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Rural crime: UNE to coordinate global research

November 17, 2004

thumb Barclay Donnermyer.jpgCrime in rural communities, a cause of increasing concern in many countries, is to be the focus of a new international research centre at the University of New England.

The Centre for Rural Crime, Safety and Security, announced last week, will be at the hub of a global network including researchers at The Ohio State University in the United States and the University of Plymouth in the UK. The Centre will be located within UNE’s Institute for Rural Futures (IRF).

Professor Joseph Donnermeyer from The Ohio State University, an international expert on rural crime, visited UNE last week as the new Centre’s International Research Coordinator. “IRF is one of the few institutions in the world focusing on rural crime, and is leading the way,” Professor Donnermeyer said. “To have a single centre bringing researchers together from around the world is a great advance.”

The Director of the new Centre is Dr Elaine Barclay (pictured here with Professor Donnermeyer), an IRF researcher who, over the past six years, has developed and led the Institute’s program of research on rural crime, safety and security, working in collaboration with Professor Pat Jobes of the Australian Institute of Criminology (formerly of UNE), and Professor Donnermeyer. A research report by Dr Barclay was among the evidence that led the NSW Attorney General’s Department to appoint 32 new rural crime investigators around the State.

“Rural crime is an emerging field of criminology,” Dr Barclay explained. “The Centre will provide research on policing and the criminal justice system in rural areas, crime prevention, agricultural and environmental crime, ethnicity and crime, and the growing fear of crime among many rural people. It will explore the various social factors that impact upon crime and safety in rural communities.”

As well as Australian and international researchers, the Centre’s network will incorporate a wide range of professionals such as rural police, representatives of farming organisations, and representatives of State and Federal Government agencies for agriculture, justice, emergency services, health and welfare. “The inclusion of these practitioners will ensure the relevance and practicality of the Centre’s research outcomes,” Dr Barclay said.

Mr Brendan Doyle, the Acting Director of IRF, said the establishment of the Centre had been “a vision of Dr Barclay’s”. “It’s important for this research to be based in rural Australia rather than in a big city,” he said, “and so the Centre’s location at UNE in northern NSW, and within that University’s Institute for Rural Futures, is ideal.”

Professor Donnermeyer said he was returning to the United States to a meeting of the American Society of Criminology, and was sure that many of the delegates to that meeting would be keen to become involved with the new Centre.

Media contact: Dr Elaine Barclay, Institute for Rural Futures, UNE (02) 6773 5141 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.
A photograph of Dr Elaine Barclay and Professor Joseph Donnermeyer is available. Please contact Jim Scanlan on (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 17, 2004 04:10 PM