Policing Agricultural Crime

Abstract

The idea that farms are crime-free has never been true. However, the industrialisation of farming in advanced capitalist countries has made agricultural operations and their vast array of expensive machinery, equipment and supplies bigger targets for crime than ever before (Barclay and Donnermeyer 2007). There are two broad sets or categories of crime that can occur on farms. The first includes so-called 'ordinary crimes': offences which have been part of the farm scene for many decades, such as the theft of livestock, machinery and farm supplies, vandalism, rubbish dumping, and damage from trespassers and hunters (Barclay and Donnermeyer 2007; Mears et al. 2007a, 2007b, 2007c). A second set of crimes has emerged in more recent times that seems 'extraordinary' for their potential impacts, even though their occurrence may be many times less frequent than ordinary crimes. One new threat is organised drug production, such as marijuana and methamphetamines, that is conducted on remote and hidden areas of farms without knowledge of the operator. This is especially the case for clandestine methamphetamine labs, whose environmental impacts create severe hazards for farm workers and animals as well as the environment (Donnermeyer and Tunnell 2007; Weisheit 2008)t Terrorism is a second type of extraordinary farm crime. Sometimes referred to as bioterrorism or agro terrorism, the sabotage of food production systems has become a recent concern to many nations (Bryne 2007; Moats 2007). Both types of extraordinary crimes are worth considering, even though their occurrence may be rare, because they illustrate the geo-political contexts of agriculture and its integration into global systems of trade.