A Personal Essay: Reflecting on My Drift into Rural Criminology

This “Journey” article is a reflection of my long years of rural crime and criminal justice scholarship, and of witnessing the growth and progression of rural criminology as a field of study within criminology. It highlights the many scholars who both helped me and helped advance rural criminology networks to what they are today – cohesive, collaborative, and creative. Although this journey essay is highly personalized, there are a series of lessons learned that are relevant to the growth of others’ scholarly development and the advance of all criminological subdisciplines, including rural criminology, in the 21st century. These are re-stated in a revised form in the Appendix.