Rural And Small-Town Voters: Crime and Justice
The Rural Voter Institute’s 2023 research (conducted summer of 2023) examined perceptions around three potential factors in the 2024 election: Trump’s mishandling of classified information, Biden’s economic record, and the public policy issue of crime and safety – a much hyped issue in the most recent mid-term election.
Topline Findings:
Crime – including in urban areas rather than locally – was largely not on the radar of the panelists. However, the issue did resonate with them to a degree when introduced. As one respondent put it, “I think where I live right now, security is not a big issue. We live in a smaller community.”
Crime was largely associated with more urban and suburban areas. If it was associated with small-town and rural communities, it was so loosely and more associated with minor property crimes and drug or alcohol-related violations. One respondent described crime in his community as, “theft and drunk driving and drugs.”
Stronger sentiments existed regarding a perceived need to address the criminal justice
court system rather than policies for policing and violence prevention that did not resonate with these voters. Panelists were keenly interested in accountability for both property crime and
violent crime and thought prosecutors and the criminal court system needed more support.
A panelist said, “The police can do their jobs all day long. If we can’t get the prosecutors and the judges to do their jobs and keep these people behind bars where they belong, all the money in the world for the police isn’t gonna change anything. And it seems that the prosecutors and the judges don’t wanna hold anybody accountable. The cops arrest them, and they’re literally back out on the street very shortly with no consequences. So I think it’s gotta be more focused on the people that have the responsibility to uphold the after the arrest than the actual arrest. ... But I’m still saying that it’s more the judges and the prosecutors that need to hold people accountable and they’re not doing it.”
When posed with policy proposals to fund more policing and policing innovations in communities with higher violent crime rates, panelists were sensitive to tax dollars going to subsidize increased policing, law enforcement, and the like in more metropolitan areas.
For further findings and recommendations, download our report below.