City Crime Versus Country Crime

Do cities generally have a higher rate of violent crime than small towns and rural areas, even after you allow for the population difference? I suspect that they probably do. I think that people in small towns and the country often have stronger ties to the community, more of a sense of belonging, and just an overall sense of close-knittedness that is sometimes missing in large cities. However, my opinion is really just a hunch. What I know for sure is that this subject has been a matter of debate for a long time.
The day after Christmas of 1895, the St. Louis Republic reported that there had been 15 murders in St. Louis during the past 90 days. Anticipating the Republican National Convention that was scheduled for St. Louis in June of 1896, the newspaper suggested that the city's criminal record would be a magnet for criminals of every stripe from across the country and that they would turn St. Louis into a "harvest field."
The Republic blamed the recent uptick in crime in St. Louis on lax administration. For instance, the newspaper alleged that bad men were able to "purchase exemption" from their crimes and that such corruption only made the criminals bolder. Unless the city started enforcing the law more strictly, the newspaper warned, St. Louis would soon "witness such carnivals of crime as Chicago has seen."
About a week later the Taney County Republican reprinted part of the article from the Republic, and editors B. B. Price and S. J. Williams observed that the 15 recent murders in St. Louis had caused "less fuss" and received less publicity than one similar murder would have received "if it happened in Taney County." The editors went on to claim that, "for some reason or other, crime in the big cities does not receive such sensational treatment as crime in the country." They concluded that, in fact, life and property were much safer in Taney County than they were in St. Louis because the laws were more strictly observed and enforced. Perhaps the editors were a little touchy because of all the negative publicity Taney County had received during the Bald Knobber era of the 1880s, At any rate, they seemed to suggest that the only reason crime in rural areas received so much publicity was because such crime was rare, thus adding another twist to the debate about the prevalence of crime in the cities versus the country.