49% of the world’s population lives in small towns villages and farms yet until recent years criminological scholarship has focused almost exclusively on urban crimes. The Routledge International Handbook of Rural Criminology is the first major publication to bring together this growing body of scholarship under a single cover. For many years rural criminology has remained marginalized and often excluded from the mainstream with precedence given to urban criminology: this volume intends to address that imbalance. Pioneering in scope this book brings together leading international scholars from fourteen different countries to offer an authoritative synthesis of theoretical and empirical literature. This handbook is divided in to seven parts each addressing a different aspect of rural criminology:Rurality and crimeCriminological dimensions of food and agricultureViolence and ruralityDrug use production and trafficking in the rural contextIntersections between rural and green criminologyPolicing justice and ruralityTeaching rural criminologyEdited by a world renowned scholar of rural criminology this book explores rural crime issues in over thirty-five countries including Japan Sweden Brazil Australia Tanzania the US and the UK. This is the first Handbook dedicated to rural criminology and is an essential resource for criminologists sociologists and social geographers engaged with rural studies and crime.