“Building resilient futures: Understanding rural youth through the lens of place, risk, and prevention”

 

Dr Kyle Mulrooney
Co-Director, Centre for Rural Criminology
University of New England

Panellists
Sam Coupland, Mayor, Armidale Regional Council
Samantha Guilbert, Youth on Track
PCYC Armidale representative

Date: Wednesday, 29 October 2025, 5.00–7.30 pm AEDT
Venue: NOVA, 122 Faulkner Street, Armidale NSW 2350
Entry: No charge
Registration: Please register before 2.00 pm AEDT on Tuesday, 28 October 2025
All are welcome

Please click here to register Summary: Youth crime prevention is often framed through universal policies and urban experiences. Yet, for young people growing up in rural and regional Australia, the dynamics of opportunity, belonging, and marginalisation are uniquely shaped by place. This presentation explores how rural environments influence both the risks of offending and the possibilities for prevention, drawing on emerging research in rural criminology and community resilience.

In rural settings, young people often navigate complex social geographies such as tight-knit communities with deep social capital, yet also constrained access to services, education, and employment. The same rural features that foster collective efficacy can also amplify disadvantage when social exclusion, poverty, or substance use take hold. Through this lens, prevention becomes not only about deterring crime but about strengthening the social and spatial conditions that enable youth to thrive.

Using examples from research on rural drug use, policing, and community safety, this presentation highlights how locally grounded, place-sensitive strategies can build resilience among rural youth. It argues for a shift from deficit-based approaches that pathologise rural young people to models of prevention that recognise rural assets, including connection, creativity, and community cohesion, as key to reducing harm and building safer, more inclusive futures.

Kyle Mulrooney holds a Ph.D. in Cultural and Global Criminology from the University of Kent and Universität Hamburg, an MA in the Sociology of Law from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law and a BA (Honours) in Criminology and Justice from Ontario Tech University. Kyle has a particular interest in questions of how we as a society determine what is considered criminal, how we then respond to crime, and why we elect particular solutions to do so. Kyle’s current research centres on rural criminology and explores how aspects of cultural geography and locational context impact upon the types, incidences and responses to crime and access to related services. He has published on issues ranging from crime prevention and policing to drug consumption and criminal justice. Kyle serves as the Co-Director of the Centre for Rural Criminology (UNE) and as the Vice President (elect) of the International Society for the Study of Rural Crime. He is a recognised international expert in rural criminology, with his research and work being utilised by policy-makers and industry in practice and called upon often in the media.