ABSTRACT
When rural America is mentioned in conversation, it often conjures up a singular image. The towns and villages of the rural United States also have disparate images. Rural communities are sometimes viewed as harbingers of safety against crime or at least as places where people can protect themselves from criminal acts. The word "rural" lacks precision in everyday use because it is so comprehensive yet so imprecise. In a sense, rural America is the nation's bank account, containing the water, the soil, and the natural resources that provide the basics of existence for the entire society. Rural America has always exhibited regional diversity. The diversity of rural America provides the fundamental challenge of identifying the social research needed to address emerging rural problems in the 1980s. Rural sociologists can determine the types of people that are moving to rural places and provide considerable insight into the causes of their migration.
