Why so Many Murders in Rural Areas?

[federali]

Yes, the big cities lead the statistics on violent crime including murder. However, if you watch shows like Forensic Files, you can't help but wonder why so many young people, particularly females, fall prey to killers in rural, seemingly safe areas. I'm amazed at the number of rape and murder victims found by chance by hunters tramping through the brush that's part of the rural landscape.

Part of it is mindset. People feel safe in rural areas. Everybody tends to know everybody else. Yet, many young women, especially those working night shifts at convenience stores, must travel dark, desolate roads, sometimes hitching rides from strangers or even using bicycles. New drivers are not especially adept at keeping their automobiles in proper running condition or even insuring they won't run out of gas. Once they break down, the driver is at the mercy of whoever happens along.

Victims on foot also tend to utilize shortcuts through heavily wooded areas where there are no witnesses. This includes joggers using mountain trails.

Interestingly, when killers are brought to justice, rarely are they responsible members of the community. They tend to be marginally educated men working menial jobs wherever they can find them.

Every neighborhood has its unique risks. I think inner city and suburban residents are bit more street-wise than their rural counterparts but they too fall prey to crimes of opportunity. I also think that those contemplating a sex crime may be more inclined to act on their impulses because they perceive an increased opportunity to escape undetected in a rural area.

Most upsetting is that shows like forensic Files do not appear to be running out of material any time soon.

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

A lot of times, rural areas tend to be more dangerous than big cities. There are several reasons:

1) Lack of law enforcement. Some places the nearest cop may be in the county seat which may or may not be within distance to help. Criminals take advantage of this. If you get into a confrontation with a home invasion at two in the A.M. and you call the local authorities, you might be in a for VERY long wait for help.

2) Small towns have the exact same problems as big cities for the most part. Only in rural areas it tends to be the elephant in the room. Resources in rural areas are still often very limited. I have actually seen MORE gang activity in small rural communities than in most neighborhoods in my area.

3) Open areas are great places to hide. Moonshiners knew this generations ago...now its marijuana farms and meth labs. I wanted to go on a day hike in a national forest local to Houston. I was STRONGLY advised against this due to the number of meth labs and marijuana farms in those woods.

4) It isn't that hard for a criminal(s) to drive in from a big city...do a crime in a small town or rural area...then go back to that big city and vanish into the crowd...even in today's technology.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I believe the population of the US was about 90Million in 1940, It is now almost 4 times that, but still in the same boarders (plus Alaska & Hawaii). The open/friendly countryside of my youth is now full of housing developments, apartment complexes, and convenience stores. Many of the bodies discovered within 3 miles of my home are officially outside any city limits, but are still only 20 to 25 minutes from the worst neighborhoods of Columbus. The murder of an 80 year old woman happened in her home about 4 miles from me. That house is now in Columbus city limits, but only 5 years ago that was considered "country."

The nationwide broadcasting of bad news is there to sell advertising, leaving out minor facts like "Rural setting" being completely surrounded by a large city escape being reported.

On a lighter side, about 10 or 15 years ago, a school district in rural/farm country in Eastern Ohio, discovered they had a big city drug problem. Every girl in the senior class (with the exception of an extended Mennonite family) had been to a series of class parties. ALL the girls had be given the drug Ecstasy (E) and ALL ended up pregnant.

Ivan

 

[alwslate]

I think shows like Forensic Files tend to profile cases that they can draw
out and dramatize to create a scary scenario and attract viewers. Here in
central Indiana there are few rural murders compared to what happens in
Indianapolis. Brutal senseless shootings are a nightly or even daily
occurrence in Indy. No scary drama just lots of murders that the police
and city officials are at a loss as to any way to stop.

 

[pawngal]

I live in a somewhat rural area, don't recall any murders in recent years.

Suicides, yes, usually drug related. One guy offed himself with a meth cook in a storage unit. Deaths due to child abuse & neglect are too common also due to drugs.

 

[Doug627]

Dumping grounds and murder sites are not the same. Many murders will travel a ways to dump a body in the rural areas hoping not to get linked to the killing. Just because a body is found in the woods does not mean the person was killed in the woods.

 

[Rule3]

I watch FF also. Most are from many many years ago. I think you are limiting your "statistical sample" from a limited source. I do not know what the FBI states show as far as murders per capita. That would be a better source.

Watch ID channel. there is "murder" for every known category!!. The list is endless.

Good News FF has new episodes starting Feb, 2020! The forensic are cool and the shows are only 30 minutes long, so it's always to the point.

Tip: if you commit a crime don't take out a million in life Insurance on the victim the week before, don't by stuff using the victims credit card at WalMart.

 

[Rpg]

It’s important to remember that the crime shows aren’t news programs.

They frequently dramatize crimes that occurred years ago.

It’s easy to watch several of them and be left with the impression that there’s a bunch of crime and danger when the events being dramatized occurred over a 50 year span and in far flung locations- not in one area.

The country is a whole lot safer than the city or burbs.

 

[BigBill]

When we grew up we had the local YMCA, BOYS CLUB, EVEN THE CHURCH WELCOMED US AS KIDS TO THERE CYO.

The newer rural area I moved to over 15 years ago. The local horse farmers warned us they shoot people who steal. It’s a totally different place to live at.

Parents don’t care they push these kids out the door. I pin the blame on the parents.

 

[Absalom]

.... in rural, seemingly safe areas. .....

The emphasis here should indeed be on "seemingly".

The idea that cities in general have been and are more dangerous than rural areas has mostly been an urban, or rather rural, myth. The numbers simply don't support this as a generalization.

There are more people crowded closer together in cities, so there is more crime in absolute numbers, and it's more concentrated and noticeable. But there is no evidence or logic in the idea that the rural population has a smaller percentage of criminally inclined folks among them. And people may know each other, but there is also more space and privacy to get away with stuff; for example, everything from (until recently illegal) pot plantations to meth labs have been hiding out in the country.

It's been a while that I've looked at this, so I can't quote specifics, but I remember one study that showed that in the late 19th/early 20th century medium-sized cities were significantly safer than both major metropolitan areas AND rural areas in respect to violent crime.

So the picture is complex. Add to that the difficulties of policing already mentioned by others, and you don't need to blame urban criminals taking field trips to explain rural crime.

 

[Ziggy2525]

Wasn't it sort of the ultimate in rural where Cain killed Abel?

Pride, lust, greed, envy, gluttony, anger, laziness. They're human conditions, not rural/urban ones.

 

[Rudi]

Very few murders in my area, small town and lots of country side. don't remember the last one. Don't even know when it was? Many, many moons.

 

[s&wchad]

Programs like that suck people in and sensationalize the crimes, but those incidents are few and far between. We’re a country of close to 330,000,000 people. We’re more likely to be struck by lightning (1 in 3000 in a lifetime).

Stay aware, make good choices and be prepared. Doctors scare me more than predators!

 

[Rock185]

I live in a town of about 15,000, probably twice that during the Summer. Lots of retirees, visitors, tourists, campers, folks with cabins in the area, etc. As might be expected, homicides are infrequent here. After retiring from the big city, I worked for the local PD for some years. We live in a relatively quiet neighborhood, but in the last few years we've had two murders within a few blocks. I was acquainted with one of the killers, who is now in prison, and actually heard the shots fired during that incident. The other was a dope thing, and the victim's body was found in a burned out vehicle miles from town. So I still think it is safer in this rural area than the big city. But as The Last Standing Knight indicated, "Small towns have the exact same problems as the big cities for the most part." And he is also correct in that resources are limited in rural areas. I could go on and on about the realities of a smaller town, but discretion bids otherwise. I still have to live here, and the local Chamber of Commerce would like people to believe this is Mayberry with pine trees

 

[sigp220.45]

I spent 17 of my 25 years in the FBI working violent crimes on Indian reservations in the wild west. Its about as rural as rural gets. No electricity unless the tribe put solar panels on the house, water from a well. Some folks only speak the language their people spoke for a thousand years before the conquistadores showed up.

Plenty of murders happen on the rez. We probably heard about half of them.

If people would have taken the time to dig a proper hole we wouldn’t have heard about even that many. But no - the ground is hard and there is cold beer at home.

Two weeks later somebody’s dog comes home with an arm or leg and the game is afoot.

Also, I’ve had truly horrific murders that never even made it into the paper.

I don’t watch the forensic files stuff. I suspect they look for victims that are similar to the target audience, which biases them towards small-town crime. Would people watch if it was doper vs doper?

 

[walkinghorse]

Programs like that suck people in and sensationalize the crimes, but those incidents are few and far between. We’re a country of close to 330,000,000 people. We’re more likely to be struck by lightning (1 in 3000 in a lifetime).

Stay aware, make good choices and be prepared. Doctors scare me more than predators!

I would bet that people being struck by lightning is much higher in rural areas than urban areas due to outdoor exposure. Doctor related deaths versus other death causes seems to be very high, hence that fear is very rational! Auto deaths urban versus rural, seems that number of vehicles would influence the statistics, but according to the NTSHA almost equal "...Of the 37,461 motor vehicle traffic fatalities in 2016, there were 18,590 (50%) that occurred in rural areas, 17,656 (47%) that occurred in urban areas, and 1,215 (3%) that occurred in unknown areas. ..." Access to immediate medical care may influence these figures?
So journalism sensationalism, TV sensationalism, newspaper sensationalism, etc. as already stated skew the numbers.

 

[LVSteve]

Dumping grounds and murder sites are not the same. Many murders will travel a ways to dump a body in the rural areas hoping not to get linked to the killing. Just because a body is found in the woods does not mean the person was killed in the woods.

Yep. I believe the term "86'd" was coined in Vegas. 80 miles out, six foot down. Probably had something to do with caliche in the valley.

 

[Robotaz]

I was STRONGLY advised against this due to the number of meth labs and marijuana farms in those woods.

For what it’s worth, marijuana farms with toxic poisonous marijuana run by dangerous Mexicans only exist because of ignorant states where it’s illegal, including the ignorant one I live in, KY.

 

[roguegamma]

The Sheriff's Department in my county was just recently able to restore 24 hour patrols due to the voters finally supporting a levy for basic services. Even now, it could be over an hour before law enforcement arrives in an emergeny. For about a decade, there was only staffing for patrols 8 hours a day. This county, along with the "Emerald Triangle" counties just to the south in California, is considered the greatest marijuana growing region on earth. Marijuana fueled a huge underground economy here for years. These people don't trust law enforcement and they have their own way of settling disputes. The isolation of some parts of the county has long attracted "off the grid" or "survivalist" types as well as gold miners who subscribe to the same ethic. Marijuana is legal now, but the old attitudes remain. Legalization has done nothing to push out the criminal element. In fact, tons of legally grown Southern Oregon marijuana is illegally shipped to other states. Criminal gangs from other states now have a presence here. Last year some hunters were fired on by individuals at a large legal grow. Law enforcement apprehended two gang members from Missouri, if I recall correctly. Both men had felony warrants from their home state. Large, illegal marijuana grows linked to Mexican cartels are still being discovered on public land. There have been two recent shootings, including one last week, where the Sheriff's Department took to social media to advise residents to "lock your doors and arm yourselves" because the shooters had escaped into the hills. This is a reality that the anti- gun folks at the more urban north end of the state can't comprehend.

 

[Ozark Marine]

I think shows like Forensic Files tend to profile cases that they can draw
out and dramatize to create a scary scenario and attract viewers. Here in
central Indiana there are few rural murders compared to what happens in
Indianapolis. Brutal senseless shootings are a nightly or even daily
occurrence in Indy. No scary drama just lots of murders that the police
and city officials are at a loss as to any way to stop.

Pass laws to stop the flow of guns from Illinois to Indiana.
Works in Illinois.