Rural crime encompasses a range of offences, including theft, anti-social behaviour, vandalism, illegal dumping and those against wildlife. The impact directly affects individuals, businesses and organisations together with broader economic, environmental and social implications on rural communities. Indeed, according to the 2024 National Rural Crime Network report (https://nationalruralcrimenetwork.net/rural-crime-report-2024/) there has been a 29% increase in theft of agricultural machinery and vehicles, 43% of people surveyed had been victims of rural crime in the past 12 months, and 28% of victims of rural crime failed to report their experiences to the police.
As part of Rural Catalyst, the Rural Design Centre (RDC) and the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) invite residents, community and voluntary organisations, charities, the police, businesses and local government to the ‘Tackling crime in rural areas’ workshop.
The aim of the workshop is to explore creative opportunities to tackle crime in rural areas by bringing together key stakeholders with diverse perspectives to discover and re-design new approaches and solutions to combat the issue in communities.
Rural Catalyst is a partnership between the NICRE at Newcastle University and RDC to support innovation-led rural economic and community development, funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
