Farm victimisation: The quintessential rural crime

There is nothing more 'rural' than those crimes committed against farms and other agricultural industries. These crimes are significant because agriculture forms a major part of any nation's economy. Plus, crime poses a threat to international trade, food safety and food security. Crime is costly for farmers in terms of lost production and replacement costs, lost work time and higher insurance premiums, and this in turn impacts on local economies. When neighbours are suspected offenders, rifts can occur in a community (Barclay et al. 2001). It is therefore surprising that this type of rural crime has received very little attention from criminologists. The aim of this chapter is to describe the nature and impact of agricultural crime and draw together the key issues from the few studies that have been conducted around the world to stress the importance of agricultural crime for the agendas of criminologists, governments, policymakers, police, farmers and the communities where they live.