The Rural County Sheriff: An Issue in Social Control

Abstract

The study of criminal justice in the United States has maintained a consistent urban focus. While this is to some degree understandable, valuable comparative perspectives are lost w hen rural areas are ignored. The present study attempts to lay a groundwork for the studi' of rural police. The literature that addresses the impact of communit v and political structures upon stiles of policing is reviewed. Though they are few in number, studies that have examined rural settings indicate a marked difference in the nature of police behavior. This work attempts to document that e vpectation. This is an exploratorY studi' that wvas conducted through the use offield-research techniques. The determinants of police action were sought in a number of contexts. Both formal and informal community structures were examined to understand the motivation for police action. Like their urban counterparts, rural police patrols were observed to be primarily reactive in nature. This was due to the thorough integration of the police into the informal normative si stem. Because consensus about the tolerable limits of crime and deviance was Widespread, the sheriffs department was able to provide services largely compatible with the desires of the public. Four specific kinds of situations (trqffic offenses, drunks, domestic affairs and felonies) are presented to further illustrate this point. The behavior of rural police was most like that of urban officers in matters of less discretion felonies. The paper concludes hb, identi/fing the bulA of ruralpatrol as (consensual in nature.