Sociology Commons^™

Thinking Critically About Rural Gender Relations: Toward A Rural Masculinity Crisis/Male Peer Support Model Of Separation/Divorce Sexual Assault, Kenneth Tunnell, Walter Dekeseredy, Joseph Donnermeyer, Martin Schwartz, Mandy Hall

Kenneth Tunnell

After decades of neglect, a growing number of scholars have turned their attention to issues of crime and criminal justice in the rural context. Despite this improvement, rural crime research is underdeveloped theoretically, and is little informed by critical criminological perspectives. In this article, we introduce the broad tenets of a multi-level theory that links social and economic change to the reinforcement of rural patriarchy and male peer support, and in turn, how they are linked to separation/divorce sexual assault. We begin by addressing a series of misconceptions about what is rural, rural homogeneity and commonly held presumptions about the …