Two New COPS Publications

Street Gangs and Interventions: Innovative Problem Solving with Network Analysis

A review of the range of gang prevention, intervention, suppression, and comprehensive strategies with examples of each type. 30 page pdf file.

Law Enforcement Tech Guide for Small and Rural Police Agencies

Intended to provide strategies, best practices, recommendation and ideas for successful IT planning and implementation. An 80 page pdf file divided in four parts: Preliminary Project Planning; Creating a Project Plan; Acquiring the Technology; and Implementing and Maintaining the Technology.

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Rural Children at a Glance

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Services analyzes ongoing changes in rural areas. This bulletin shows the most current indicators of the demographic, social, and economic well-being of rural children. Based on data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses. From the bulletin:

• Child poverty in 21^st century America is higher (18% in 2003) than the rate for the general population (12.5%) and is above the rates in most other industrialized countries.
• Rural child poverty declined in the 1990s but remains higher than the rates for urban children (21% vs. 18%).
• In 2003, 2.7 million rural children were poor, representing 36% of the rural poor.

6 page pdf file.

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Violence and Rural Teens: Teen Violence, Drug Use, and School-Based Prevention Services in Rural America

From the Executive Summary of this report by the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center, these findings:

Exposure to Violence – The study found no evidence to support the common assumption that rural youth are protected from exposure to violence. Rural teens are equally or more likely than suburban and urban teens to be exposed to violent activities.

Drug Use – Rural teens are at significantly greater risk of using drugs than both suburban and urban teens. The proportion of rural teens who reported ever using crystal meth was almost double the proportion of urban and suburban teens.

Effects of Race: -Racial differences for exposure to violence and drug use are negligible among rural teens. Among rural teens, only one measure of drug use differed by race: rural non-white teens were less likely to report chewing tobacco compared to rural white teens.

Effects of Gender: - Exposure to violence and drug use vary by gender among rural teens. Among rural teens, females are more likely than males to be coerced into sex or engage in suicide behaviors, while males are more likely than females to use weapons, be threatened at school or engage in fighting behaviors.

6 page pdf file.  

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Rural Issues

Death by Gunfire in Rural America

Fox Butterfield reports in the New York Times that Americans in small towns and rural areas are just as likely to die from gunfire as Americans in major cities. The difference is that gun deaths in rural America are primarily suicides. Suicides occur at a higher rate in rural areas than in cities or suburbs, and rise steadily the more rural the community.

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Community Policing Beyond the Big Cities

NIJ report discusses a study of eight law enforcement agencies in small cities and rural areas that have implemented a wide variety of problem-solving initiatives. Researchers identified five progressive stages of community policing. 7 page pdf file.

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Rural Resources

Internet Project - Free website hosting and Internet access at no cost to rural law enforcement agencies. Promotes information sharing, provides an electronic information resource center, and provides technical assistance to agencies.  A service of the National Center for Rural Law Enforcement.

Rural Assistance Center – Assistance to organizations or individuals seeking to maintain and improve health and human services delivery in rural areas. Sign up for free electronic updates with news, funding opportunities, articles, and events.

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Rural Kids Lag Behind in Health and Education

Children in rural America face many of the same challenges that are typically associated with children living in cities and fare worse than urban kids on several key indicators of child well-being.

Children in rural areas are better off in their ability to speak English and in housing. They are worse off in secure parental employment, poverty, health status, mortality rates, cigarette, alcohol, and drug use, and education outcomes. Problems are made worse by the isolation, lack of jobs, and lack of support services for families li

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Youth Gangs in Rural America

T he lead article in the latest issue of the NIJ Journal describes youth gangs in rural areas of the U.S. and points out several ways they differ from urban gangs. Rural gangs appear to be transitory, to appear in areas experiencing economic growth, and their members are mostly local youth, although migrating gang members are important to the movement of ideas and symbols into rural areas.

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North Carolina brings high-speed internet connections to the state’s rural areas

North Carolina is wiring isolated towns with high-speed lines to boost local economies. Four new Telecenters are scattered around the state. They bring high-speed internet connections to senior centers, doctors offices, and minority schools. Broadband is considered by many to be imperative for country communities struggling to connect with the world beyond the county line. States such as Alabama, Alaska, and Iowa are giving tax credits for broadband time and the USDA has so far loaned about $200 million to mostly small and rural telephone companies to hard-wire their areas for broadband access.

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	to improve access to mental health services for  rural residents, and
	to enhance the supply of rural mental health providers in rural areas.

Fox Butterfield writes in the NYT about methamphetamine manufacture, sale and use in the rural Midwest . Methamphetamine use and crime are overrunning rural counties in Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota and the Texas Panhandle according to law enforcement officials. In Lovell, Wyoming, a small town of 2200 people, methamphetamine use is now more than twice the national average.

 

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The Rural Appalachia Project

 

NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) has announced a new program in which adolescents and teens with emotional and behavioral problems will receive treatment as part of a new study in eight of the poorest Appalachian counties in Eastern Tennessee . Researchers will work with judges, school administrators, and community leaders to overcome barriers to mental health services. The study will include 720 children with serious conduct and other mental health problems, ages 9 to 17 years old, who were referred to juvenile courts.

 

All I have on this project so far is the NIMH press release, but I’ll keep an eye out for information on it as it continues. It is a five year project with several components.

 

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Community Correlates of Rural Youth Violence

 

This new Juvenile Justice Bulletin addresses the lack of knowledge of rural youth violence by applying social disorganization theory to community correlates of youth violence in nonmetropolitan communities in Florida , Georgia , Nebraska , and South Carolina . From the bulletin: Social disorganization is the primary theory by which criminologists account for rates of crime in urban communities. Research presented in this bulletin indicates that the principles of social disorganization theory work well in rural settings. 12 page pdf file.

 

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RMOTE – Rural Mountain Organization for Technological Enhancement

 

Here’s a fine example of creative thinking by a group of rural counties in the mountains of southwestern Colorado . RMOTE counties have won grant money by partnering with each other and making themselves more attractive to funders. Since 1985 RMOTE has received about $6 million in federal and state technology grants for about 2,000 students spread over six school districts and several mountain ranges.

 

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Mental Health and Family Services Collaborate to Help Rural Youth

 

The Pact 4 Families group is a collaborative of family services and mental health providers in rural four counties plus one community. The collaborative has more than 100 partners. Members include county social services, public health and corrections agencies, school districts, mental health providers and other child serving agencies.  At the web site you’ll see all sorts of activities, programs, and projects run by the collaborative’s partners.

 

In a new program, PRIDE 4, Pact 4 will develop and implement transitional programs for about 1,400 14-24 year olds with depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It is supported by a $500,000 SAMHSA grant.

 

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Community Justice in Rural America : Four Examples and Four Futures

 

A report on communities in which community justice is thriving. The four have different cultures, crime, quality of life concerns, and assets, but each shares “a desire to look beyond remedies traditionally offered by the justice system for solutions to seemingly intractable problems.”  Boise County , Idaho ; Jefferson County , Oregon ; Monroe County , Wisconsin ; and Burlington Vermont are featured. BJA report. About 20 pages. Downloadable.

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One Department Serving Rural America

 

In response to rural health problems, poverty and unemployment, this report of the HHS Rural Task Force redefines the agency’s definition of healthy rural communities to include access to health care, a thriving economy, low levels of poverty and reliable social service networks. The new definition will guide budgeting and policy for rural communities. 

A rural assistance center will be up on the HHS web site next fall along with a toll-free number to call. Non-profits are being encouraged to fund experimental programs and to help rural communities create endowments. There is a special need for funds to help nonprofit applicants write applications for grants and assistance because they often lack grant writing skills. Interesting findings from the report:

 

	HHS lacks a common definition of “rural” or a set of definitions that are used by all agencies and staff offices and that accounts for the gradient between metropolitan and rural areas.
	While more than 225 HHS programs currently service rural communities, communities struggle to access resources because individual programs have unique application, implementation and evaluation requirements.
	HHS policy development process does not consistently consider rural concerns.

The report is downloadable, 41 pages.

 

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The Heartland Center for Leadership Development

 

If you live and work in a rural community, this web site has links and programs for you. It develops local leadership “to respond to the challenges of the future in rural communities.” Translate that as rural community survival.  Resources include the Kellogg Collection for Rural Community Development Resources, an online catalog of materials from around the country, a newsletter, good links, programs and publications. Check out the "A Field Guide to Community Building" website here.

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