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Rural crime and violence: worrying trend revealed

April 28, 2005

Kerrie Carington thumb.jpgCommunities perceived as perpetrators of crime are often the very people most anxious to prevent and control it, according to the latest research from The University of New England.

Professor Kerry Carrington (pictured here), from UNE’s School of Social Science, is compiling her research for a book, Policing the Rural Crisis, to be published by Federation Press later this year. She has just been employed by UNE specifically to research social issues affecting rural areas, and much of her work to date has been looking at crime and violence in such areas.

“On average, violence in rural areas is higher than the State average and we are uncovering a very big and hidden problem of family violence,” Professor Carrington said. She is collaborating on the book with her husband, Adjunct Professor Russell Hogg from UNE’s Institute for Rural Futures.

The main findings of their research to date include:
(1) Violence is certainly no less of a problem for rural communities than it is for urban ones. Some rural communities have rates of violent crime well in excess of the State average.
(2) Sexual assaults and other kinds of physical violence are not necessarily perceived as “crimes” in some isolated areas, especially where there is a “masculine” rural culture that sees nothing wrong with the use of force in interpersonal encounters.
(3) Women living in rural areas are loath to report domestic or sexual violence lest they lose their anonymity, or because they are unable to access appropriate support, fear social ostracism, or are too financially dependent on their partners to seek outside help.

Professor Carrington said she was not exactly sure why family (or domestic) violence was more common among rural communities but said there were a number of reasons why groups were blamed, en masse, for crime.

“In rural areas and sparsely-settled towns,” she said, “many residents will blame particular groups for a crime wave: Indigenous groups, or people who live in a particular area, or newcomers, or fringe-dwellers.

“In fact, it is these very groups that have most at stake in preventing violence and that are usually actively working to prevent crime. Scapegoating groups for crime serves only to increase tension within the community. Politicians who perceive the issue simply as one of ‘law and order’ are providing scapegoats rather than solutions to these complex problems.”

As well as her academic career, including positions at Charles Sturt University, the University of Newcastle and the University of Western Sydney, Professor Carrington has worked as an executive in the public sector and as a senior researcher for the Australian Parliament. She has attracted a number of grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to study a variety of sociological and criminological issues, including a $186,000 grant for her work on “Violence, Rurality and Civilising Processes”. Her research at UNE will focus on broader social issues affecting isolated communities, such as the difficulty of providing appropriate social services in country areas, rural models of preventing crime and family violence, and factors that harness the best from communities to promote social capital in rural and regional Australia.


Media contact: Professor Kerry Carrington, School of Social Science, UNE (02) 6773 3519 or Lydia Roberts, Public relations Manager, UNE (02) 6773 2779.

For a copy of the photograph of Professor Carrington displayed here, please contact Lydia Roberts on (02) 6773 2779.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at April 28, 2005 03:26 PM