On the most basic level, rural heritage crime is any event that breaks the law and has a detrimental effect on protected heritage and historic assets within a rural context. The reality is more complex than this, both in definition of rural heritage and of what may be considered criminal.

Rural heritage is not just the physical heritage that we see in our rural societies. It is also the intangible, cultural heritage such as farming practices, language and storytelling and craft techniques. It can also include natural heritage such as protected hedgerows, coral reefs and Indigenous lands. The crime against these settings can be broad ranging.

Legality or illegality

It is important to consider that an action that is against the law in one jurisdiction may not be against the law in another jurisdiction: for example, the various protections (or lack thereof) offered to valuable forest lands. Governments may also grant themselves and others – usually powerful corporations – exceptions to commit acts which in any other circumstance would be illegal: for example, licensing polluting behaviours which damage waterways and consequentially traditional activities reliant on those resources. The granting of permits does not lessen the harm caused to rural heritage settings, nor make the outcome any less devastating for the people, natural environment and wildlife involved.

For these reasons, when we consider rural heritage crime we must take a more pragmatic zemiological (that is, social harms) approach. That is, we are less concerned with the letter of the law and more concerned with the spirit of the law. We look at the harms caused to rural heritage rather than whether a particular jurisdiction legislates for or against an action. In this way, we can see that governments and state actions can be equally guilty of rural heritage crime as individuals and organizations.

Rural heritage crime offences

There are a broad range of rural heritage crime offences. These can broadly be categorized as follows: