Community Dynamics and Crime in Rural Areas

Holly Ryczek*, Robert Nicewarner and James Nolan, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Field (Broad Category): Sociology (Behavioral & Social Sciences) 

Student’s Major: Forensic and Investigative Science 

Crime and fear of crime in rural areas are immense issues that are often overlooked by researchers. There is a tendency for sociologists and criminologists to study crime in urban contexts. Theories of urban crime do not necessarily fit these rural areas. For example, collective efficacy in urban neighborhoods has been found to be inversely related to crime and fear of crime. In rural areas, this connection has been difficult to study because neighborhoods do not look the same in rural places. In this study, we expand the notions of collective efficacy in neighborhoods by introducing community dynamics, which are latent psychodynamic processes that related to expectations residents have of each other and of the police. These psychodynamic processes include levels of interdependence, conflict, and dependence. Using a social media survey method from residents in rural West Virginia, we found that high levels of interdependence lead to an increase in quality of life, and decreases in risk and fear of crime, while high levels of conflict lead to a decrease in quality of life, and an increase in risk and fear of crime. 

Funding: The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course