Farm Crime Survey with Dr. Kyle Mulrooney

UNE is conducting a survey that will investigate the scale and impact of farm crime across Australia – the first survey of its kind in over twenty years!

The purpose of the research is to highlight the crimes that specifically impact rural farmers and properties, while also amplifying the voices of farmers to assist policymakers in creating strategies to reduce farm crime.

Whether it’s theft of cattle and farm equipment, trespassing, or property damage, farmers across rural Australia lose thousands of dollars through crime, although these often go unreported. There have been calls for a national survey for years and the UNE Centre of Rural Criminology is excited to be spearheading the research.

One such researcher is Senior Lecturer Dr. Kyle Mulrooney, who joined us to discuss the survey, the impacts of farm crime, how rural farm crime differs from urban farm crime, and what UNE hopes to achieve through the survey.

“If we can get this information up the chain to police decision makers, to farming organisations, to farmers themselves, to policymakers, we hope that we will be able to shift the needle in the space and try to address the issue.”

Photo by Stephen Radford on Unsplash