Convict Life, Rural Crime & Criminological Theories – Detailed Study Notes

Convict Life in Australia & Crime over the Life Course

  • Rural Crime Podcast episode featuring Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart.
    • Focus: convict life in Australia, crime trajectories across the life course, and the impact of rurality.
    • Academic path:
    • PhD, University of Edinburgh.
    • Welcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Glasgow (until 1997).
    • Migrated to Australia → Research Fellow, University of Tasmania.
      • Co-designer of the “Lottery of Life” exhibition at Port Arthur (1999-2018).
    • Lecturer, Department of History & Classics (UTas) 2000-2011.
    • Visiting Fellow, University of Texas (2011) → Keith Cameron Chair in Australian History, University College Dublin (2012).
    • Returned to UTas (2013) → Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Arts (2013-2016).
      • Established a diploma in Family History; taught First-Year World History.
    • Joined History & Archaeology, University of New England (UNE) in April 2021.
  • Significance:
    • Links historical penal data with contemporary criminological debates on life-course offending and rural disadvantage.
    • Demonstrates how spatial isolation, labour markets, and community networks shaped desistance/recidivism among convicts.

Civic Community Theory (Lee et al., 2008)

  • Ecological model explaining place-based variation in crime.
  • Key constructs:
    1. Residential stability (e.g., length of residence, %\% home ownership).
    2. Strong middle class (locally owned businesses, income equality).
    3. Civic engagement (voter turnout, voluntary associations).
  • Methodology: heavily quantitative; secondary data aggregated at the county level (U.S.).
  • Originates in rural sociology, not the Chicago School; counters urban-centric social disorganisation theory.
  • Implications for rural criminology:
    • Captures how social change (de-agrarianisation, migration, service-withdrawal) re-configures informal control.
    • Future viability depends on comparative work outside the U.S. & mixed-methods/qualitative extensions (Doucet & Lee, 2014).

Classical → Contemporary Criminological Lineage

  • Classical (18th C.) – Beccaria & Bentham: rationality, deterrence, proportionate punishment.
  • Biological/Positivist – Lombroso: atavism, physiology.
  • Biosocial renaissance: traits (hyperactivity, addiction vulnerability) correlate with offending (Burke, 2014).
  • Sociological (20th C.) – Durkheim (anomie), Marx (class conflict), Merton (strain), control theories.
  • Place-based – Social disorganisation, collective efficacy.
  • Critical traditions – Feminist, Marxist, green, state/corporate, intersectional.
  • Relevance to rural criminology:
    • Testing urban-rooted theories in dispersed settings → revision of core assumptions (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2019).

Crime & Place

  • Social Disorganisation (Shaw & McKay, 1942): poverty + residential turnover ⇒ weakened institutions ⇒ crime.
    • Tested in both urban & rural spaces; debate on fit for low-density communities.
  • Routine Activity (Cohen & Felson, 1979):
    Crime Event=f(Motivated Offender, Suitable Target, Absence of Guardian)\text{Crime Event} = f(\text{Motivated Offender},\, \text{Suitable Target},\, \text{Absence of Guardian})
  • Crime Pattern Theory (Brantingham & Brantingham, 1984/2021): offenders search along activity nodes & paths; environmental backcloth.
  • Situational Crime Prevention: manipulate opportunity structure (lighting, locks, target-hardening).

Future of Rural Criminology (Podcast w/ Prof. Joe Donnermeyer)

  • Emerging agendas: rural politics, spatiality in theory, global South scholarship, agrarian change, food security.
  • Calls for interdisciplinary alliances (geography, ecology, public health) & de-centering Western rural imagery.

Profile: Professor Joe Donnermeyer

  • Professor Emeritus, School of Environment & Natural Resources, Ohio State University.
  • Adjunct roles: WVU Center on Research on Violence; UNE School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences.
  • Output: 100+ peer-reviewed papers on rural crime.
  • Editorial leadership:
    • Editor, Routledge International Handbook of Rural Criminology (2016).
    • Preparing Criminology of Food & Agriculture monograph.
    • Founder/editor, International Journal of Rural Criminology.
  • Institution-builder: co-founded International Society for the Study of Rural Crime & ASC Division of Rural Criminology.

Cultural Criminology & Rural Crime

  • Roots: Birmingham School + “new criminology” (late 1970s).
  • Examines cultural meanings of deviance: sub-cultures, media, emotionality (edgework).
  • Rural lens:
    • Patriarchal traditions & power structures (Websdale, 1997).
    • Media portrayals of “hillbilly crime,” meth labs, & farm theft (Donnermeyer & DeKeseredy, 2014).
    • Highlights symbolic violence & collective identities in sparsely populated areas.

Environmental / Green Criminology

  • Legalistic view: crimes explicitly codified (illegal logging, waste trafficking).
  • Ecocentric view: harm to ecosystems is intrinsically wrongful, law or not.
  • Green criminology (Brisman & South, 2021): hybrid; interrogates state-corporate collusion, transnational harms, climate injustice.
  • Rural relevance: mining, forestry, industrial agriculture, water theft.
  • Central concept: ecological justice—rights & wellbeing of human + non-human victims.

Feminist Criminology

  • Variants: liberal, radical, Marxist/socialist, postmodern, intersectional.
  • Core commitments:
    • Center women’s lived experiences and agency.
    • Analyse intersecting oppressions (class, race, sexuality, rurality).
  • Rural studies:
    • Violence against women heightened by geographic isolation, gun culture, lack of services (Carrington et al., 2014).
    • Talk-back methodology (Hall-Sanchez, 2014): community dialogues reveal place-based narratives of abuse.

Late Modernity, Surveillance & Securitization

  • Late modern condition (Bauman, 2007): fluid identities, precariat, shrinking welfare state.
  • Criminal justice shift (Garland, 2001): politicisation, punitive populism.
  • Responsibilisation: households adopt private security, CCTV, smart tech.
  • Rural dimension: globalised supply chains + digital connectivity penetrate local spaces; leads to hybrid policing (Bowden & Pytlarz, 2022).

Left Realism

  • Founders: Jock Young & Roger Matthews (1992).
  • Key analytic frame: “Square of Crime” – State, Offender, Victim, Community.
  • Emphasises:
    • Relative deprivation and marginalisation.
    • Community-based prevention over “zero-tolerance.”
  • Rural applications: farm theft, sexual violence; integrated with feminist & masculinity theories (DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 2010).

Male Peer Support Theory (DeKeseredy & Schwartz)

  • Explains male-on-female intimate violence via peer dynamics.
  • Four streams:
    1. Routine activities with male friends.
    2. Informational support (advice / scripts legitimising abuse).
    3. Attachments to men who have abused partners.
    4. Direct peer pressure to have sex.
  • Originated in rural studies; now validated across rural & urban samples (DeKeseredy & Rennison, 2020).
  • Highlights role of economic stress + patriarchal sub-cultures.

Primary Socialisation Theory (Oetting & Beauvais, 1987)

  • Substance use arises from norms of primary reference groups (family, close friends).
  • Community variables (size, poverty, racial composition) act indirectly via the strength of primary bonds.
  • Findings:
    • Rural ≠ universally protective; some small towns show high use rates.
    • Applicable across urban–rural continuum (Oetting & Donnermeyer, 1998).

Rational Choice, Routine Activity & Situational Crime Prevention

  • Rational Choice (Cornish & Clarke, 2016): offenders calculate expected utility.
    Ucrime=Expected Benefit−Expected CostU_{crime} = \text{Expected Benefit} - \text{Expected Cost}
  • Decision chain: preparation → entry → commission → exit → aftermath; differs by offence type.
  • Situational tools: increase effort/risks, reduce rewards/prompts, remove excuses.
    • Rural examples: lockable fuel tanks, GPS-tagged livestock, property marking (Aransiola & Ceccato, 2020).
  • Crime Pattern: spatial/temporal clustering informs patrol, target hardening.

Safety & Security Studies

  • Distinguishes domestic/public safety from international security.
  • Research foci (Meško, 2021; Ceccato, 2016):
    • Objective threats vs perceived fear.
    • Cooperation among police, private security, community watch.
    • Efficiency, rights, legal frameworks.
  • Rural relevance: sparse policing, volunteer fire brigades, farmer self-protection networks (Harkness, 2020).

Anthropocene & Criminology

  • Anthropocene: proposed epoch where humans are primary geologic force (Rockström et al., 2009).
  • Criminological shifts:
    • Beyond anthropocentric harm → include non-human victims.
    • Tackle climate crimes, pollution, species extinction, ecocide (Crook et al., 2018).
    • Demand regulatory/penal reforms & planetary stewardship.
  • Rural implications:
    • Agri-chemical runoff, mega-droughts, land-grabbing disproportionately affect remote communities.
    • Calls for plural knowledges & inclusion of Indigenous environmental governance (IPCC, 2019).