Criminology has largely failed to examine crime and criminal justice in a rural setting, concentrating on urban crime. This collection challenges the enduring perception of communities and provides an analysis of rural crime.

As this account of crime patterns in medieval England shows, crime can perhaps tell us more about a society's dynamics, tensions, and values than any other single social phenomenon. And Barbara Hanawalt's approach is particularly enlightening because it looks at the subject not from the heights of the era's learned opinion, but from the viewpoint of the people participating in the criminal dramas and manipulating the law for their own benefit. Hanawalt's sources are those of the new social historian—village and judicial records supplemented by the literature of the time. She examined approximately 20,000 criminal court cases as well as coroners' and manorial court rolls. Her analysis of these data produces striking results. Medieval England, the author reveals, was a society in which all classes readily sought violent solutions to conflicts. The tensions of village life were severe. The struggle for food and for profits caused numerous homicides and property crimes. These felonies were committed in seasonal patterns, with homicides occurring most frequently during the difficult times of planting and harvesting, and burglaries reaching a peak in winter when goods were stored in houses and barns. Moreover, organized crime was widespread and varied. It ranged from simple associations of local people to professional bands led by members of the nobility. One of Hanawalt's most interesting findings explodes the Robin Hood myth of robbers who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Almost always, she shows, the robbers stole from the poor and kept for themselves. Throughout, Hanawalt carefully places the crimes and their participants within the context of village life in the later middle ages. Along with a description of the social and legal setting of criminal acts, she includes a discussion of the influence of war, politics, and economic, social, and demographic changes on the patterns of crime.

This impressive collection of original essays explores the relationship between social conflict and the environment - a topic that has received little attention within criminology. The chapters provide a systematic and comprehensive introduction and overview of conflict situations stemming from human exploitation of environments, as well as the impact of social conflicts on the wellbeing and health of specific species and ecosystems. Largely informed by green criminology perspectives, the chapters in the book are intended to stimulate new understandings of the relationships between humans and nature through critical evaluation of environmental destruction and degradation associated with social conflicts occurring around the world. With a goal of creating a typology of environment-social conflict relationships useful for green criminological research, this study is essential reading for scholars and academics in criminology, as well as those interested in crime, law and justice.

Exploring the links between armed conflict and transnational crime, Florian Weigand builds on in-depth empirical research into some of Southeast Asia's murkiest borders. The disparate voices of drug traffickers, rebel fighters, government officials and victims of armed conflict are heard in Conflict and Transnational Crime, exploring perspectives that have been previously disregarded in understanding the field. Weigand's nuanced comparative analysis of four border regions in Southeast Asia counters the stereotypical view that conflict zones are lawless areas in which all kinds of criminal activities flourish. Chapters illustrate the logic that determines the relationship between armed conflict and transnational crime. Further, the book analyses how smuggling economies function in conflict zones, explaining why some rebel groups are involved in the smuggling economy more than others, and why state actors actually play a much more crucial role. This crucial study will be a compelling read for international relations, political sociology and development studies scholars. The in-depth analysis of real-life situations will also greatly benefit policy-makers and aid organisations looking to better support areas at the heart of conflict and transnational crime.

Policing reveals much about rural society. It refers to the way that the police, the public and other agencies regulate themselves and each other according to the dominant ideals of society. This can be formally, through the ever-growing spectrum of policing partnerships in neo-liberal countries, or informally, through the performance and enforcement of moral codes and values. This book draws on international inter-disciplinary perspectives to examine the range and consequences of policing across different rural localities. Rural Policing and Policing the Rural is organised into two sections: the first examines who is policing rural areas, while the second examines the nature of rural policing by considering, on the one hand, the policing of rural space and, on the other, how ideas of rurality are regulated. In doing so this book provides a survey of rural policing that will be valuable to academics, students, policy makers and those policing rural places.

Immigration and its consequences is a substantially contested subject with hugely differing viewpoints. While some contend that criminal participation by migrants is the result of environmental factors found in the host country that are beyond the control of migrants, others blame migrants for all that is wrong in their communities. In this book, experts from Europe, the USA, Turkey and Israel examine recent developments in the fields of culture conflict, organized crime, victimization and terrorism, all of which intersect to varying degrees with migration and illegal conduct. While the essays further our understanding of a variety of issues surrounding migration, at the same time they illuminate the complexities of managing the challenges as globalization increases.

Using the framework of interest group conflict, this text combines a balanced, comprehensive overview of the field of deviance with first-hand expertise in the workings of the criminal justice system. Deviant Behavior, Seventh Edition, surveys a wide range of topics, from explanations regarding crime and criminal behavior, measurement of crime, violent crime and organizational deviance, to sexual behavior, mental health, and substance abuse. This new edition continues its tradition of applying time-tested, sociological theory to developing social concepts and emerging issues.