Farm victimisation: The quintessential rural crime

Abstract

No book on crime in rural Australia would be complete without a chapter that discusses farm crime. Crime on farms primarily constitutes property offences, such as the theft of livestock and other farm produce, tools and machinery, fuel, chemicals and fertilisers as well as vandalism, arson, trespassing and illegal hunting. Farm crime also includes environmental offences such as the illegal dumping of rubbish and waste, theft of water and timber or the growing of cannabis or other drug production on farmland. Crime in Australia's outback has been a significant and colourful feature of Australia's history and folklore since European settlement and has become the substance of legends from Australia's unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda, which celebrates sheep stealing to Australia's most renowned bushranger, Ned Kelly (Braithwaite, 1999). Many of the values and behaviours that evolved in colonial times appear to have set the stage regarding attitudes about farm crime in Australia today. This chapter begins with a discussion of the historical evolution of farm crime in Australia and then reports on the results of victimisation studies conducted on farms in New South Wales between 2000 and 2003, a time that saw Australian agriculture experience a boom in livestock prices followed by the worst drought in 100 years. The strength of livestock prices led to a record number of reported livestock thefts across the country. Yet, even in the worst of the drought these thefts persisted (NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics & Research, 2001). This led to significant public and political concern about the problem of farm crime in Australia, particularly livestock theft.