Area (2000) 32.4, 403-41 1 Fear of crime, cultural threat and the countryside RichardYarwood* and Graham Gardnert *Geography Department, University College Worcester, Worcester, WR2 6AJ Email: r.yarwood@worc.ac.uk tinstitute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Llandinam Building, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3DB Email: gsg95(aber.ac.uk Revised manuscript received 18 January 2000. Summary This paper argues that the study of crime and the fear of crime in rural areas reveals much about the geography of crime, policing and rural society. Drawing upon a crime and safety survey conducted with residents of a rural parish in Worcestershire it establishes a link between fear of crime and 'cultural threats' to residents' dominant constructions of rurality. Itconcludes by considering the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act and its implications for rural policing and society. Introduction Crime in the countryside has largely been ignored by geographers and policy makers. There has been a tendency to consider crime as an urban rather than a rural issue because rates are far lower in the country than the city (Mirrlees-Black 1 998). This is despite a sharp increase in the rural crime rate over the past decade and a withdrawal of policing from many rural areas (Yarwood and Edwards 1995). While some studies of rural crime issues have been under taken, they have tended to focus on particular aspects of crime and crime prevention (Burgess 1996; Valentine 1997; Ringwall and Moody 1999) and there has been no systematic attempt to appraise the impact of crime on everyday rural lifestyles. This neglect is surprising given the well established tradition of researching crime from geo graphical perspectives (Herbert 1 989; Evans et al 1992). Crime and the fear of crime also reveal much about rural society. It is important to recognize that the 'rural' is culturally constructed (Halfacree 1993) and often as a crime-free (Hanbury-Tenison 1 998) or safe (Valentine 1 997) place to live. Although these visions are far from reality (Mingay 1 989; Jones 1998), the ideals that inform them remain important and have influenced social re-composition in the countryside (Halfacree 1994; Cloke et al 1995). At the same time, itmust be recognized that 'crime' itself is a cultural construct: what is defined as criminal shifts according to historical and political contingencies at both local and national scales (Young 1999). As a consequence, the boundary between what is considered 'legitimate' and 'crimi nal' behaviour in different spaces is often blurred, contested and open to redefinition. Cloke (1993, 119) has speculated that many residents fail to distinguish between 'criminality and cultural threat' and that activities which have been branded as criminal, such as 'raves', are simply inconsistent with hegemonic views of the countryside. This reflects a longer history of excluding certain people includ ing gypsies, tramps and ethnic minorities, from the countryside on the basis of perceived crimin ality (Sibley 1997; Jones 1998). Frequently these ideas have been supported by legislation aimed at regulating what is culturally acceptable or criminal in particular rural spaces (Parker 1996; Sibley 1 994, 1995, 1997). Cultural as well as illegal threats to people in the countryside are therefore important as, through moral panic and legislation, the cultural ISSN 0004-0894 (Q Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) 2000 This content downloaded from 217.158.134.98 on Thu, 8 Jan 2015 07:18:10 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions