The crime-related effects of resource-based boomtowns

Read the new edited collection from the IJC focusing on the crime-related effects of resource-based #boomtowns.

Edited by Mike Sutton (Nottingham Trent University), Rick Ruddell (University of Regina) and Joanne Muzak, the focus of the articles that make up this special issue of the Internet Journal of Criminology is the crime-related effects of resource-based boomtowns, which have proven to be a challenge for rural law enforcement agencies across the globe. Although boomtowns are not a new phenomenon, as the value of natural resources such as oil, natural gas, and gold rose throughout the 1990s and 2000s, exploration and extraction activities also increased and most of these endeavors were carried out in rural and remote areas.

The rapid population growth and industrialization occurring in small towns and sparsely populated rural areas has led to numerous problems for local residents and their governments, and especially in terms of increased anti-social behaviour, disorder, and crime. Managing the growth in crime associated with resource-based boomtowns represents a significant challenge for local residents and the workers within health, education, and social service agencies that partner with local police, courts, and correctional systems.

The seven articles in this special issue of the Internet Journal of Criminology identify a number of social problems, and responses to those challenges, in areas impacted by natural resource extraction in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Each of these contributions extends our knowledge of about booms, fear, crime, and the justice system’s responses to those conditions. All of the empirical studies were first reviewed by the editor and then by at least two anonymous reviewers, and the contributors revised their work based on the comments they received.

The hope of the contributors to this collection is that our efforts will lead to a better understanding of the boom–crime relationships and policymakers will use that knowledge to mitigate the negative impacts of those activities.