Law and Order in the Ozarks (Part II): Violent crime within families and among intimates

I suggested in my first "Law and Order in the Ozarks" post last week that it seems there's more crime in Newton County (AR) than when I was growing up there. While the amazing UC Davis law librarians are tracking down some detailed data on rural and urban crime rates, including those in Arkansas if available, I'll tell you what I already know about them.

In my recent writing about domestic violence and drug use in rural places, I've come across the statement that the difference between rural and urban crime rates has narrowed in recent years. (Weisheit, Wells & Falcone, Crime and Policing in Rural and Small Town America (3d ed. 2006)). This suggests that urban crime rates, historically higher, have fallen some and that rural crime rates, historically lower, have risen some. Further, Weisheit et al tell us that violent offenses against family members are one type of crimes with rising rural arrest rates.

Even in light of this trend, what has happened in Newton County (AR) recently is surely an aberration. I am now looking at the August 14 and August 21 issues of the paper, and family violence is everywhere, along with some other crimes.

On August 14, three of the stories follow up on crimes previously reported, two in the previous week's edition. We learn more about the 33-year-old woman who shot her husband. She told the Sheriff's investigator that on the day of the shooting, "she and her husband had been arguing most of the day and drinking at a neighbor's house." She reports that he provoked her to pick up the shot gun from behind the sofa and told her to "go ahead and pull the trigger." She did, though she says she didn't know it was loaded. Once she realized she'd shot her husband, the police report says she "yelled to the kids to call for help" but it was too late. (While it would apparently have made no difference in these circumstances, this does remind me that there is no 911 service in Newton County, which is not uncommon in very remote rural areas in the U.S.). I am mortified that there was a loaded gun behind the sofa with two "kids" in the house. The August 21 paper reports that the woman has been arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder.

The other two crime stories on the 14 August front page are

• Wife joins husband on child abuse charges -- following up on a story from a few weeks ago, which reported that a 25-year-old man had been charged with first degree battery and misdemeanor third degree battery for striking his three stepchildren, aged 10, 8 and 5. Now the mother has been charged with felony permitting abuse of a minor.
• Man pleads guilty to burglary, animal cruelty -- following up on last week's report. While the 41-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the charges, the story makes no mention of the 15-year-old who was also arrested, except to say that the adult male was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Although the man is a habitual offender, the sentencing enhancement based on that status is not being pursued in exchange for the plea.
  

The rest of the front page is, thankfully, lighter fare. Two photos depict events at the Jasper School, in the county seat. One shows the beginning of construction on a $2.4 million auditorium, music, and physical education facility, and another shows a 4th grade teacher preparing his classroom for the new school year. The final items announce a write-in candidate for county judge a "FireWise" event at the Ponca fire station.

The August 21 issue shows a photo of the winning fair parade float and tells of the 3d Dist. U.S. Congressman's "mobile office" visiting the county seat. (This district has been held by a Republican for decades, while Arkansas' remaining three districts tend to go Democratic). The rest of the front page is all law and order. In addition to the notice of a new state trooper being assigned to the county, there are three crime-related stories.

• One reports on a March 2008 domestic violence incident in which a man shot his girlfriend in the fact, stabbed her around the throat, stabbed the neighbors with whom she had taken refuge, and then set fire to his trailer. The man is expected to enter into a plea agreement. I first reportedthis matter back in March.
• One clarifies that a pastor, who two weeks earlier was reported to have been charged with rape, has instead been charged with incest because the 17-year-old with who he had sex is his adopted daughter.
• The last indicates that a federal subpeona has been served on the former director of the County's Office of Emergency Management. That former director has been called to testify before a federal grand jury. The story suggests that federal investigators who were in the county earlier this summer found some indications of misuse of federal Office of Homeland Security grant funds. Time will tell what's up with this subpeona, but reading this reminded me of the federal indictment of the county judge for vote buying a coupla' decades ago. He was convicted and served time in prison.

With so much of this news about violence within families in Newton County, I'll share these relevant statistics:

• The less densely populated a place and the greater its distance from an urban area, the more likely a killer is to be a family member or intimate partner of his (or her) victim. Adria Gallup-Black, Rural and Urban Trends in Family and Intimate Partner Homicide: 1980-1999 (2004).
• Rural perpetrators of intimate abuse are nearly twice as likely as their urban counterparts to inflict severe physical injuries, as by using a weapon. They are twice as likely to destroy property during the event. T.K. Logan, et al., Qualitative Differences Among Rural and Urban Intimate Violence Victimization Experiences and Consequences: A Pilot Study, 18 J. of Fam. Violence 83, 86 (2003).
  
• Finally, at least one study suggests that state troopers are more likely to take crimes of famiy violence seriously and to pursue them fully than are local law enforcement, such as sheriff and deputies, who are more socially embedded in the community. Neil Websdale, Rural Woman Battering and the Justice System (1998).

A few rural audio vignettes from NPR this week

Here's one about the 1963 founding of the folk music festival in Mountain View, Arkansas. The headline was "In Arkansas, Fiddlers Try to Preserve Local Tunes." Don't miss the priceless slideshow, with photos by David Gilkey for NPR. Sounds like the NPR reporters stumbled onto Mountain View as part of the network's "Take Me to Your Leader" series, in which Madeleine Brand and David Greene are driving between Barak Obama's home in Chicago and the Democratic Convention in Denver, asking townsfolk to identify local leaders. The report does a nice job of capturing the distinctive flavor of this Ozark gem. Mountain View is the county seat of Stone County and has a population of about 2,800.

Here's one about Leavenworth, Washington, a fake "Bavarian Village." Unfortunately, the transcript for this one is not available online, and I won't trust my memory to recall too much of what I heard --just that the town converted itself to a Bavarian-style village to create a new economy based on tourism after the town lost its train station and several major employers.

I bet you can tell which one the photo accompanies.

Sarah Palin, the rural choice?

With today's announcement, Gov. Palin may be the first vice presidential candidate with such an intimate and far-reaching knowledge of concerns unique to rural communities. Alaska is, of course, the largest state in the country in terms of land area, and much of it is sparsely populated. When running for Alaska governor two years ago, Palin put out this position paper on rural issues. In it she addresses rural energy costs, endorses hiring local residents to serve rural communities, and discusses her positions on local control, subsistence fishing and hunting, and indigenous communities.

Whether her connection to rural issues is more help than hindrance is an open question; already Democrats are using it to underscore her lack of experience. For example, Paul Begala noted this morning that Palin's two years as governor of a state with "more reindeer than people" is evidence that McCain was "out of his mind" to pick her. CNN's Jack Cafferty joined the bandwagon too, describing Alaska as "a state that has 13 people and some caribou."

Update on the ICE raid in Laurel, Mississippi

See this from the Daily Yonder, relying on a Washington Post story.

I note that those detained -- as many as 600 of them -- are being held in Jena, Louisiana, population 2,971. I hope they have access to legal counsel with appropriate expertise in both immigration law and criminal law, which was apparently not the case with the Postville detainees. Also, the Postville detainees were arraigned in the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo; I wonder if such a make-shift courtroom will be used for those detained in Laurel. Since this raid comes several months after Postville, immigrants-rights groups are almost certainly better prepared to go to the place and advocate in all appropriate ways for those detained, even if the local rural resources are not comprehensive.

Census Data on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage for 2007

Data and reports from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2007 are trickling out, and on August 26, the figures for income, poverty, and health insurance coverage were released. Here's the press release link.

I had a quick look at the full report, and here are some highlights -- or perhaps I should say lowlights.

• The real median income in non-metro areas rose by 3.1% to $40,615 between 2006 and 2007. This income level continued to be lower than households inside metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), which was $51,831, a level not statistically significant from 2006. This means the income gap between metro and non-metro places is narrowing. I wonder if this is a reflection of exurbanization, of well-to-do city folks flocking to amenity-rich rural places.
  
• Within MSAs, households in principal cities (urban areas) the median income was $44,205, while it was $57,444 "outside principal cities" -- meaning the suburbs.
  
• Neither the metro nor the non-metro poverty rate changed by a statistically significant degree, although both rates rose slightly. The metro rate rose from 11.8% to 11.9%, and the non-metro rate rose from 15.2% to 15.4%.
• The uninsured rate for people living in metropolitan statistical areas decreased to 15.3% from 15.8%. The rate for people living outside MSAs decreased from 16% to 15% between 2006 and 2007.
  
• Here's a story from the NYT, which focuses on the health care coverage part of this particular Census Bureau Report.
  

More on wind farms

Here's the latest from the New York Times about power grid limitations that are thwarting efforts to maximize the use of wind-generated energy, mostly in rural places. The story is by Matthew Wald Here's an excerpt:

The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads.

“We need an interstate transmission superhighway system,” said Suedeen G. Kelly, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Reading the details of the deficient energy transportation infrastructure made it sound at first blush like another example of long-standing neglect of rural infrastructure, but I guess it isn't quite as simple as that.

Another ICE Raid in Non-Metro America

The raid today was in Laurel, Mississippi, population 18,393, and its target was a Howard Industries plant. Here's Adam Nossiter's report in the New York Times, which says 350 unauthorized migrants were working there. According to the 2000 Census, almost 4% of Laurel's population was Hispanic.

The story notes parallels between this raid and the one in May in Postville, Iowa, which I've commented on here and here.

The raid follows a similar large-scale immigration operation at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in May when nearly 400 workers were detained. That raid was a significant escalation of the Bush administration’s enforcement practices because those detained were not simply deported, as in previous raids, but were imprisoned for months on criminal charges of using false documents.

We don't know, yet, of course, how those detained in this Mississippi raid will be "processed" by federal judges, although an ICE spokesperson said the workers would be taken to a detention center to “await the outcome of their cases.” No lawyers were present as the detainees were interrogated, finger-printed, and "processed for removal from the U.S."

The ICE spokesperson also said that 50 of the detainees would not be taken to the center but rather would be “released into the community.” Such releases are apparently based on so-called humanitarian reasons such as the need to take care of children.

For more information on Latina/os in the non-metropolitan South, here's a link to my working paper, "Latina/os, Locality and Law in the Rural South," which is forthcoming in the Harvard Latino Law Review (2009).

"Going Down the Road," this time from coastal Louisiana

The latest installment of the NYT series "Going down the road" appears today with the dateline Golden Meadow, Louisiana. That's in Cajun country, and according to Susan Saulny' s story, there's less of it -- the place, the land that is -- than there used to be. The headline is "Holding Out, to Last Tiny Isle, as Cajun Land Sinks into the Gulf," and the story tells of both extraordinary attachment to place (as in Grand Isle, population1,541) and a community that wasn't even around when the W.P.A. writers came through in the 1930s (Port Fourchon, not incorporated and not a census designated place, which is described in Saulny's story as part gated yacht community, part base for the oil and gas industry). The story's interactive feature is here.

Here is an excerpt:

The route enjoys a history of beguiling newcomers with its curious swamp-life customs, pirate tales and exuberant seafood offerings, which were already well-documented in 1941 when writers for the government’s Work Projects Administration set out to create travel guides for all the states.

* * *

Here, about an hour south of New Orleans, the writers followed Bayou Lafourche (pronounced la-FOOSH) to the gulf along a “graveled and shell roadbed” that is now Louisiana Highway 1, fully paved. They gushed about “boom fishing centers,” newly discovered oil and the seemingly endless bounty of the Gulf of Mexico, the area’s economic lifeblood, in Golden Meadow (population, 2,500; altitude, two feet).

“This part of the state is a lush land of great fecundity,” an unnamed writer enthused.

Saulny's story goes on to detail how Port Fourchon, the "Bayou's boom town," is flourishing, in large part because some 20% of the nation's fuel passes through it. Elsewhere in the area, long-time residents are resilient and loyal to their home in spite of the tough times and the sinking terrain. As one resident of Grand Isle expressed it, “If they got a little puddle of sand left . . . I’m staying put.”

New Feature: Law and Order in the Ozarks

I don't really love that heading, but here's my idea for a new series on Legal Ruralism. I'm a long-time subscriber to The Newton County Times, the weekly newspaper for the county where I grew up in Arkansas. It's typically just 8 pages a week, sometimes more during fair season. There aren't a lot of ads (well, more during election season), and it's chock full of information about county happenings, including obituaries. I'll tell you more about the paper, of course, as this series develops.

Since I started writing about the intersection of law with rural livelihoods, I pay a lot more attention to the items about crime, policing, and such, and so I've decided to feature some story from the paper each week. I can't guarantee it'll always be directly related to law, but the idea is to use the paper's coverage of events there as a jumping off point to discuss my thoughts about, well, law and order in rural places. Unfortunately, very few stories in the paper get picked up on its website, and I've never seen a Newton County photo there. This is especially unfortunate for my purposes because there are some incredible photos I'd like to share with you here. (Photo above is of the Buffalo National River (BNR), which winds through the county; I posted it just for visual interest and to convey how scenic the county is; I won't go into the links between the BNR and law in this post).

Just a reminder of some basics about Newton County before we get started. It is, I believe, the least densely populated county in Arkansas, with about 10 persons/square mile. The total population in 2000 was 8,608, and the county seat, Jasper, has a population of 498. Newton County is one of two persistently poor counties in Northwest Arkansas, the other being Searcy County to the east. This means that more than 20% of the residents have been living below the poverty line in every decennial census since records were first kept in 1960. (There are other persistently poor counties in the state, but they are in the Mississippi Delta). Newton County has no industry. Sixty percent of the county is Ozark National Forest and BNR, so the county has a fair number of government employees. Otherwise, tourism, timber, and education (the county has four schools but, following consolidation, only two school districts) are the big employers. There are a lot of family farms, but few row crops -- mostly cattle and pigs.

So, now I'm looking at the August 7, 2008 edition of the Newton County Times, and four of the six stories on the front page have a legal angle. This seems extraordinary to me because my recollection of my childhood is that the law was largely irrelevant to the lives of most of the county's residents. That may still be the case, but here are the four headlines:

• Sales taxes asked for new jail -- I have blogged about this issue before; the 100+-year-old-jail has effectively been condemned, and two inmates committed suicide there in the late spring. This caused it to be closed for a while, with inmates taken to neighboring Carroll County. The latest is that Newton County's November ballot will seek a .5% sales and use tax to finance construction of a new jail and law enforcement complex, as well as a second .5% tax to pay for the maintenance and operation of that facility. I hope they pass -- the county needs this facility, and very little in federal grants is available to meet even such needs.
• Laverty earns praise of state prosecutors -- Laverty is the state senator for a district that includes Newton County and some some parts of neighboring counties. The story reports that he has just received the "Advocate for Justice" award from the Arkansas Prosecutors Association. Specifically, he is being praised for helping the county get money for a drug court and for an extra deputy prosecutor, as well as for his support of the association's 2007 legislative program. It isn't clear from the report whether the drug court is in Newton County or in nearby Carroll County, which is more populous (25,357). Wherever it is in the area, I'm pleased to hear about it. Such courts are an aspect of a mature criminal justice system.
  
• Murder suspect hospitalized -- this story reports that a woman who is accused of shooting her husband in the chest with a shotgun on Sunday night had to be hospitalized the next day after she passed out in the Newton County Jail (yep, the infamous one that was closed down in June after the inmate suicides). This is going to be an interesting story to follow -- a wife shooting her husband, both in their 30s. I'll hold my tongue about who the initial aggressor was until we know more, but bear in mind that I'm just finishing an article on domestic violence in rural places, and I've been thinking and writing about the particular character of rural patriarchy for about 18 months so . . . well, stay tuned.
  
• Police say dogs "tortured"--this is, I think, the saddest of all because it involves a juvenile. It reports that a 41-year-old man made a court appearance in late July for burglary and animal abuse. The man's accomplice was a 15-year-old, and a video tape showed him "severely abusing several small animals." More details of this abuse are given in the news report, but I'll spare you. The bond for the 41-year-old has been set at $25,000. The youth was "set to be in juvenile court in Harrison." Harrison is the micropolitan center in neighboring Boone County. This is not specified in the story, but I suspect that under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1980, the youth could only be held in Newton County's jail, an adult facility, for six hours, although 2-day extensions may be granted to rural facilities under "special circumstances."

Of the final two items on the front page, one is about repairs to two state highways that run through the county and the other is a photo taken by a Newton County resident. The caption is "Back yard drama," and the photo shows a Kingsnake eating a Copperhead. Now you know why I'm regretting that these photos aren't available online for me to share with you! This is quite a shot.

I'm looking forward to hearing your alternative suggestions for a heading for this series.

More on wind and politics (which does not necessarily mean windy politicians)

A story by Kirk Johnson and Monica Davey on the national page of the New York Times today is headlined, "Energy Politics Proves Difficult to Master" in the online edition. The headline in the print edition is "Voters to Congressional Candidates: 'Energy is the No. 1 Issue.'" The story focuses on two congressional races, one in the 4th District of Colorado and the other in the 6th District of Minnesota. The former includes the flat and rural areas east of Denver, as well as Fort Collins, Greeley and various exurbs.

Here are some excerpts that touch on the story's rural angle:

Here in Colorado, where Democrats gather next week for their convention, candidates have sparred relentlessly over energy. By most accounts, it is the No. 1 issue in the Fourth Congressional District, a mostly rural area that sprawls across Colorado’s boundary with the Great Plains.

In the small towns and wind-swept farms of the Fourth District, it is easy to find people like Rod Diekman. Mr. Diekman is outraged about the particulars of the energy crunch, including the prices for fuel and fertilizer that are battering his 3,500-acre wheat and millet farm just north of Cheyenne Wells, and the lack of electricity-transmission capacity that is blocking construction of a wind-turbine plant on his property.

The story also details the various politicians' positions on renewable energy and some rural residents' skepticism that wind farms and the infrastructure to transport the energy it will generate can be realized in time to rescue their communities.

Another big "rural" headline in today's NYT, this one about the Presidential election

The headline today is "A Rural Slice of a Big State Tests Obama," and the big state at issue is Pennsylvania. The story's dateline is Raccoon Township, a backwoods, down home name if ever there was one. Beaver County, Pennsylvania has a population 181,412).

Here is an excerpt from Michael Powell's story:

To roam the rural reaches of western Pennsylvania, through largely white working-class counties, is to understand the breadth of the challenge facing the two presidential candidates. But this economically ravaged region, once so solidly Democratic, poses a particular hurdle for Senator Obama.

From the desolation of Aliquippa — where the Jones & Laughlin steel mill loomed at the foot of the main boulevard — to the fading beauty of Beaver Falls to the neatly tended homes of retired steel workers in Hopewell, one hears much hesitating talk about Mr. Obama, some simply quizzical or skeptically political, and some not-so-subtly racial.

The story features lots of rich quotes from residents and is well worth a read in its entirety. Interestingly, although it was on the front page of the national edition of the paper, by mid-afternoon today, it was nowhere in sight online. I didn't see it make the top-10 emailed stories all day, but it did draw more than 150 comments from readers, some of them colorful indeed.