Why so Many Murders in Rural Areas?

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Easier to hide the bodies and the rural police departments are less likely to be equipped to investigate and solve homicides. The only reason they do get solved is due to the incredibly stupid nature of the murderer ( ie doing the murder in front of a potful of witnesses) and his/her complete inability to keep their mouth shut.
Over the course of my career I have come to the regrettable conclusion that if you carefully plan it, and thereafter can live with the guilt and keep your mouth shut, it is really pretty easy to get away with murder. Meh.....

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

The Mississippi River valley is, and has been for awhile, the most violent part of the USA. The entire old south (except Virginia) as a section is pretty bad.

List of U.S. states by homicide rate - Wikipedia

Per 100,000 people
Louisiana......11.4
Missouri.........9.9
Maryland........8.1
New Mexico.....8
Alabama.........7.8
South Carolina.7.7
Tennessee.......7.4
Arkansas.........7.2
Illinois.............6.9
Nevada............6.7
Indiana............6.5
Alaska.............6.4
Georgia............6.1
Pennsylvania.....6.1
North Carolina....6
Mississippi.........5.7
Kentucky...........5.5

Somewhat misleading.... in the South for example, take out the large cities (New Orleans for example) and then the demographics (again New Orleans-or for Missouri St. Louis and Kansas City) and those figures will dramatically change. Tale Illinois for example-Without Chicago their rte per 100,000 would plummet. We all know what the problem is. As was said in an earlier thread there are murders and there are murders. Sorry-in my grumpy stage this morning.

 

[woodsltc]

Somewhat misleading.... in the South for example, take out the large cities (New Orleans for example) and then the demographics (again New Orleans-or for Missouri St. Louis and Kansas City) and those figures will dramatically change. Tale Illinois for example-Without Chicago their rte per 100,000 would plummet. We all know what the problem is. As was said in an earlier thread there are murders and there are murders. Sorry-in my grumpy stage this morning.

^^^^^+1.......take out Memphis and Tennessee's numbers plummet, same for Georgia if Atlanta is taken out of the equation.

Don

 

[walkinghorse]

There was recent TV and newspaper reporting* about how South Dakota violent crime rates had decreased. Then there was reporting about how the statistics were from FBI figures and did not include the Indian reservation statistics, which were much higher. This has-been previously, noted by SigP22045, based upon his experiences prior to retiring from the FBI. So figures appear to have been skewed for various reasons, which certainly isn't unusual.

* references not included as the references I found from the net for this reply included so many clickbait ads etc. as to be very annoying, but if one wants to you can look them up.

 

[Cardboard_killer]

Somewhat misleading.... in the South for example, take out the large cities (New Orleans for example) and then the demographics (again New Orleans-or for Missouri St. Louis and Kansas City) and those figures will dramatically change. Tale Illinois for example-Without Chicago their rte per 100,000 would plummet.

You really should provide statistics to these claims. And while the overall rural violent crime rate is higher than the average violent crime rate, many cities do suffer from higher rates. See Violent Crime in Rural Areas Rises Above U.S. Average

We all know what the problem is.

I don't. Perhaps you can enlighten us?

As was said in an earlier thread there are murders and there are murders.

I don't understand that either. Most all people are murdered by those they know, and more often than not by family.

 

[S42N8]

<cough> and now, for something completely factual. <cough>

Say what you want about the source, reporting biases, etc., but the best I could find was from the 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Reporting stats ending in 2014. (The 2017/2018 fact sheets are, shall we say, drawn differently. )

Per capita, violent crime in urban areas is more than double rural areas (395.7 to 179.5). Put another way, per 1000 people, urban violent crime is statistically higher, but not as pronounced (22.2 v. 18.3). Admittedly, these are not homicide rates (and the way in which those numbers are presented in the UCR is not statistically absolute), but the overall picture is fairly indicative.

+1 on the lack or rural policing/resourcing, and body dumps comments above... "smarter" criminals don't leave evidence at home. FWIW.



Fact sheet at: https://ovc.ncjrs.gov/ncvrw2016/content/section-6/PDF/2016NCVRW_6_UrbanRural-508.pdf

Interactive UCR Database at: Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics

 

[S42N8]

Other states legalize and it ends.

It's not that simple. Prohibition and, more recently, the opioid epidemic are illustrative. In both cases, legalization was not the issue; demand for licit or illicit substances (for opioids, corporate greed) come into play. We will see the same for weed (and in border states, the emerging stats are indicative.)

It's not that simple. Suggest that legalization does not end crime...criminals find supply-and-demand, exploit the easy, and adapt.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

You really should provide statistics to these claims. And while the overall rural violent crime rate is higher than the average violent crime rate, many cities do suffer from higher rates. See Violent Crime in Rural Areas Rises Above U.S. Average
New Orleans, Shreveport and Baton Rouge are wayyy more violent than the rest of the state and skews Louisiana's average

I don't. Perhaps you can enlighten us?
gangs, thugs and other miscreants killing each other over illegal activity-I'll give you an example-did anyone really care when John Gotti had Big Paul Castallano whacked??



I don't understand that either. Most all people are murdered by those they know, and more often than not by family. When one thug kills another thug is quite different than the situation where an innocent gets killed- Stray gunfire kills an innocent,that is a MURDER. Gotti kills Castallano....not so much a murder as much as a morbid curiosity

Sorry I gave you more credit than you were due but most people here knew what I was talking about. If I can clear up anything else in the futureplease do not hesitate to ask.

 

[andy52]

Somewhat misleading.... in the South for example, take out the large cities (New Orleans for example) and then the demographics (again New Orleans-or for Missouri St. Louis and Kansas City) and those figures will dramatically change. Tale Illinois for example-Without Chicago their rte per 100,000 would plummet. We all know what the problem is. As was said in an earlier thread there are murders and there are murders. Sorry-in my grumpy stage this morning.

Your absolutely correct, I live about 45 miles north of St. Louis and avoid it like the plague.
Even in St. Louis most of the murders are in the north city. My suggestion would be to put a fence around it and send in Snake
Plissken …...

 

[Robotaz]

It's not that simple. Prohibition and, more recently, the opioid epidemic are illustrative. In both cases, legalization was not the issue; demand for licit or illicit substances (for opioids, corporate greed) come into play. We will see the same for weed (and in border states, the emerging stats are indicative.)



It's not that simple. Suggest that legalization does not end crime...criminals find supply-and-demand, exploit the easy, and adapt.

Yeah opioids being pushed by pharma and doctors make them unique. I agree with that. I think the research to replace opioids is a national emergency we sure prioritize like going to the moon. We can do it if we decide we’re doing it. Opioids need to be gone. They are for 7 days of pain management at most.

 

[delcrossv]

Link to some interesting maps (spacial maps of crime statistics).

Lot of rural county rapes- better have your daughters packin', gents.

Violent Crime(s) in the United States

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Conversely it often seems that rural areas and states are more pro-2A and RKBA, people grow up with firearms, know how to use them and are willing to defend themselves. All the media outlets are based in big cities, run by urban "sophisticates" who look down their nose at country people, take every opportunity to make them look bad.

 

[JayFramer]

Lots of urbanites dispose of their victims by just putting distance between:

Point A) The City

And,

Point B) The Country

Lots of dead bodies also found in rivers. Enjoy that cool, refreshing Bud Light? Yeah, I’ve read too many reports of dead bodies found near the Budweiser Brewery in St. Louis in the Mississippi.

 

[pharmer]

Murder!? Sex, money, drugs, power, or any combination thereof been killing over for all "civilized history." Joe

 

[sigp220.45]

Sorry I gave you more credit than you were due but most people here knew what I was talking about. If I can clear up anything else in the futureplease do not hesitate to ask.

Prior to exiling myself to the rez, I hunted murderers in New Orleans. This was during the pre-Katrina glory days of 435 murders a year. For perspective, Denver is a larger city and currently averages about 50 murders a year.

I once caught three murderers (unrelated warrants) in one day. It was great.

Of the 400 plus murders, maybe two dozen didn’t in some way contibute to their own demise. Stray rounds, robbery victims, domestic deals.

The rest were what we called “misdemeanor murders”. Other places have more colorful terms. Junebug kills Peanut over a drug debt. Peanut’s people kill four of Junebug’s people, but also ventilate Dipstick. Now Dipstick’s people saddle up and throw shots at Peanut’s people. It goes on until it burns itself out, or we get a bunch of dudes locked up. Then it starts somewhere else.

Tends to skew the stats.

 

[BB57]

663.

Somewhat misleading.... in the South for example, take out the large cities (New Orleans for example) and then the demographics (again New Orleans-or for Missouri St. Louis and Kansas City) and those figures will dramatically change. Tale Illinois for example-Without Chicago their rte per 100,000 would plummet. We all know what the problem is. As was said in an earlier thread there are murders and there are murders. Sorry-in my grumpy stage this morning.

Same for NC. It has some urban areas that move the average (6.0) up for the state.

The murder rate in Greensboro NC is 15.9 and the violent crime rate is 725. Right next door in High Point the rate is 17.8 with a violent crime rate of 624.

Charlotte is comparatively tame with a rate of 9.4, but the violent crime rate is still 663. Durham has a murder rate of 8.5, and a violent crime rate of 792.

Raleigh and Winston Salem are pretty much right on the average at 5.78 and 5.99 respectively with average violent crime rates.

The thing is when you've got large metropolitan areas right on the average for a state it provides a buffer effect for the state.

In NC, where you have some metropolitan hot spots as well, that also means that the rural numbers for most of the rest of the state have to be quite low to offset the high rates in the Greensboro/High point area.

For example, in Greenville the rate is 4.3. That's still an area with about 100,000 people, but the murders are confined to fairly specific areas. Right next door in Winterville the rate is 0.0 and our violent crime rate over all is 84 compared to 624 for Greenville and 364 for NC overall.

In NC, violent crime and murder are very much urban issues - with one or two exceptions. Rocky Mount NC for example has only has 56,000 people but it is the poorest metropolitan area in the state and the murder rate is 27.2. That's higher than DC (16.7) and Chicago (24.1), but only about half the rate in Baltimore (55.8).

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South Dakota has a similar issue of one area raising the state wide average. Rapid city has a population of 72,000 and a murder rate of 8.0. That is well above the average for Sioux Falls (167,000 people) of 2.2. Even with the buffering effect of Sioux Falls, Rapid City's rate drags the entire state average up to 2.9 as the state's population is only 850,000. With the exception of a couple of the reservations, you'll be hard pressed to find murders in rural areas.

That reservation effect is also a large part of the issue with Rapid City's high rate given the population flow on and off the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations.

----

In short, statewide rates are not all that useful, you need to look at where those murders occur in the state.

I also disagree with the folks who claim that rural areas are just as dangerous as urban areas. The fact is that rates for violent crime in general and murder in particular tend to be correlated very closely with population density. There are some exceptions (like Rocky Mount) where other issues may drive local rates up), but in general the closer you pack people together the more violence you are going to get.

 

[Bill Raby]

Over 90% of the murders in USA take place in counties that voted for Hillary.

 

[Mule Packer]

Why so Many Murders in Rural Areas?

Hmmm. I dunno. Maybe it's because some people jes' need killin'.

 

[Texas Star]

I saw a true crime documentary on a French serial killer. He worked rural areas, picking up hitchhikers and disposing of them in fairly remote areas.

One reason to dump a corpse in rural areas is that it gets more scavenger activity and decomp. before discovery, hampering ID and forensics work. And it gives no clue as to where the killer lives.

 

[Kronos]

I don't know our crime is lower then any large urban area,you also don't have to worry about walking into what is basically Somalia out here,but are you "safe"?

No,nowhere is actually safe so if you wander around with your head lodged up your tookus you can get killed anywhere the major difference between a rural and urban setting is you can most likely defend life and limb out in the sticks easier then in the burbs,people won't turn on you and ask all kinds of questions the urbanite has forgotten that occasionally one may have to kill to stay alive for them life is so very important that it clouds their ability to think because they never really see death,the rural person has seen it in some manner and is a lot more grounded.

So it's a yes and no answer,you are safer in some ways and in others there's still danger possible.