This section considers an array of specific types of crime; all entries are focused on studies of particular crime types which are rural-specific.

One of the challenges in assembling this section of the encyclopedia, though, was determining what to include and what to exclude. Stock theft is a quintessential rural crime, so of course was included without hesitation. There are many other topics in criminology which equally apply to rural and urban settings, though – one example is cybercrime – but yet there exist specific nuances about this when considering rural contextualization.

We have been quite conscious in limiting the entries to those things with a critical mass of rural work. Some entries in this section draw upon an established and burgeoning suite of theoretical and empirical scholarship; others are topics upon which scant rural-specific study has hitherto been attempted.

This section has been divided into two. The first canvasses 17 different topics for which ‘people and crime’ is the predominant focus. That is, the offending and victimization for which rural people are either perpetrators or victims of offending behaviours. The second attends to 13 topics for which property, animals, the environment and other targets are the primary focus.

The entries contained within this section is not exhaustive. There remains scope for other topics to be studied, and the editors of the encyclopedia hope that these entries will prompt scholars and practitioners – emerging and established, and regardless of geographic location – to engage in original research, data collection and publication to expand further collective understandings of crime in rural settings.