Research Methods for Rural Criminologists

Ralph A. Weisheit is a Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at Illinois State University. He is the author of eight books, including Methamphetamine: Its History, Pharmacology, and Treatment (co-authored with William L. White), and Domestic Marijuana: A Neglected Industry. He has conducted extensive research on rural crime and justice and has published more than 45 journal articles, numerous book chapters, and solicited essays. He has appeared in the Frontline documentary film series and on the news program 60 Minutes. His work has been reported in the Atlantic Monthly, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, and USA Today. Jessica Rene Peterson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, an Honorary Adjunct Lecturer at the University of New England, Australia, and a Research Associate with the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England, Australia. Her research interests include policing and law enforcement community relations, rural criminology, and juvenile crime and policy. She enjoys using qualitative methods and working with practitioners to produce impactful research with practical applications. She is currently a member of the Rural Sociological Society, an active member in the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Rural Criminology, and serves as an Executive Committee Member in the International Society for the Study of Rural Crime. Artur Pytlarz is a PhD student in the School of Languages, Law and Social Sciences at the Technological University Dublin. His research is funded by the Irish Research Council as part of the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship scheme. Artur holds an MA in Sociology from Wroclaw University and an MA in Criminology from Dublin Institute of Technology. His research interest focuses on the role of rural communities in the process of production of safety in the countryside. He is also interested in the consequences of rapid social changes, typical of the late modern landscape, and its impact on rural resilience. Artur is a co-founder and co-chair of the European Society of Criminology Working Group on Rural Criminology (ERC). He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Rural Criminology and a member of the International Society for the Study of Rural Crime.

List of Figures

List of Boxes

List of Contributors

Chapter 1. Defining Rural

Callie Marie Rennison and Hailey Powers Mondragon

Chapter 2. Studying the Rural Criminal Justice System

Kyle C. Ward, Paul Hawkins, and Alexandra Swanty

Chapter 3. An Essay on Theory and Research in Rural Criminology

Joseph F. Donnermeyer

Chapter 4. Gaining Access to Rural Communities

Jessica Rene Peterson

Chapter 5. Gathering Data on Male-To-Female Violence in Rural and Remote Places

Walter S. DeKeseredy

Chapter 6. Investigating Access to Justice, the Rural Lawyer Shortage, and Implications for Civil and Criminal Legal Systems

Lisa Pruitt and Andrew Davies

Chapter 7. Researching State Crime in Rural Areas

Victoria E. Collins

Chapter 8. Crime Talk in the Countryside

Artur Pytlarz and Matt Bowden

Chapter 9. Surveying in Rural Settings

Alistair Harkness, Kyle Mulrooney, and Joseph F. Donnermeyer

Chapter 10. Focus Groups: The Challenges and Advantages of Creating and Using Focus Groups in Rural Areas?

Gorazd Meško and Rok Hacin

Chapter 11. Geographical Information and GIS in Rural Criminology

Vania Ceccato

Chapter 12. Entering the Relational Space: Using Field-Analytic Methods in Researching Rural Security

Matt Bowden and Artur Pytlarz

Chapter 13. Interviewing in Rural Areas

Kreseda Smith

Chapter 14. Ethnographic Research: Immersing Oneself in the Rural Environment.

Michele Statz and William Garriott

Chapter 15. Visually Representing Rural: Ethics of Photographing Marginalized People in the Rural South

Heith Copes and Jared Ragland

Chapter 16. Content Analysis in Rural Criminology

Stephen T. Young and Brian Pitman

Chapter 17. Going Global: The Challenges of Studying Rural Crime Worldwide

Ziwei Qi

Chapter 18. Future Directions for Rural Research Methods

Ralph Weisheit

Index