Patterns of offending in urban and rural areas

https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2352(83)90048-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Although the level of crime varies dramatically across the urban-rural dimension, little research has been directed at the issue of the patterns of offending across this dimension. Using National Crime Survey (NCS) victimization data, this paper examines to what extent the patterns of offending by particular age, race, and sex subgroups are similar in urban and rural areas. It was found that the patterns of age, race, and sex offending are essentially the same in both urban and rural areas. Particularly impressive is the consistency in the rankings (from high to low) of the propensity of offending in urban and rural areas when age, race, and sex were examined simultaneously. Also, these NCS data generally parallel Uniform Crime Reports arrest data with respect to the offender characteristics of age, race, and sex. This suggests that existing criminological theories can be applied to rural, as well as urban, crime patterns regarding the issue of offender characteristics.

References (46)

  • C.R. Swanson

    Rural and agricultural crime

    J. of Crim. Just.

    (1981)
  • C. Alder et al.

    Delinquency in nonmetropolitan areas

  • M. Amir

    Patterns in forcible rape

    (1971)
  • J. Baldwin et al.

    The urban criminal

    (1976)
  • R.A. Ball et al.

    Juvenile delinquency in a Rurban country

    Criminol.

    (1971)
  • B.J.L. Berry

    Metropolitan area definition: A re-evaluation of concept and statistical practice

    (1968)
  • M.B. Clinard

    The process of urbanization and criminal behavior

    Am. J. of Sociol.

    (1942)
  • M.B. Clinard

    The relation of urbanization and urbanism to criminal behavior

  • R.A. Cloward et al.

    Delinquency and opportunity

    (1960)
  • A.K. Cohen

    Delinquent boys: The culture of the gang

    (1955)
  • C. Dunn

    The analysis of environmental attribute/crime incident characteristic interrelationships

  • J. Eck et al.

    Relationship between reported crime rates and victimization survey results

    J. of Crim. Just.

    (1979)
  • C. Fischer

    The urban experience

    (1976)
  • J. Garofalo

    The police and public opinion: An analysis of victimization and attitude data from 13 American cities

    (1977)
  • J. Garofalo et al.

    An introduction to the National Crime Survey

    (1977)
  • J. Gibbs

    Crimes against persons in urban, suburban, and rural areas—A comparative analysis of victimization rates

    (1979)
  • K.D. Harries

    Crime and the environment

    (1980)
  • M.J. Hindelang

    Race and involvement in common law personal crimes

    Am. Sociol. Rev.

    (1978)
  • M.J. Hindelang

    Sex differences in criminal activity

    Soc. Prob.

    (1979)
  • M.J. Hindelang

    Variations in sex-race-age-specific incidence rates of offending

    Am. Sociol. Rev.

    (1981)
  • M.J. Hindelang et al.

    Juvenile criminal behavior: An analysis of rates and victim characteristics

    (1981)
  • T. Hirschi

    Causes of delinquency

    (1969)
  • Cited by (33)

    • Crime and safety in rural areas: A systematic review of the English-language literature 1980–2020

      2022, Journal of Rural Studies
      Citation Excerpt :

      Other examples include Haiti (Brewis et al., 2020), Zimbabwe (Mafumbabete et al., 2019), Nigeria (Osakwe and Osakwe, 2015), Pakistan (Davaryar, 2016), and India (Wardhaugh, 2005). While relatively few studies have performed investigations of rural-urban differences in the decrease, the general consensus is that in most countries rural areas have lower rates of crime than urban areas, with a few exceptions (Ceccato, 2015j; Kaylen et al., 2019; Laub, 1983; Mawby, 2015). However, ‘lower crime rates’ does not equal ‘no crime’, and rural areas are not simply less dense versions of urban towns, but differ greatly in nature, culture and context (Ceccato, 2015a).

    • Social disorganization, Latinos and juvenile crime in the Texas borderlands

      2012, Journal of Criminal Justice
      Citation Excerpt :

      Osgood and Chambers (2000, p. 85) contend social control has everything to do with general principles of social relations and nothing to do with urban versus rural setting, thereby rendering social disorganization not uniquely urban when focusing on geographic locations (see also, Laub, 1983, pp. 192-194). Others assert exploring differences is a futile exercise because rural and urban settings share many similarities, including the prevalence of single mothers and poverty, all of which have been linked to crime (Bell, 1992; Laub, 1983; Smith & Huff, 1982). Petee and Kowalski (1993, p. 87) posit urban-rural differences, whether real or perceived, have gradually diminished with “advances in and standardization of education, transportation, and community.”

    • Do career criminals exist in rural America?

      2005, Journal of Criminal Justice
    • An Essay on Theory and Research in Rural Criminology

      2022, Research Methods for Rural Criminologists
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text