ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the elements of civic communities, why they are expected to be related to lower crime rates and the evidence supporting each. It explains with a synopsis of future directions for research. The relatively low official rates of violence found in the countryside has led the vast majority of crime scholars to view the issue of rural violence with indifference at best, and generally to consider it an uninteresting topic for scholarly inquiry. Civic community theory is not a criminological theory, but rather is rooted in scholarship on community welfare and community stratification dating back to the 1940s. Population stability and local investment comprise one component of civic community theory. While organizations are beneficial to the community in general, the value of any one institution is dependent upon the type of engagement encouraged among its members. Small business owners are thought to be beneficial to the community because they are deeply rooted within it.
