The Rural context Rural England and Wales is a landscape of differing communities, many in transition and each with its own pattern of social and economic relationships. Whatever their particular form and the forces acting upon them, rural areas are distinctive in broad cultural terms and these distinctions are relevant to an understanding of tackling rural crime. Rural communities tend to be small scale and close knit.
People know each other and patterns of interaction tend to be local and informal.
Rural communities have embraced traditions of mutual help and self-reliance, supportive of each other and sometimes suspicious of strangers. Local economies are small scale and rural poverty is often hidden beneath the picture post card veneer of prosperity. Geographical isolation and limited access to services is often associated with slow rates of social change and limited external influence. Whilst formal communications may be slow, local information is rapidly shared and whilst criminality is difficult to hide, it is also more likely to be hidden from casual view. The Public Safety Radio Communication Project, for example, will reduce the amount of time officers spend at police stations by providing them with direct mobile text and message facilities and links to the telephone network from cars and handsets.