ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the literature on rural crime and reentry, beginning with the challenge of defining the concept of rural. Practitioners and researchers have adapted various definitions of rural that are both quantitative and qualitative. The US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service uses a broader definition of rural that places rural and urban counties on a nine-point continuum. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania further differentiates rural areas on the county level, using the population density of the entire state as the benchmark to differentiate urban from rural counties. While population density measures are convenient in the breakdown of urban and rural locales, a broad measure fails to capture some of the major features associated with rural life. Researchers have noted the dearth of research of rural crime issues. Weisheit and Donnermeyer contend that urban crime theories do not account for the diverse structural conditions of rural crime, making it difficult to generalize some criminological theories to rural areas.