President Donald Trump has made headlines in recent months for sending federal troops to major metros from Memphis, Tennessee to Portland, Oregon.
While Ohio cities have been spared that spotlight, Gov. Mike DeWine has made moves of his own: partnering with cities like Cincinnati to use the Ohio State Highway Patrol to bolster local efforts to curb crime.
Similar partnerships have taken place in cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.
However, rates of crime in Ohio’s rural communities are often just as high, if not higher, than the state’s major metros.
Ross County in southeast Ohio, for example, had a crime rate of 9,730 per 100,000 people in 2023, according to the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Service.
In Franklin County, home of Columbus, the 2023 crime rate stood at 8,563 per 100,000 people.
Hamilton County’s crime rate was even lower.
“The realities of crime in rural communities are very much overlooked,” said Walter DeKeseredy, professor of sociology and director of the Research Center on Violence at West Virginia University.
“But this is changing rapidly.”
Realities of rural crime
Rural crime has long been understudied and underrepresented in the media, DeKeseredy said.
“The mass media really doesn't focus on the realities of rural crime. When they focus on rural communities, they either portray people as backward or inbred or a little bit behind the times, or they'll show stereotypes, terrible crass stereotypes,” he said.
But there’s a growing body of research more accurately depicting crime in rural America.
“One thing for sure we do know is that rates of violence against women in U.S. rural communities are higher than they are in urban and suburban communities,” DeKeseredy said. “And we have national representative sample survey data to support that claim.”
There are several reasons for the discrepancy.
People in rural parts of the country tend to be more geographically and socially isolated. It’s often harder for people to access social services. And a higher percentage of people own guns.
“There's also evidence of what we call a ‘good old boys' network,’ in which the perpetrators are friends with political elites and law enforcement personnel who protect them,” DeKeseredy said. “So these factors all come together to contribute to the higher rates [of violence against women].”
No simple solution
As part of his research, DeKeseredy interviewed dozens of women from rural southeast Ohio about their experiences with violence.
“The atrocities that were committed against them was just heartbreaking. I'll never forget their voices,” he said. “I've been studying violence for a long time, and there were things that I think very few of us could possibly imagine. The level of cruelty was incredible.”
Reducing this type of violence takes a multi-pronged approach, DeKeseredy said, from a greater police presence to increased access to shelters and social services to education for men and boys
A greater police presence, better access to shelters and social services, education for men and boys.
“There is not one simple solution, just as there is no simple solution in urban and suburban areas,” DeKeseredy said.
