A new anonymous research survey has been launched to gather data on the wider implications of farm crime across the UK
While many reports talk about the effect farm crime has on the financial and business aspect of farming, this is the first piece of academic research to address the psychological impact farm crime has on victims.
This research is being conducted by Dr Kreseda Smith, a rural criminologist at Harper Adams University in Shropshire. It is hoped that the survey will be the first step in understanding how crime affects farmer mental health, and how important crime is as a stress factor in farming.
Dr Smith urges all farmers, farm workers, and family members of farmers to complete the anonymous survey, commenting that “The psychological impact of farm crime not only affects the farmer, but also the wider family, friends, workers, and community. It is time for academic researchers to treat this as a serious issue affecting farmer mental wellbeing”.
→ The survey can be found at: https://harperadams.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/psychimpactagcrime
It will be open until 11th March 2020, all information provided is completely anonymous, and will only be used for the purposes of this academic research.
