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Chapter 22 Supplement Special Topics

• Approximately one-third of all Americans (31.2%) live in rural areas (U.S. Census Bureau 1997).

• In the fourteen years from 1983 to 1997, violent crime in rural counties increased 53% (FBI 1998a).

• During the first six months of 1998, preliminary statistics showed an 8% increase in murder offenses in towns with populations 10,000 to 24,999, and a 3% increase in rural counties (FBI 13 December 1998).

• In 1997, violent crimes dropped 6.2% in cities with populations of over one million, while rural counties experienced a 3.1% increase:

- Robberies increased by 10.7% in rural counties.

- Forcible rape increased by 9.7% in cities with populations under 10,000 and by 7.4% in rural counties.

- Motor vehicle theft increased by 4.6% in rural counties (FBI 1998b).

• The rates of violent crime and personal theft per 1,000 persons age twelve and older in rural jurisdictions was 27.6 overall and 1.5 for rape/sexual assault, 2.6 for robbery, 4.9 for aggravated assault, 18.7 for simple assault, and 0.5 for personal theft (BJS 1999).

• The first wave of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth interviewed a nationally representative sample of 9,000 youth who were between the ages of twelve and sixteen at year-end 1996. The survey asked youth to report whether they had ever engaged in a variety of deviant and delinquent behaviors. Youth in rural jurisdictions reported the following:

- 45% had consumed alcohol.

- 11% had carried a handgun.

- 29% had purposely destroyed property.

- 17% had committed assault.

- 6% had been arrested (Snyder and Sickmund 1999).

Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Enforcement Grants at the Office of Justice Programs improve and increase services available to rural women and children by encouraging community involvement in developing coordinated responses to domestic violence and child abuse. Grant recipients include:

• The Maine Rural Health Family Violence Initiative coordinates services for battered women and abused children using health care providers as the first line of defense. The project fosters collaboration between service providers and law enforcement, provides on-site intervention, and is developing training programs that will be tested in four settings, including two Native American health clinics and the state's largest hospital.

• The Greater Rural Assistance and Intervention Network (GRAIN) comprehensively responds to domestic violence and child victimization in seven rural counties in northwest Iowa. The project provides direct services, training for agencies involved in providing services to victims, develops protocols for law enforcement and prosecutors to promote victim safety and offender accountability, and sponsors prevention education for young people.

The STOP (Services Training Officers Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program awards funds to states and territories to restructure and strengthen the criminal justice system's response to violence against women. For example:

• The Farm Worker Women Leadership Project in California developed a model for identifying farm worker women in California communities to receive training in sexual assault and domestic violence awareness, prevention strategies, and available resources. In turn, these women train others in their communities about these issues.

Four percent of the amount budgeted each year for the STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program is awarded to Indian tribal governments. Examples include:

• The Osage Nation in Oklahoma has developed written policies and procedures on domestic violence for law enforcement officers; the prosecutor and courts are establishing a more specific domestic violence code; the Osage Nation Counseling Center has hired a domestic violence/sexual assault counselor who is available during non-business hours; and the counseling center and the tribal court are collaborating to set up a treatment group for offenders.

• The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina established a new shelter, hired a criminal investigator, and provides battered women with court advocacy to help them navigate the tribal justice system.

• The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota launched a campaign to raise awareness about domestic violence. The tribe also made policy and legal changes to stiffen sanctions against offenders and improve services for battered women.

(The previous section has been excerpted from a report prepared by the Rural Task Force, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC, 1998.)

NATIONAL GRANGE OF THE ORDER OF PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY

The National Grange is the oldest nationwide agricultural and rural public interest organization in the United States, with over 300,000 Grange members affiliated with 3,600 local, county, and state Grange chapters. The National Grange sponsors numerous initiatives that promote victims' rights and public safety, including the following:

Policy position relevant to protection for victims and jurors.

1. We support increased protection for those who serve on juries. We oppose any publication or disclosure of jury deliberations, as they are confidential and should remain so.

2. The National Grange supports legislation to assure that victims and witnesses of violent crimes (including but not limited to murder, attempted murder, sexual assault, and assault) must be notified in writing at least 60 days before any and all hearings in which the person who has been convicted of that crime seeks release or a change in release status from either a prison or mental institution.

3. The National Grange encourages print and broadcast news media to be sensitive to the issues involving their coverage of crime and victimization, in order to better respect the privacy of crime victims.

Policy priority to enhance public safety in rural areas. Grange members, like all rural citizens, cherish being secure in their homes, free of crime and fear. However, crime is increasingly making its way into rural communities. Urban street gangs extend their influence into rural towns to recruit new members. Drug dealers use rural locations to manufacture toxic drugs to poison youth. Rural communities are inadequately prepared to recognize, prevent and address occurrences of domestic violence. The basic rights of violent crime victims in rural areas go unprotected. Rural law enforcement agencies, often under-funded and under-trained to deal with these threats and challenges, strain to provide basic public safety.

Member and community programs.

• For three years, the National Grange Junior Program has sponsored a series of workshops entitled "Stop the Violence" for Junior Grange members and a separate training workshop for adult group leaders. These workshops are conducted in conjunction with the National Grange Annual Convention every year. Resource materials are made available for local adult leaders to utilize in their programs. They are designed to help children recognize, address and control their impulses toward violence and to use peaceful means to resolve differences. They help make children aware of portrayals of violence in popular media and the difference between fantasy and reality. The workshops also address situations where children may have been a victim of violent behavior by another person (either peer or adult) and attempt to help children restore their confidence and self esteem.
• The National Grange operates one of the largest Community Service programs in the nation, designed to channel volunteer activities into worthwhile community projects in rural areas. In 1999, Grange members donated 1,434,719 hours of volunteer service to projects to improve their communities. An additional 125,863 hours were further donated by non-Grange members in support of the activities of local Granges.

Many award winning Grange Community Service programs address victims' issues and violence preventive measures in local rural communities. Local programs that received national recognition for their commitment to improving rural communities in 1999 include:

- Starting a teen suicide and violence prevention program in Watkins Glen, New York.

- Sponsoring a Community Visions program in Midland County, Michigan, that identified the formation of gang and violence outreach partnerships as one of the top three priorities for volunteer commitment to improve the community.

- Providing volunteer and financial support to establish a battered women's shelter in Michigan City, Indiana, including creating and donating more than 200 "necessity bags" filled with basic necessity articles for women and their families who are forced to quickly leave abusive situations.

- Organizing a community drive to make more than 100 stuffed toys for donation to local and state police, fire, and EMT to help calm children who were the victims of traumatic circumstances, including domestic violence, in Beach Community, Virginia.

- Organizing volunteer and financial support for the Rural Women's Crisis Center in Nampa Valley, Idaho.

For more information about the National Grange, its programs, polices, and membership services for rural Americans, please contact: The National Grange, 1616 H St., NW, Washington, DC 20006-4999 (888-4-GRANGE) (fax: 202-347-1091) <www.

nationalgrange.org> lwatson@nationalgrange.org (e-mail).

ADDITIONAL PROMISING PRACTICES

• Penn State Center for Research on Crime and Justice. The intricate causes of crime and its impact on rural and suburban communities are examined and analyzed at the Penn State Center for Research on Crime and Justice. Communities and crime are being examined in the context, for example, of different crime rates by victims' age, gender, and race as well as by neighborhood, including related factors such as the amount of housing, how often residents move in and out of town, the structure of area families, and economic issues. A particular focus is on how decisions are made in the criminal justice system by victims, police, prosecutors, judges, juries, and other groups, and how the results may affect a community. Additional information about this project is available electronically from <http://www.psu.edu/ur/NEWS/news/crimeresearchcenter.html>.

• Rural Crime Watch. In California, the Rural Crime Watch program is a service of the California Farm Bureau Federation (CFBF) to assist law enforcement agencies in sharing information about rural crimes. Extensive information is available in both paper and electronic formats on equipment thefts, commodity thefts, Rural Crime Task Force meetings, information and tips about thefts and scams, and information about rural crime prevention programs. The CFBF Web site <http://www.cfbf.com> also contains links that enhance intercounty information exchange as well as information about crime prevention and victim assistance.

• Student interns cover bases in four-county rural Tennessee. Through a collaboration with several colleges in the rural, four-county Tenth Judicial District of Tennessee, the Victim/Witness Assistance Program at the District Attorney General's office maintains four offices by relying on student interns to deliver services to victims and witnesses. The student intern program offers academic credit to criminal justice and social service majors, providing them with exposure to the system from the perspective of prosecutors, victims, and witnesses. Applicants to the Intern Program participate in a training program at the District Attorney General's office to learn about the role that victims and witnesses play in the criminal justice system, and they attend General Sessions Court to learn about court procedures. Interns are assigned to attend preliminary hearings to provide victims and witnesses with up-to-date information on the status of their cases, and to help them obtain answers from the prosecutors to any questions that they may have. Victim/Witness Administrator, Office of the District Attorney General, 10th Judicial District, 130 Washington Avenue NE, Suite 1, P.O. Box 647, Athens, TN 37371-0647 (423-744-2830).

• Support from the clergy. The Victim Witness Division of the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, based in Maui, HI, provides more immediate response to victims on rural Maui and the lesser populated islands of Molokai and Lanai by involving clergy-based volunteers trained in victimization. The clergy has been a natural support group in the rural Hawaiian areas, and their participation has improved cooperation and communication between criminal justice professionals, victim services, and rural victims. Victim Witness Assistance, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, 200 South High Street, Wailuku, HI 96793 (808-243-7695).

• Multidisciplinary teams and full service response. Malheur County, OR is a geographically large, culturally diverse, rural county with a small population (30,000) and a high rate of domestic violence--102 reported cases in the first six months of 1999. The Domestic Violence Unit was formed to develop immediate response capability, a consistent protocol for contacting victims and keeping them involved and informed while their cases are processed, and a collaborative relationship with community services that provides victims with ongoing support. Team members (a deputy district attorney, a crisis coordinator, and a police officer) are bi-lingual, trained domestic violence specialists.

The district attorney is on call to law enforcement 24 hours a day. When a domestic violence incident occurs, he or she stays in close contact with the police officer dispatched to the scene of the crime in order to assess the situation and insure that information on the case is taken correctly. Arrests are made under a mandatory arrest law. Following the incident, the Unit Crisis Coordinator meets with the victim to enhance the safety of the family, to interview potential witnesses, and to determine the necessity of a restraining or anti-stalking order. Office of the District Attorney, Courthouse #6, 251 B Street West, Vale, Oregon 97918 (541-473-5127).

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