The authors believe that responding to rural crime requires an understanding of the physical and social features of the rural environment, as well as an appreciation of how these features vary among rural areas. This well-documented text promotes the view that rural crime and justice are not subjects of interest to a limited audience; to the contrary, what can be learned about the relationship among crime, geography, and culture in the rural setting has implications for crime and justice elsewhere.

This new edition offers both updated statistics and references plus new information on topics not included in the first edition, such as "white trash" and "rednecks," rural prosecutors, crimes related to the environment, the use of deadly force by rural police, the training needs of rural police, and probation in rural areas. Also included are substantially expanded discussions of guns and crime, rural poverty, gangs, violence, arson, small-town municipal police, and rural jails and prisons.