In Defence of Farms: an Agrarian Crime Prevention Audit in Rutland

Abstract

Farm crime is an area of research widely ignored by criminologists. Yet the agricultural industry is a major enterprise valued in excess of £3l, 000 million, and reports from a wide range of sources indicate that British farms (and the British countryside) are suffering some of the highest levels of crime in their existence. This chapter examines crime and crime prevention on farms in the county of Rutland in central England; it seeks to identify the types of solutions that farmers introduce to combat common problems, while recognising that farms, by their very nature, are difficult to protect.