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CRIME IN RURAL COMMUNITIES 311

could ignore processes of change because theoretical grounding of rural crime research,
there were so many other possible ways of and leads down a path toward the development
empirically analyzing information about of more advanced conceptual frameworks
neighbourhoods cross-sectionally, that the which have yet to be created. Ultimately, the
theory could be rigorously tested without goal, as is the mission of all science, is to
regard to co-variation or time. Time was the advance scholarship to the stage that social
second prime dimension of original concep- disorganization theory is considered obso-
tualizations of human ecology, and was lete, with due recognition given to its histor-
always problematic for sociologists who lean ical importance.
toward quantitative analysis. Now changes in The adoption of social disorganization
levels of social disorganization across time at theory as a first step in synthesizing rural
the same place could be ignored and the crime research may impress the reader
empirical enterprise of theory testing from as ironic, given the history of its urban
cross-sectional data of many places could bias and the simplistic interpretation of Tönnies’
continue unabated. As well, variations Gemeinschaft–Gesellschaft dichotomy. How-
between different kinds of neighbourhoods ever, we also contend that a proper interpre-
or places could be argued as indirectly exam- tation of social disorganization is able to
ining social change, or at least, having impli- account for place-based variations without
cations for social change. Remarkably, one engaging in a form of the ecological fallacy
of the only exceptions to the application of a that makes blanket assumptions about crime
static view was by rural sociologists who had in all rural places.
become interested in the possibility of chang- The social organization of communities of
ing crime rates due to the boomtown phenom- any size has three specific sources. First,
ena of the 1980s in western energy towns informal relations among primary groups,
(Freudenburg and Jones, 1991; Krannich et al., such as neighbours, friendship cliques, and
1985, 1989; Wilkinson et al., 1982, 1984). extended family determine much of the vari-
Second, many of the conditions said to be ation in a place’s density of acquaintanceship
indicative of relative levels of social disor- (Freudenburg, 1986), hence, also control the
ganization can be measured, and statistical behaviour of members. Second, participation
tests of relationships with various crime phe- in these primary groups overlaps, creating
nomena can be conducted. These conditions webs of reciprocity that can be seen through
include demographic/population composi- the demographic composition, social class
tion, such as population heterogeneity and (or caste, depending on the place of refer-
population turnover or transience; economic ence) characteristics and the cultural expec-
conditions, such as poverty rates and income tations expressed within the context of
inequality; family indicators, such as propor- specific places. Finally, social organization is
tions of single parent families and divorce variably reinforced by external links, that is,
rates; and social structural/human capital forms of social capital utilized by various
characteristics, including frequency of inter- actors within specific groups at specific
acting with neighbours (Bursik, 1999; places.
Sampson et al., 1997). Third, different kinds We begin our journey by discarding the tra-
of criminological phenomena can be tested ditional functionalist assumption that a condi-
utilizing a social disorganization framework. tion of so-called ‘disorganization’ is
Not only official police statistics concerning abnormal. It simply makes no sociological
crime, but arrest data, calls for service, per- sense to start with an image that places of any
ceptions of crime and fear of crime, among size are normal only when they are organized
others (Tittle, 2000). and cohesive. We could argue that it makes
We contend that social disorganization better sociological sense to assume that rural
theory provides a first step toward the solid places are continuously changing due to