Rural crimes such as illegal dumping, vandalism, meth labs and thefts of farm equipment, chemicals, livestock, and crops have long been an issue explored in the area of criminology.

What can be done to stop them?

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University is hosting Joseph F. Donnermeyer on Oct. 3 at 2:30 p.m. in the Shenandoah Room of the WVU Mountainlair, to seek an answer to that question.

Donnermeyer will present “Toward a New Criminology of Crime and Place,” as the first lecture of the Mary L. Thomas Lecture series. The event is free and open to the public.

“We are honored to have Dr. Joseph Donnermeyer kick off the Mary L. Thomas Lecture Series. This year the lecture series highlights the Research Center on Violence and his work in the area of rural crime is a perfect fit for our focus,” said Lynne Cossman, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at WVU.

Donnermeyer specializes in rural criminology and has conducted research on numerous rural crime topics, including levels of victimization and attitudes toward crime, the extent and pattern of offending by rural populations, the etiology of substance use by rural youth and the criminology of food and agriculture.

A professor emeritus in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University, Donnermeyer received his master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from the University of Kentucky, and his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Thomas More College in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky.

“Dr. Donnermeyer is one of the world’s leading experts on crime in rural communities and has done extensive research showing that rates of violence in some rural communities are actually higher than those in more densely populated areas,” said Walter Dekeseredy, director of the Research Center on Violence at WVU.

Donnermeyer was first employed in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University in 1976 before transferring to the rural sociology program at The Ohio State University in 1979.

He currently holds appointments as an adjunct professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia; the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia; and is a research associate at the Center on Research on Violence at WVU.

Donnermeyer is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and books on issues related to the study of rural crime and rural societies.

The Mary L. Thomas Lectures will showcase important and topical work by renowned and influential scholars in sociology, anthropology and related fields.

The department will be hosting a series of lectures on the topics of violence and crime, celebrating the launch of the new Research Center on Violence, which was established in June.

For more information, contact Walter Dekeseredy at (304) 293-8846 or walter.dekeseredy@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

ma/09/26/14

CONTACT: Devon Copeland, Director of Marketing and Communication, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
304-293-6867, Devon.Copeland@mail.wvu.edu

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