It is crucial to distinguish between ‘rural policing’ and ‘policing the rural’. Rural policing refers to offences that are unique to rural environments, such as poaching, rustling, theft of agricultural machinery or certain environmental crimes. Policing the rural draws attention to the idea that rurality is socially constructed. Although meanings of rurality are contested, the hegemonic view is that the countryside is peaceful, idyllic and problem-free. This rural myth contributes to a widely held ideal that the countryside is, or should be, crime-free. This has three important consequences.

First, the rural idyll has hidden the scale, nature and reality of crime to such an extent that it has become invisible or, at best, regarded as much less of a problem than in urban areas (see Halfacree, 1994). Such views have contributed to a withdrawal of state policing that, in turn, has contributed to a sense that rural areas and their residents have been neglected by policy makers (see Woods, 2006, 2007). The rural idyll also hides some serious crimes. Of late, there has been a realization that slavery, people trafficking, domestic violence, agricultural thefts and illegal drugs can originate from, and impact upon, rural areas. These issues reveal the growing significance of organized crime in rural places and, in particular, how the processes, flows and impacts of international criminal networks reflect the increasingly interconnected, globalized nature of the countryside. Rural crime stretches beyond rural communities and cannot, therefore, be policed solely at the local level.

Second, what is considered ‘criminal’ is also culturally constructed, and very often bound up with ideas of rurality (see Yarwood, 2007). Thus, certain activities or people are regarded as ‘out of place’ in the countryside. These include, but are not limited to, young people ‘hanging around’, travellers, migrant workers or even ramblers – all of whom have been subject to surveillance and policing. This reflects a blurring of cultural threat with criminal threat: the rural idyll is being threatened rather than a crime taking place. At the same time, some illegal or contentious activities have formed part of rural imagination and identity.