Social media, rural communities and crime prevention

Crime is often considered to be absent in idyllic and idealised rural communities. Rural communities, too, are often perceived as having static and close-knit community bonds that facilitate social control and explain the perceived absence of crime. They are, in essence, place-based communities. Even when invoked symbolically, they are still tied to the geographical particularities of the ‘the rural’. This chapter argues that the image of rural spaces as home to tight-knit, closely bound communities perhaps explains the comparative lack of research regarding social media use in rural communities. If rural communities are ‘traditional’ communities that prioritise face-to-face communication, it is easy to see how social media might be easily dismissed as irrelevant to their social fabric. However, rural communities have always existed in networks with other places. This chapter discusses the existing literature on social media in rural communities and on crime prevention in rural communities and argues that engagement on and through social media may have positive results for crime prevention