Since the turn of the twenty-first century, there has been acknowledgement that the realities of crime and criminal justice in the smaller, more remote places of the world are not sufficiently reflected in criminological theory and research agendas (see Donnermeyer, 2017). Additionally, the aftermath of colonization further confounds our understanding of crime and justice, particularly in the rural Global South where the colonial past still influences criminal justice and policing systems in rural communities. Moreover, the economic, social, political and cultural exploitation of rural communities and the disadvantaged endures.

Perhaps the most important contribution of rural crime studies to the development of a criminology of the Global South is that it encourages scholars interested in advancing criminology beyond its Western, urban biases and aids in the development of categories of knowledge that create new forms of thinking (see Carrington et al, 2016). The Global South and the rural are both commonly forgotten or ignored spheres in criminological scholarship. This has led to discussions on policing the rural Global South to be a victim of urban and Western normativity, whereby all aspects of crime and justice are measured against the West and the urban (see de Sousa Santos, 2015).

Whilst crime in the rural Global South, in most instances, is akin to crime in the Global North, other aspects differ. Through pointing out extensive examples of rural crime and criminalized actions in Africa such as farm theft and rural violence, witchcraft, same-sex relationships and cultural theft and environmental crime, Agozino (2017) demonstrates that the rural–urban dichotomy poses challenges for criminology. This is because crime that occurs in rural areas also occurs in urban areas, and this leads us to be hesitant about declaring that rural crime is in some way unique.

Other crimes seen globally and at a large scale in the Global South include land theft with the procurement of land for large plantation operations – such as palm oil developments in parts of Africa, Indonesia and South America – and their environmental and social impacts on local rural communities (see Butler and Laurance, 2009).