what measures we could at every stage of theresearch process. When preparing the research programme, we recruited skilled and capable researcherswho were genuinely interested in the research topic. We emphasised that the project is the property of thewhole team, and not only of the non-Indigenous authors. Our project began with a voluntary, six-monthinduction process to provide the peer-researchers with an introduction to criminological thinking andtheory. Subsequently, following the start of the funded research, we devoted two months to focus onexchanging knowledge with the peer researchers, about coding, ethics, methodology (interviews andobservations) and safety, among other matters. We had several sessions dedicated to training aboutinterview skills, in which we used theory and roleplay. We adopted strategies to ensure that neither theresearchers nor the interviewees would be harmed during the interviews: the senior authors of this articlechecked and approved the list of potential interviewees, and the location and time of the interviews. Wecreated artificial situations with potentially sensitive topics to explore with the peer researchers the bestway to handle such situations. We also included two weekly sessions of training in the English language toenable the peer researchers to read, understand and comment on all the outcomes of the project (some ofwhich were in Spanish and others in English). Additionally, during the initial eight months, the peer-researchers explained to us the particularities and dynamics of their communities.

The peer researchers of our project have been involved in all stages of the research —from the framing ofthe questions, to the fieldwork, to the analysis of the data— and are co-authors of the empirical articlesarising from the projects. We, as a team, built the interview guides, the informed consent and observationforms, and identified questions that would be relevant to respondents while discarding others. Part of theknowledge exchange process concerned coding, to ensure that the whole team participated in the analysisof the material. Although the ‘senior’ researchers can provide constant support, we acknowledge thatinevitably there is a limit to what peer researchers can do as they are not ‘salaried full-time academicresearchers’ (Lushey and Munro, 2015, p. 534). Consequently, we combined peer methodology withsources of secondary data. Namely, we used (1) the texts ‘outsiders’ have written about the culture of theBarí and Nasa communities, and (2) the audios of the Indigenous mingas —yearly meetings that Colombianindigenous communities hold to remind the government of its promises— in which representatives ofseveral Colombian communities debate the Indigenous cosmovision.

A call to make Indigenous rurality more visible

As Katja Franko wrote ‘the earth is one but the world is not’ (Franko Aas, 2012). This implies that forcriminology to continue its expansion, every branch must reflect on its taken-for-granted visions of theworld and identify the local circumstances it is mistakenly universalising. If it is to access the diversity of‘ruralities’ then rural criminology must move beyond its tendencies to employment of northernconceptualisations. In a modest attempt to push in that direction, in this short essay we have described therationale and form of our ongoing projects, which are providing us with the inspiration to try to reimaginethese important fields within criminology — green, Indigenous, and rural.

Notes

1. We only discuss two here because our main argument revolves around them. The other two are ‘language’ and a sense of the importance of history.

2. For Coates (2004) some current, widespread circumstances of Indigenous peoples are the small size of their populations; the longevity in a place; the commitment to traditional non-industrial ways of life; and, having experienced victimisation by colonialism.

References

Aas, K. F. (2007). Globalization & Crime. London: Sage Publications.

Agozino, B. (2003). Counter-Colonial Criminology. A Critique of Imperialist Reason. London: Pluto Press.

Apaza Huanca, Y. K. (2019). Non-wester epistemology and the meaning of the Pachamama (environment)within the world(s) of the Aymara identity. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy,8(3), 6-22.

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Archibald, J.-a., Xiiem, Q. u. Q. u., Lee-Morgan, J. B. J., & Santolo, J. d. (Eds.). (2019). Decolonizing Research.Indigenous storywork as methodology. London: Zed Books.

Carrington, K., Hogg, R., Scott, J., Sozzo, M., & Walters, R. (2019). Southern Criminology. London: Routledge.

Coates, K. S. (2004). A Global History of Indigenous Peoples. Struggle and Survival. Hampshire: Palgrave.

Cobo, J. M. (1987). Study of the problem of discrimination against Indigenous Populations. UN Documents,5. Retrieved from https://undocs.org/en/E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7/Add.4

Cunneen, C., & Tauri, J. (2017). Indigenous criminology. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.

Donnermeyer, J. F., & DeKeseredy, W. S. (2013). Rural criminology. London: Routledge.

Franko Aas, K. F. (2012). 'The Earth is one but the world is not': Criminological theory and its geopoliticaldivisions. Theoretical Criminology, 16(1), 5-20.

Friedemann, N. S. d. (1975). Niveles contemporáneos de indigenismo en Colombia [Current levels ofindigenism in Colombia]. In J. Friede, N. S. d. Friedemann, & D. Fajardo (Eds.), Indigenismo y aniquilamientode Indígenas en Colombia (pp. 15-37). Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Goyes, D. R. (2018). Biopiracy from a green criminological perspective. (PhD). University of Oslo, Oslo.

Goyes, D. R. (2019). Southern Green Criminology. A Science to End Ecological Discrimination. Bingley:Emerald.

Goyes, D. R., & South, N. (2017). 'Green Criminology before Green Criminology': Amnesia and Absences.Critical Criminology, 25(2), 165-181.

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Goyes, D. R., & South, N. (Unpublished manuscript-a). Cultures of exclusion: criminological blindness towardIndigenous issues and a way to counter it.

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Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies, Eastern European Countryside. Eastern European Countryside,19(2013), 9. doi:https://doi.org/10.2478/eec-2013-0002

RESEARCH FEATURE

The call for papers for the 2019 ASSA Rural Crime Conferencei presented the inspiration to get back intosome research on news media and crime by extending on a rural journalism project I was working on at thetime. That research examined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship rural radio program,Country Hour, through the conceptual lens of ‘agrarian imaginaries’ (Thompson, 2010; Mayes, 2014) tounderstand why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people rarely feature in its coverage, and how they arepositioned by ABC Rural journalists, their sources and audiences when they do appear (Waller,Mesikämmen & Burkett, 2019). Mayes (2014) contends that an ‘agrarian imaginary’ operates to makecertain practices of rural life meaningful, especially to urban communities. It is not a case of peoplechoosing to adopt or reject these ideas, nor are they recorded or expressed explicitly. Instead, individualsand communities are socialised into traditions, histories and practices that operate in the background, yetmake it possible to understand particular objects, activities and subjects as meaningful (Mayes, 2014).Furthermore, as Scott and Biron (2016: 23) have observed, the enduring significance of rural communities is‘often connected to their storied role in evoking vital elements of national culture’. The ‘rural imaginary’framework builds upon Anderson’s analysis of the nation as an ‘imagined community’ (2006: 7), in whichpeople imagine themselves as part of that group, and extends the notion of ‘social imaginary’, which Taylordescribes as ‘the ways people imagine their social existence, how they fit together with others, how thingsgo on between them and their fellows, the expectations that are normally met, and the deeper normativenotions and images that underlie these expectations’ (Taylor, 2004: 23). In the US, Travis Linnemann hasalso extended on these ideas with his concept of ‘methamphetamine imaginaries’, which is highly relevantto the research described here and will be discussed soon.

Casting rural places as crime scenes

I am a Journalism Studies academic with a strong interest in the relationships between news media andregional and rural communities’’. My previous crime-related projects include an investigation into theredemptive role country newspapers can play for local audiences when heinous crimes, such as theSnowtown serial killings, are committed in their patch and national and international news outlets cast theircommunities and landscapes in a dark light (Hess & Waller, 2012). In the year or so before the Rural CrimeConference, I was reminded of my ‘Snowtown’ article every time I watched a national television item thatprojected Australia’s ‘ice epidemic’ on to rural communities. It seemed production and trade of crystalmethamphetamine and ‘ice’ users were often portrayed as a ‘scourge’ on agricultural communities. Whywere television news programs going bush to tell this story? Television’s accent on the visual presented anopportunity to gather further evidence of how Australian journalists evoke the ‘rural imaginary’ in specificways, so together with my Deakin University colleague Dr Katrina Clifford, I set out to explore theconstructions of television news about ice in rural communities (see Waller & Clifford, 2020). The result is asmall body of research that contributes to international explorations of the ‘methamphetamine imaginary’(Linnemann, 2016).

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Professor Lisa WallerSchool of Media and CommunicationRMIT University

SET UP FOR STORYTELLING: TELEVISION REPRESENTATIONS OF ‘ICE’ USE IN RURAL AUSTRALIA

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Research approach: Facts and representations

Recent data from the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program shows that methamphetamine, andthe potent crystalline form of the drug known colloquially as ‘ice’ (because of its appearance), occursthroughout society. However, it also shows that average consumption of methamphetamine in regionalareas exceeds consumption in capital cities (see https://www.acic.gov.au for full report). Furthermore,people living in remote and very remote areas are 2.5 times as likely to have used methamphetamines aspeople living in major urban settings (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017). These statistics area concern and go some way to explaining why journalists focus on the rural dimensions of ice use, but theydo not tell the whole story of how this drug is positioned in relation to rurality by Australian news media.

In order to venture beyond statistics in the news, we looked to Simon Cottle’s (2006) ‘communicativearchitecture of television journalism’, which has been recognised for providing a useful theoretical modelfor understanding the complexities involved in the social construction and reproduction of mass-mediatedperceptions of crime and justice (see especially Barak, 2007). We decided to study TV feature stories aboutice because they represent what Cottle (2006: 34) terms a ‘reportage frame’ (documentary style) togenerate deep understanding. In contrast to the ‘reporting frame’ (‘hard news’ style), features can providerich descriptions of reality, invariably moving the story treatment from ‘what is’ to ‘what ought to be’. Thepoint is that ‘by employing film and other visuals as well as personal testimonies, for example, reportageframes position themselves as well as viewers in the place or virtual space of “bearing witness”’ (Barak,2007: 104).

A sample of three TV features between 7 minutes and 35 minutes duration produced by three TV outlets at‘critical discourse moments’ (Carvalho, 2008) between 2014 and 2017 was selected and viewed to ensure aspread of content across a body of rural ice-related themes and sources of television news. ‘Criticaldiscourse moments’ are periods that involve specific happenings, which may challenge ‘establisheddiscursive positions on a topic’ at particularly important times in the social construction of an issue(Carvalho, 2008: 166). Various factors may define these key moments, including political activity, researchfindings or other socially relevant events. Program 1, ‘Ice towns: Crystal meth addiction in regional Victoria’,was broadcast on The Feed, SBS, on 25 September 2014 (21:36 minutes)iii. It coincided with the Parliamentof Victoria’s 2014 report on the Inquiry into the Supply and Use of Methamphetamines, Particularly Ice, InVictoria. Program 2, ‘Australia’s small-town ice epidemic’ screened on ABC TV on 23 July 2015 (7:45minutes)iv. On the same day the program went to air the National Ice Taskforce released its interimfindings. Program 3, ‘Ice: The scourge of regional Australia’, screened on Prime 7 on 28 July 2017 (34:59minutes)v. It followed a number of major ice-related events that attracted national news media attention in2017 including: the first drug testing of Australia’s wastewater in March; Australian authorities’ biggest everice drug bust in April, and in May that year the publication of a feature, ‘Inside Australia’s meth crisis’(Verghis, 2017), in international magazine Time, which had a focus on rural towns and generated furthermedia coverage of the issue. The three programs were viewed or listened to multiple times via YouTube,and a layer of metadata added (programme descriptions and keywords). The findings were validatedthrough framing analyses conducted independently by both researchers. These steps allowed for enhancedsearching and relationship-building across the body of material.

Findings

We identified three overarching narrative themes in the reporting: ice as a small-town epidemic, ice aseveryone’s problem and the dualism inherent in agrarian imaginaries. Taken together, they reveal how themedium of television has been used to reinforce rurality as a key component of Australia’s‘methamphetamine imaginary’, the term Linnemann (2016: 5) coined to explain ‘… the many ways in whichice mediates the social world – how individuals imagine themselves and their relations to one anotherthrough this particular drug’.

Ice as a small-town epidemic

The narrator of Program 3 describes the drug ice as ‘… a big city poison that’s been flooding in for a fewyears now’. As the city is imagined as the place from which crime emanates (Yanich, 2001: 403–04), a drugepidemic sweeping country Australia becomes a bizarre or uncommon aspect of rural life and plays into therepresentation of rural and regional Australia as ‘troubled’. Program 1 focuses on two agricultural centres in

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Victoria, presenting both as awash with ice, ‘unsafe’ due to rising violence and robberies, and unclean with‘vomiting, fighting and semi-conscious people’ in the streets. The message is clear: ‘users contaminatecommunities and in any “decent” society they constitute matter out of place’ (Douglas, 1966 in Ayers andJewkes, 2012: 323). Program 2 is a short documentary that tells the story of a small rural town where iceuse had become so common it had earned the nickname ‘Little Antarctica’. The program takes the form of apolicing narrative in which addiction, criminality, domestic violence and despair is ‘part of the ice cycle thecommunity wants to stop’. Described as ‘uncontrollable havoc’ in the voiceover, the ‘out of control’ natureof the town’s ice problem is embodied for the audience when an ice user evades arrest. ‘The ‘epidemic’proportions of the problem are further underlined when one community leader says: ‘…Everyone knows adrug dealer’. The program does nothing to dispel the unenviable reputation of the town or challenge theidea of an epidemic. In fact, as some critics of media coverage of ice in Australia have argued, it reinforcesnotions of a social problem with plague-like proportions (see for example Chalmers et al., 2016; Fitzgerald,2015).

Ice as everyone’s problem

In all three programs, the representation of small-town responses to ice focus tightly on widespreadknowledge and individual experience of the drug, collective fear of a common threat and banding togetherin response. This lens empowers all three television news features to project responsibility for a widespreadsocial problem onto affected rural families and communities, rather than provide a structural analysis ofchanging social, economic and environmental factors, or attempt to trace the local impact of ice through tonetworks of global drug production and distribution (Revier, 2017). Programs 1 and 3 employ both the ‘voxpop’ technique of gathering quick responses to an issue from people on the street and extended interviewswith ‘ordinary’ townsfolk, from families and friends of ice users, to recognised community figures such asthe local publican. These people can be understood as ‘innocent bystanders’; their experience, despair andfear play a key role in constructing the idea that entire country towns are in the grip of an ice epidemic.They add a crucial layer of meaning (Cottle, 2006). By employing romanticised visuals and personaltestimonies, the reportage frames used in all three programs position the featured townsfolk, as well asviewers, in the place or virtual space of ‘bearing witness’ to the ‘ice epidemic’ and assign them the role ofimagining the small town at the program’s media-constructed epicentre as it ‘ought to be’.

The dualism inherent in agrarian imaginaries

As Scott and Hogg (2015:174) explain: ‘While the rural idyll creates rural space as an object of desire andnostalgia, rural space may also be presented as an object of dread because it is not urban’. All threeprograms feature the markers of rural serenity – a rural idyll – including pastoral vistas and portrayals offarm life – assumed to be anathema to crime (see also Harris and Harkness, 2016; Carrington, Donnermeyerand DeKeseredy, 2014; Hogg and Carrington, 2006; Scott and Hogg, 2015). But all the programs also useaspects of the imagined ‘other side’ of the rural space to construct the small-town ice epidemic, includingpoverty, isolation and desolation. Program 3 (the extended commercial television feature hosted by one ofAustralia’s most awarded TV current affairs presenters, Ray Martin) was particularly notable for its dramaticpresentation of the dualism inherent in agrarian imaginaries. The opening scenes are infused with goldenlight, illuminating a classic Australian bushland setting. Martin’s voiceover is accompanied by imagery thatsymbolises the good country life and good communities including churches, quaint main streets andmanicured green pastures. He describes riverside Echuca as ‘a charming town nestled on the banks of theMurray’. However, the imagery grows darker as he continues that ‘on both sides of the Murray the ice flowsas easily as the river waters – in peaceful, charming, safe places like Echuca, people talk about the iceplague that fuels crime, fear and heartache.’ Projected across such ‘a conservative populist rural of ideas,drug epidemics hold considerable purchase and proffer a shock of danger amid the wholesomeness of therural’ (Linnemann, 2013: 43). As constructed in Program 3, Australia’s rural ice epidemic brings the crime,violence and moral decay of the city to the wholesome heart of rural Australia. These evils are accompaniedby economic loss, with ice users not only depicted as drug dealers and burglars, but also robbing smallcommunities of scarce health resources and running up policing and justice costs.

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Conclusions

There is no doubt that illicit drugs are a social problem for rural communities in Australia. But this does notpreclude the perpetuation of particular (mis)conceptions of rurality by televisual representations of ice usein small towns. This is sometimes at the expense of a more detailed examination of the underlying reasonsfor such behaviours that deserve national media and policy attention, such as high youth unemployment,social and economic disadvantage and mental health issues in rural communities. Studying key televisionreportage about ‘ice towns’ at critical discourse moments (Carvalho, 2008) has allowed us to identify andinterpret the communicative frames deployed by broadcast media to express distinctive Australian agrarianimaginaries, as well as what is often overlooked in favour of archetypes set up for storytelling.

NotesiThe Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Rural Crime Conference was held at Federation University’s Gippsland Campus February 7-8 2019. It was organised by Dr Alistair Harkess from Criminal Justice in the School of Arts at Federation University in Victoria, Australia

iiI am currently working on the Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP180100813 ‘Media innovation and the civic future of Australia’s country press’. See https://www.localnewsinnovation.org/ for details.

iiiThe Feed, SBS (2014). Ice towns: Crystal meth addiction in regional Victoria. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCCK7vS6Qg0

ivABC (2015). Australia’s small town ice epidemic. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFUkOaNgr74

vPrime 7 (2017) Ice: The scourge of regional Australia. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev9wBix7f_M. Prime 7 is an affiliate of the Seven Network.

References

Anderson B ([1983]2006) Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2017) National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2016: Detailed Findings. Drug Statistics series no. 31. Cat. Canberra: AIHW. Available at: https:// www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/15db8c15-7062-4cde-bfa4-3c 2079f30af3/21028a.pdf.aspx?inline=true

Ayres T and Jewkes Y (2012) The haunting spectacle of crystal meth: A media-created mythology? Crime Media Culture8(3): 315–332.

Barak G (2007) Mediatizing law and order: Applying Cottle’s architecture of communicative frames to the social construction of crime and justice. Crime Media Culture 3(1): 101–109.

Carrington K, Donnermeyer JF and DeKeseredy, WS (2014) Intersectionality, rural criminology, and re-imaging the boundaries of critical criminology. Critical Criminology22(4): 463-477.

Carvalho A (2008) Media(ted) discourse and society. Journalism Studies9(2): 161-177.

Chalmers J, Lancaster K and Hughes C (2016) The stigmatisation of ‘ice’ and under-reporting of meth/amphetamine use in general population surveys: A case study from Australia. International Journal of Drug Policy 36: 15–24.

Cottle S (2006) Mediatizing the Global War on Terror: Television’s Public Eye. In Kavoori AP and Fraley T (eds) Media, Terrorism, and Theory: A Reader. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 19–48.

Fitzgerald J (2015) Political fear-mongering just magnifies the harm ice can do. The Conversation, April 10 2015. Available at https://theconversation.com/ political-fear-mongering-just-magnifies-the-harm-ice-can-do-39992.

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Harris B and Harkness A (2016) Locating Regional, Rural and Remote Crime in Theoretical and Contemporary Context. In Harkness A, Harris B and Baker D (Eds). Locating Crime in Context and Place: Perspectives on Regional, Rural and Remote Australia. Leichhardt: The Federation Press, pp. 1-12.

Hess, K. & Waller, L (2012) The Snowtown we know and love: Small newspapers and heinous crimes. Rural Society Journal 2 (12), pp.116-125.

Hogg R and Carrington K (2006) Policing the Rural Crisis. Leichhardt: The Federation Press.

Linnemann T (2013) Governing through meth: Local politics, drug control and the drift toward securitization. Crime, Media, Culture 9(1): 38–60.

Linnemann T (2016) Meth wars: Police, media, power. New York: New York University Press.

Mayes C (2014) An agrarian imaginary in urban life: Cultivating virtues and vices through a conflicted

history. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27: 265–286.

Revier K (2017) ‘Once again, a meth lab exploded and somebody died’: Narratives of volatility and risk in the rural drug war’. Crime Media Culture 14 (3): 347–363.

Scott J and Biron D (2016) An interpretive approach to understanding crime in rural Australia. In Harkness A,

Harris B and Baker D (Eds). Locating Crime in Context and Place: Perspectives on Regional, Rural and Remote Australia. Leichhardt: The Federation Press, pp. 14-24.

Scott J and Hogg R (2015) Strange and stranger ruralities: Social constructions of rural crime in Australia. Journal of Rural Studies 39: 171-179.

Taylor C (2004) Modern social imaginaries. Durham: Duke University Press.

Thompson PB (2010) The agrarian vision: Sustainability and environmental ethics. Lexington: University

Press of Kentucky.

Verghis S (2017) ‘We are ticking time bombs’: Inside Australia’s meth crisis. Time. Available at: http://time.com/4737800/meth-australia-ice-crystal-methamphetamine-methylamphetamine/

Waller, L., Mesikämmen, E. & Burkett, B. (2020) Rural radio and the everyday politics of settlement on Indigenous land. Media Society & Culture. 42(6): 805-822

Waller, L. & Clifford, K. (2020) Ice towns: Television representations of crystal methamphetamine use in

rural Australia. Crime, Media, Culture, 16(2): 185-199.

Yanich D (2001) Location, location, location: Urban and suburban crime on local TV news. Journal of Urban Affairs 23(3/4): 221–41.

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PHD RESEARCH FEATURE

Alexander BairdPhD CandidateSchool of Humanities and Social SciencesDeakin University

DRAIN THE STATE: A CASE STUDY OF WATER THEFT IN THE

MURRAY-DARLING BASIN, AUSTRALIA

Hi there, my name is Alex and I am a PhD studentand tutor in Criminology at Deakin University in

Melbourne. My research field is green criminology

and my PhD research is focused on the issue of

water theft in the Murray-Darling Basin. My main

research interests include transnationalenvironmental crime, environmental rights and

radicalism and climate change criminology. I used

my honours year to examine the carbon footprint

of common criminal offence types and criminal

justice system expenditures in Victoria beforesettling on my current research direction in studies

of water and criminology.

What is water theft?

Water theft threatens the security and sustainability of freshwater resources worldwide. All around theglobe, disadvantaged populations within water scarce nations steal water as a matter of survival, whilst

large multi-million-dollar corporations and national governments steal water to sell at a profit (Brisman et

al., 2018; Johnson et al., 2015). Impoverished communities in Kenya have breached the law to access

essential daily needs, while in Australia, cotton irrigators have wilfully exceeded water permits to feed crops

(Baird & Walters, 2020). In addition, water theft is not only a current issue of global concern, but an ancientone that dates back thousands of years to antiquity and is closely linked to the creation of irrigation and

water management practices (Baird & Walters, 2020).

The theft of water affects many rural farmers and local communities throughout Australia. An Australian

study by Barclay and Bartel (2015) on the perspectives of farmers provides insight into how fresh water is

being stolen through diversion, despoiling and depletion. The study examines the drivers or incentives for

water theft, issues of noncompliance, and how water theft results in availability and access injustices. They

observed that:

water theft ... includes the pumping, impoundment or diversion of water from irrigation channels,

river systems, dams or ground water bores without a licence or in contravention of licenceconditions that cause changes to flows and reduce water access to neighbouring farms, livestock and

riparian zone management. Drought has created incentives for water theft particularly with water

restrictions and scarce water resources. (NSW Department of Industries [DPI], 2014, cited in Barclay

and Bartel, 2015, p. 190)

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What is going on?

Commonly referred to as Australia’s ‘food bowl’, the Murray-Darling Basin is the largest and most regulatedfreshwater inland river system in Australia. The Basin comprises of two major rivers, the Murray and Darlingriver systems, that stretch for thousands of square kilometres and support a wide variety of complexecological interrelationships. It is also home to more than two million people, generates forty percent ofAustralia’s agricultural production and accounts for 66 percent of Australia’s agricultural water use. TheMurray-Darling Basin’s water is shared between Queensland, South Australia, NSW, the ACT and Victoriaand is heavily relied on by irrigators and local communities for irrigated agriculture. Some of the mostcommon crops grown throughout the Basin include rice, cotton, nuts, fruits and vegetables. Fresh water isalso used for irrigated pastures, livestock and local and domestic purposes (Douglas et al., 2016; Grafton &Wheeler, 2018; Leblanc et al., 2012; Wei et al., 2011).

In July 2017, Four Corners (2017) documented a variety of improper activities and examples ofnoncompliance with NSW water laws and regulations pertaining to the Murray–Darling Basin, which thenplaced the issue of water theft on the national agenda. The program, titled ‘Pumped’, specifically allegedthat certain irrigators had pumped fresh water during unauthorised periods or in large quantities in excessof their licence, and that freshwater resources bought with taxpayer funds for environmental purposeswere being illegally diverted for private purposes. In addition, both meter tampering and failure to recorddaily volumes of pumped water were common, waterworks (e.g., dams and irrigation canals) wereconstructed on Crown land without approval, and confidential information was shared among irrigators andsenior water management officials (Four Corners, 2017; Matthews, 2017; NSW Ombudsman, 2017). It hasbeen largely suggested that the rise of alleged water theft in NSW is the result of a combination of weakcompliance and enforcement activities and standards, as well as maladministration of laws and regulations(Matthews, 2017; NSW Ombudsman, 2017; Walker, 2019; White, 2019). Arguably, it is unsurprising that thisrise in water theft has not been met with a rise in prosecutions.

There are some indications as to who might be stealing water in the Murray–Darling Basin. Many localpeople, for example, suggest some large commercial irrigators and farmers of agricultural products such ascotton. Some of whom appear to take water without a licence or in contravention of licence conditions(Davies, 2019; Four Corners, 2017; NSW Ombudsman, 2017; Walker, 2019; Water NSW v Barlow [2019]NSWLEC 30;Water NSW v Harris (No 3) [2020] NSWLEC 18).

There are also prospects of extensive institutionalised theft that extends into the legal realm of Basin watermanagement. This is evidence of direct and/or moral corruption. The state has permitted foreign investorsto buy and extract large volumes of fresh water from the Murray–Darling Basin while handing out millionsof dollars in taxpayer funds to big commercial irrigators (Farrell & McDonald, 2020; Rubinsztein-Dunlop etal., 2019). Green criminologists argue the state has prioritised freshwater resources for profit and foreigninvestment over greater and more critical local and ecological considerations (Brisman et al., 2018; Johnsonet al., 2015). This form of institutionalised theft from Australian rivers harms the fragile state of theMurray–Darling Basin and clearly demonstrates there are offenders of water theft that exist on both thelegal and illegal side of Basin water management.

The reasons for water theft are varied. One potential motive includes the fact that cotton is a water-intensive or ‘thirsty crop’ that requires substantial volumes of water to grow (Walker, 2019). Othertheoretical drivers of water theft may include drought, climate variability, increasing water prices,insufficient water allocations and entitlements, personal desire to farm, the advantages of ongoingavailability and accessibility of fresh water upstream, and that fresh water is a valuable and profitablecommodity to be sold, especially when it is scarce (Barlow & Clarke, 2017; Douglas et al., 2016; FourCorners, 2017; Holley et al., 2020; Loch et al., 2020; Walker 2019). For some, the taking of water is notperceived as a crime, especially if it is for survival purposes. This is more akin to a rural folk crime than aserious offence (White, 2019).

However, water theft has multiple negative effects. Water theft reduces inland water flows in downstreamcatchments of the Basin. This poses detrimental implications for downstream communities, smallerirrigators, wildlife and surrounding ecosystems that rely on fresh water to survive and perform daily tasks tomake a living (Barclay & Bartel, 2015; Four Corners, 2017; NSW Ombudsman, 2017; Walker, 2019).Thousands of fish have died within stagnant pools that result from a lack of flowing water along the DarlingRiver, inadequate water management in the North, and harmful algal conditions (Vertessey et al., 2019).

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There has also been significant controversy surrounding the issue of floodplain harvesting, which recentevents show may constitute another form of water theft. There are suspicions that large volumes offloodwater are being harvested and extracted by upstream irrigators in northern NSW from floodplainhabitats freely and without a license. When the rains come and waters are replenished, floodplainharvesting upriver reduces inland flows for downstream communities and riparian environments. The NSWgovernment has been criticised for allowing upstream flows and floods to be diverted to commercialirrigators, and doing nothing about it despite full awareness that this unregulated activity has beenoccurring for a substantial amount of time (Brewster, 2020; Dooley, 2020; Druce & Foley, 2018).

My PhD Research

The theft of water undermines the equitable distribution of fresh water in the Murray-Darling Basinbetween states and between the needs of humans and the environment. There is an urgent need toconsider the nature, dynamics and effects of water theft in Australia and within broader internationalcontexts. We still have little understanding of who is stealing water, where and how it is being stolen andwhy. There is also little understanding of the scale of water theft and harms and implications this issueposes towards irrigators, farmers and the environment.

My PhD research comprises a case study of the issue of water theft and overall state of water managementin the Murray-Darling Basin. The aim of this is to establish an initial database of the factors associated withwater theft, in order to inform future crime prevention strategies and assist water management operatorsand policy makers in their decision-makings. In addition, my research will create and contribute newknowledge of water theft for public awareness and the benefit of communities and ecosystems, now andfor the future.

As a student of green criminology, my PhD research involves looking outside of the legal definitions of watertheft to explore the broader sociocultural attitudes, historical aspects and environmental harms associatedwith this issue. I will be speaking with various local water users (e.g. irrigators and farmers) and keystakeholders (e.g. regulators and industry professionals) throughout the Murray-Darling Basin to understandwhat they consider to be the factors associated with water theft. These factors will be then used to identifyand critically analyse any emerging trends, patterns and transgressions the issue of water theft poses forAustralian water users and the environment in the future.

References

Baird, A. & Walters, R. (2020). Water theft through the ages: Insights for green criminology. Critical Criminology, 10, 1-18. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10612-020-09526-0

Barclay, E. & Bartel, R. (2015). Defining environmental crime: The perspective of farmers. Journal of Rural Studies, 39, 188–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.01.007

Barlow, M. & Clarke, T. (2017). Blue gold: the battle against corporate theft of the world's water. Routledge.

Brewster, K. (2020, 29 May). NSW water officials knew decades of unmeasured floodplain harvesting by irrigators was illegal. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/29/nsw-water-officials-knew-decades-of-unmeasured-floodplain-harvesting-by-irrigators-was-illegal?fbclid=IwAR32SHStrGi7SGADbNS2_L7LTx42KD-tmCUTN4khtAVNGReMa-mBMQFd0-Y

Brisman, A., McClanahan, B., South, N. & Walters, R. (2018). Water, Crime and Security in the Twenty-first century: Too Dirty, Too Little, Too Much. London: Palgrave.

Davies, A. (2019, 11 February). Bourke cotton farmers to challenge water laws that are accused of breaching.The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/11/bourke-cotton-farmers-to-challenge-water-laws-they-are-accused-of-breaching

Dooley, J. (2020, 19 June). The story of the stolen flood, and the quest for a royal commission. Mildura Weekly. Retrieved from https://www.milduraweekly.com.au/the-story-of-the-stolen-flood-and-the-quest-for-a-royal-commission/

Douglas, E.M., Wheeler, S.A., Smith, D.J., Overton, I.C., Gray, S.A., Doody, T.M. & Crossman, N.D. (2016). Using mental-modelling to explore how irrigators in the Murray–Darling Basin make water-use decisions. Journal of Hydrology, 6, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2016.01.035

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Druce, A. & Foley, M. (2018, 30 May). ABC’s Murray-Darling floodplain harvesting policy coverage misleading, government says. The Land. Retrieved from https://www.theland.com.au/story/5437292/abcs-floodplain-story-misleading-govt-claims/

Farrell, P. & McDonald, A. (2020, 6 May). Chinese state-owned company buys up water in the Murray-Darling. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-06/chinese-state-owned-companies-buy-up-water-in-murray-darling/12215548

Four Corners. (2017). Pumped: Who’s benefitting from the billions spent on the Murray–Darling. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/pumped/8727826

Grafton, R.Q. & Wheeler, S.A. (2018). Economics of water recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 10, 487-510.

Holley, C., Mutongwizo, T., Pucci, S., Castilla-Rho, J. and Sinclair, D., (2020). Groundwater regulation, compliance and enforcement: insights on regulators, regulated actors and frameworks in New South Wales, Australia. In Sustainable Groundwater Management (pp. 411-433). Springer, Cham.

Johnson, H., South, N. & Walters, R. (2015). The commodification and exploitation of fresh water: Property, human rights and green criminology. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 44, 146–162.

Leblanc, M., Tweed, S., Van Dijk, A. and Timbal, B. (2012). A review of historic and future hydrological changes in the Murray-Darling Basin. Global and planetary change, 80, 226-246.

Loch, A., Pérez-Blanco, C. D., Carmody, E., Felbab-Brown, V., Adamson, D., & Seidl, C. (2020). Grand theft water and the calculus of compliance. Nature Sustainability, 1-7.

Matthews, K. (2017). Independent investigation into NSW water management and compliance. New South Wales Department of Industry. Retrieved from https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/131905/Matthews-final-report-NSW-water-management-and-compliance.pdf

NSW Ombudsman, (2017). Investigation into water compliance and enforcement 2007-2010. Retrieved from https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/50133/Investigation-into-water-compliance-and-enforcement-2007-17.pd

Rubinsztein-Dunlop, S., Fallen, M., Carter, L. & Slezak, M. (2019, 8 July). How taxpayers are funding a huge corporate expansion in the Murray-Darling Basin. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/taxpayers-helping-fund-murray-darling-basin-expansion/1127946

Vertessey, R., Barma, D., Baumgartner, L., Mitrovic, S., Sheldon, F. & Bond, N. (2019). Independent assessment of the 2018-2019 fish deaths in the lower Darling. Murray-Darling Basin Authority. Retrieved from https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/pubs/Final-Report-Independent-Panel-fish-deaths-lower%20Darling_4.pd

Walker, B. (2019). Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission Report. Government of South Australia. Retrieved from https://www.mdbrc.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/murray-darling-basin-royal-commission-report.pdf?v=154889837

Wei, Y., Langford, J., Willett, I.R., Barlow, S. & Lyle, C. (2011). Is irrigated agriculture in the Murray Darling Basin well prepared to deal with reductions in water availability?. Global Environmental Change, 21(3), 906-916.

White, R. (2019). Water Theft in Rural Contexts. International Journal of Rural Criminology, 5(1), 137-156.

Cases

Water NSW v Barlow [2019] NSWLEC 30

Water NSW v Harris [2020] NSWLEC 18

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Dr Kyle MulrooneyLecturer In Criminology

Department of Criminology & Linguistics

University of New England

Email: kmulroon@une.edu.au

CONVERSATION PIECE: ILLEGAL HUNTERS ARE A BIGGER PROBLEM ON FARMSTHAN ANIMAL ACTIVISTS – SO WHY AREN’T WE TALKING ABOUT THAT?

In June 2020, the Victorian government announced on-the-spot fines for trespassers on farms following an

upper house inquiry into how animal activism affects agriculture.

It’s the latest in a string of new state and federal laws designed to crack down on activists who trespass on

farms – often to gather video evidence of alleged animal cruelty, which is later distributed to the public.

But amid the flurry of attention on activists, another group of trespassers on farms has largely escaped

attention: illegal hunters.

Unauthorised access to farm properties can create many problems – not least, it runs the risk spreading

disease such as African swine fever that can devastate farming industries.

It’s important that laws to tackle farm trespass are evidence-based.

Dr Alistair HarknessSenior Lecturer In Criminology

Department of Criminology & Linguistics

University of New England

Email: Alistair.Harkness@une.edu.au

MEDIA RELEASES

Source: pxfuel https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jzhbw

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Media and political focus

Media coverage of activists trespassing on farms has appeared regularly in recent years.

Over several months in 2018-19, activists targeted the Gippy Goat farm and cafe in Victoria – in oneincident stealing three goats and a lamb. News reports covered the protests, claims by farmers that thefines issued to the activists was inadequate, and the eventual closure of the farm to the public.

In another example last year, the front page of rural newspaper the Weekly Times featured a family exitingthe farming industry after alleged trespass and threats from animal activists.

Activists did not escape the attention of politicians. Ahead of Victoria’s new legislation this month, federalparliament last year passed a bill criminalising the “incitement” of both trespass, and damage or theft ofproperty, on agricultural land.

Speaking in support of the bill, Attorney-General Christian Porter said trespass onto agricultural land couldcontaminate food and breach biosecurity protocols. He specifically cited “activists” when describing howthe laws would work.

The New South Wales government last year also introduced significant fines for trespass on farms in theRight to Farm Act. And in South Australia, the government wants those who trespass or disrupt farmingactivities to face tougher penalties.

But as lawmakers crack down on animal activists, the problem of trespass by illegal hunters gets littlepolitical attention.

The illegal hunting problem

Illegal hunting includes hunting without a required licence and accessing private property withoutpermission.

In 2015 and 2016, this article’s co-author Alistair Harkness surveyed 56 Victoria farmers about theirexperiences and perceptions of farm crime. Farmers reported that in recent years, illegal hunters hadcaused them economic loss and emotional anguish by:

• damaging fences• shooting at buildings, beehives and livestock• stealing from sheds• failing to extinguish campfires• destroying fields with their vehicles.

A follow-up mail survey of 906 Victorian farmers in 2017 and 2018 asked them to rate the seriousness of arange of issues. Farmers reported the following issues as either serious or very serious: illegal shooting onfarms (34.4%), animal activism (30.9%), and trespass (44.2%).

Lead author Kyle Mulrooney is conducting the NSW Farm Crime Survey 2020. The work is ongoing, but sofar farmers have reported feeling victimised by trespassers generally, and fear about illegal hunters. Farmerswere not specifically asked for their views on trespassing activists.

A submission to a NSW parliamentary inquiry last year underscored the distress felt by farmers whenhunters trespass on their properties. Farmer John Payne recalled:

Recently we had a period over several nights, where unknown persons trespassed on our propertyand callously killed a substantial number of our goat kids, in one case trussing one up before killingthem. All just for fun and sport! […] This is one of several events where people have trespassed andshot our animals for fun, or hunted for pigs or wildlife, with little fear of detection, arrest andprosecution.

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Police follow the evidence

Figures supplied to us by NSW Police show in 2018, 513 incidents of criminal trespass on farms wasrecorded – up from 421 in 2014.

Giving evidence to the NSW parliamentary inquiry, Detective Inspector Cameron Whiteside, the State RuralCrime Coordinator, said illegal hunting was “the most cited factor associated with the trespass” on farms.

Police action appears to be following the evidence. In communication with the lead author, Whiteside hassaid enforcement and operations focused on illegal hunting and trespass are a primary and current focus ofthe Rural Crime Prevention Team.

Target all trespassers

As African swine fever sweeps Asia, Australian pork producers have been urged to ramp up biosecurityefforts on their own properties. This reportedly includes restricting visitor numbers and separating visitorand farm vehicles.

There are fears that if the disease hits Australia, it could could shut down Australia’s A$5.3 billion porkindustry, leading to mass job losses.

Given these risks, it’s important that policies to crack down on farm trespassers are guided by evidence, anddon’t unduly target a single group.

And importantly, more research into the issue is needed – including into the social and economic impacts offarm trespass, in all its forms.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the https://theconversation.com/illegal-hunters-are-a-bigger-problem-on-farms-than-animal-activists-so-why-arent-we-talking-about-that-126513 original article

NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

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INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF RURAL CRIME

The International Society for the Study of Rural Crime Inc. (ISSRC) was established in 2019 by a group of

scholars with an interest in studying, researching and teaching rural crime and rural society.

The Society has seven key aims:

(i) to unite cross-disciplinary international scholars with research interests in rural crime and rural

society

(ii) facilitate collegial alliances and collaborations;

(iii) allow for the sharing of cutting-edge research for engagement and impact

(iv) promote and organise events

(v) provide opportunities for post-graduate and early career researchers to disseminate their work

(vi) produce valuable evidence-based information that to enhance the well-being of rural

communities

(vii) heighten international scholarly, community and industry awareness of the study of rural

crime.

ISSRC will serve as a very useful platform for interested scholars to share their work with a wider audience,

and ideally work as a cohesive community of interest. As with any society, of course, the ISSRC will only be

as strong as its membership. The Society’s Executive warmly invite you to join us as together we expand

understandings of rural crime and society both theoretically and empirically.

More details, including on how to join, can be found at www.issrc.net

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The University of New England Centre for Rural Criminology would like to announce the launch of a newvodcast series: Issues in Rural Crime & Society.

The vodcast series will feature local, national and international researchers and postgraduate students;industry representatives and community members working together in the rural crime space.

The series can be accessed via the Centre’s webpage: https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/faculty-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education/hass/humanities-arts-and-social-sciences-research/centre-for-rural-criminology

or via YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCignCDlOjiHlUAqALMbjnIw/?fbclid=IwAR0Ynz0ldLbPPpRfPkxQhvUP5aR8aIuDC6dikOaGsfDTzP1qdb7w9VoA5kc

If you are interested in being interviewed, or contributing your work to the series, please email:rucrim@une.edu.au

Special thanks to ANZSOC for providing funding, through the Local Event Support Scheme, to develop theartwork and graphics for the vodcast series.

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2020-2021 CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITIES

While COVID-19 has significantly impacted the opportunities available for conferences and panels,organisers have found creative ways forward or postponed important opportunities. As such, there are stilla number of exciting opportunities where rural criminologists and like minded scholars, students andpractitioners can showcase their work, learn more from others and to network professionally and socially.

Dear ANZ Historical Criminology Network Members,

As you have undoubtedly heard by now the ANZSOC 2020 Gold Coast conference was cancelled (one ofmany conferences this year) which was where we were going to have our first Australian and New ZealandHistorical Criminology Network symposium. Unfortunately, a face-to-face symposium is out of the question,however, we will be organising a virtual symposium instead.

The purpose of this symposium will be to get a chance to see the breadth of historical criminology workcurrently underway in (or about) Australia and New Zealand by people in all career stages (includingHonours, HDR, and ECR), and in all research capacities (for example, independent scholars, archivists, orstaff at higher education institutions). We welcome people from across different professional disciplines.

As we do not wish to cause Zoom fatigue in people, and so that people in other time-zones can join us, wewill be running the symposium over two 3-hour sessions on two days: November 19th and 20th 2020.Session one on November 19th will run between 9am-12pm AEST and the second session on November20th will run from 6pm-9pm AEST.

Looking forward to hearing about the fabulous research taking place!

All the best,Vicky Nagy and Georgina Rychner, symposium convenors

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Visit: https://www.fvv.um.si/conf2020/ for further information.

Deadlines for abstract submissions will be available early 2021.

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NEW BOOKS

Feeling the heat: International perspectives on the prevention of wildfire ignition

by Janet Stanley (University of Melbourne), Alan March (University of Melbourne), James Ogloff (Swinburne University of Technology), Jason Thompson (University of Melbourne)

https://vernonpress.com/book/890

Woman Abuse in Rural Places

By Walter S. DeKeseredy

December 20, 2020 Forthcoming by Routledge

https://www.routledge.com/Woman-Abuse-in-Rural-Places/DeKeseredy/p/book/9780367443719

Water, Governance, and Crime Issues

Editors: Eman, K., Mesko, G., Segato, L., Migliorini, M.

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030447977

Rural Crime Prevention: Theory, tactics and techniques

By Alistair Harkness (ed)

May 19, 2020

https://www.routledge.com/Rural-Crime-Prevention-Theory-Tactics-and-Techniques/Harkness/p/book/9781138625143

Australian Policing: Critical Issues in the 21st Century Police Practice

Editors: Birch, P., Kennedy, M., Kruger, E.

December 20, 2020 Forthcoming by Routledge

https://www.routledge.com/Australian-Policing-Critical-Issues-in-21st-Century-Police-Practice/Birch-Kennedy-Kruger/p/book/9780367464677

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Dr Louise Nicholas is Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at Loughborough University, UK.Louise has been teaching and researching in the field of crime, heritage and the environment for over adecade, with a particular focus on understanding and reducing crime against heritage assets. Louise lives inEngland with her partner and two small children, where they mostly sit on the floor while their very big andbouncy dog steals the sofa.

Louise can be contacted by email at l.e.nicholas@lboro.ac.uk or you can chat to her on Twitter at@DrLouiseN where her timeline is mostly taken up by environmental rants, vegan recipes, and B-moviecommentary.

2021 EDITOR:DR LOUISE NICHOLAS

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If you would like to contribute a written piece or if you have any news items you would like featured in the next edition of Rurality, Crime and Society, please email

the 2021 editor Dr. Louise Nicholas at L.E.Nicholas@lboro.ac.uk.