We’re not in Vancouver anymore, Toto: Explaining crime in rural and northern British Columbia by Rebecca Dawn Carleton M.A. (Criminology), Simon Fraser University, 2009 B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2005 Dissertation Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Criminology Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Rebecca Dawn Carleton 2014 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2014 Approval Name: Rebecca Dawn Carleton Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Criminology) Title of Thesis: We’re not in Vancouver anymore, Toto: Explaining crime in rural and northern British Columbia Examining Committee: Chair: William Glackman Associate Professor Martin Andresen Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Garth Davies Supervisor Associate Professor J. Bryan Kinney Supervisor Associate Professor Eugene McCann Internal Examiner Professor Department of Geography James LeBeau External Examiner Professor Emeritus, Department of Criminology Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Date Defended/Approved: June 04, 2014 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Abstract Crime patterns differ across different geographical areas. However, much of the explanations for these differences explicitly focus on urban population areas. The result is that rural areas have been neglected. The current work seeks to explain rural concentrations of crime with an emphasis on violent crime through the use of an alternative to crime rates: a crime location quotient. Data was gathered from the British Columbia Policing Jurisdiction Crime Trends, 2000 – 2009 (BCPJ) and includes the raw counts of both property and violent offending from the Uniform Crime Reporting 2 (UCR2) Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada (N=140). A comparison between crime rates and location quotients suggests that, within British Columbia, rural areas appear to specialize in violent offending. Traditional, urban based theories are tested with ordinary least squares regression for their use in explaining property and violent offending within British Columbia and it is concluded that property offending is explained well with traditional theories although the theories are less useful for violent offending. It is speculated that the reason for this difference is that traditional theories have been developed within urban areas so might miss out on some of the specific characteristics of rural police jurisdictions. As a result, the differences between rural and urban areas and differences between rural and urban violence are identified and used to develop a rural specific theoretical construct for explaining violence. The new theoretical construct is then evaluated in terms of the empirical explanatory power along with the scope and range of the theory as it relates to iv the British Columbian context. The new theory is then repositioned within the larger social ecological school of crime and fit back into the existing literature about rural crime. The while there are limitations with focusing on a single province, important considerations for explaining rural crime are evident and suggestions for future research take into account these results. Keywords: Rural crime; social ecology; location quotient; violent offending; theory testing; British Columbia v Acknowledgements Over three degrees, Garth Davies has been essential to my development as a criminologist and his contribution to my methodological education cannot be overstated. Our running joke is that I basically do not know anything about anything but rather open my mouth and Garth’s wisdom spills out. Thank you Garth. I am pleased to have the trust and support of Bryan Kinney and glad that I can list him as an official committee member since, truth be told, he did most of the heavy lifting in terms of little things like coming up with a dissertation topic, finding data, generating research questions. It would be actually quite weird had he not signed the approval page. My internal – external supervisor, Eugene McCann, despite his hyper-focus on culture, (as it would turn out, unbeknownst to me until only recently, ‘culture’ is a degree in and of itself) provided useful feedback and explored ideas that I feel made this an overall better work. The support and encouragement of my external Jim LeBeau cannot remain unmentioned. Dr. Jim’s feedback gives me the courage to try new ideas no matter how unconventional and to push the limit just a little further than is probably necessary. Somebody much smarter than me once pointed out that ‘it takes a village…’ which I would like to amend to read ‘…to write a dissertation.’ Amongst the many who helped a few stood out for purposes of moral support, research decision making, and editing. A very special thank you is necessary for the help of Edith Wu, Cristina Pastia, and Steph Dawson. Their support was truly a blessing. Jon Heidt, Aynsley Pescitelli, Morena Anamali, and Hilary Kim provided amazing and timely feedback that drug me out of the numbers world long enough to get a little perspective and focus on the big picture. vi Finally, both Richard Frank and Sheri Fabian were instrumental to my process in every capacity imaginable. For example, I almost did not have a thesis post-defence but for my computer wizard, Richard, who un-PDF’d and thereby saved the day. None of this thesis would have been possible without the influences of my mentors, Patricia and Paul Brantingham. Stated simply, if I managed to get anywhere in furthering our understanding of rural violence it was only because these two lay the initial groundwork, the backcloth if you will, for me to identify a gap and attempt to fill it. I am not certain to what extent I have been successful but would like to think my tiny little in- road is now a starting point for others as well. I must acknowledge the support of Kim Rossmo who helped me with some pesky research interpretation and, like a great coach, kept my brains pointed in the correct direction. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of my senior supervisor, Martin Andresen, who fought a valiant battle to ensure this work and degree would come to completion prior to 2025. As a fraudulent criminologist, Dr. Andresen is able to provide a perspective that surely aids in my completion of a pseudo-Crim-geography-inology degree. His insight, experience, and responsiveness are exemplary. Further, Martin indulges (and might even occasionally appreciate) my quirkiness which kept me on track throughout the process and allowed me to produce a piece of which I can be proud. vii Dedication This paper is dedicated to my daughter, Aisha Froese, and to my partner, John Broadhurst, for both of whom there are insufficient superlatives. It is especially dedicated to Dr. Patricia Brantingham, as should every Criminological paper written by a ‘numbers chick’ be attributed. Dr. Pat teaches two very important lessons to her girls: 1) in the numbers world, you are not wrong; but rather “it turned out not to be the case”; and 2) just because it hasn't been done “doesn't make it impossible, just improbable… and we can figure out ‘probability, there is a formula.’” Every female who does numbers-and- crime has Pat to thank. I am fortunate in that this cutting-edge woman initially foraged the mathematical path for all women who like to count but then personally indulged me on my every whim with excitement and encouragement and enthusiasm. Dr. Pat did so even when I was obviously going to be 'wrong' and my idea was 'impossible.' viii Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................. ii Partial Copyright Licence .................................................................................................. iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ vi Dedication ........................................................................................................................ viii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: Unequal geographical distributions of crime and traditional explanations ...............................................................................................................1 Crime in the Canadian context .............................................................................................1 Canadian crime patterns and explanations ...........................................................................6 Conceptual framework .........................................................................................................9 The current work and chapter overview ............................................................................14 Chapter 2: The social causes of crime and rural explanations for crime ...................18 A conceptual framework for understanding the social causes of crime ............................18 Life as the foundation of social and political order ..................................................22