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Juska, Arunas and
Vygandas Paulikas. 2006. "Rural Marginalization, Policing and Crime in
Lithuania," Police Practice and Research, 7(5), pp.
431-447. Abstract. The paper analyzes the
significant increase in rural crime in post-independence Lithuania
(1991–2004). It is argued that the changes in the crime situation in
rural areas are associated with the formation of a stratum of
post-socialist rural poor. Three subdivisions of the marginalized rural
poor are discernible: (1) pauperized post-socialist peasantry, (2) poor,
impoverished, and culturally estranged urban immigrants to rural areas,
and (3) marginalized second-generation rural youth. Political,
socio-economic, and legal factors contributing to the formation of each
of the three sub-divisions within the rural underclass are analyzed, as
well as determinants of their group behavior. It is argued that in order
to increase its effectiveness, rural policing needs to be more
differentiated to be able to respond effectively to the group behavior
typical of each of the three groups of rural poor. |