Due to urban bias in policing research and a lack of rural data, most work on perceptions of law enforcement has been conducted in urban areas. Drawing from competing theories about the distinctions between (or lack thereof) rural and urban places, we examine the associations between nonmetropolitan residence, local structural disadvantage, neighborhood perceptions, individual demographics, and experiences with crime and law enforcement on perceptions of procedural justice during the charged long-term aftermath surrounding the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Results from a statewide dataset comprised of rural and urban respondents suggest that nonmetropolitan residence is associated with modestly lower levels of procedural justice on average, but we did not find a moderating effect of predictors across contexts. Perceptions of neighborhood cohesion and unsafety as well as negative experiences with law enforcement, violent victimization, and consumption of media showing problem policing were salient. Identification as Black or African American was associated with lower, and older age higher, ratings of procedural justice. Local poverty was not significant in the full model. Taken together, results suggest that the factors associated with perceptions of procedural justice operated similarly in both rural and metropolitan contexts during this charged time in policing history and support broader research that argues that rural and urban places are more similar than different.

This chapter reviews literature on types of gentrifications, the mechanisms through which they are hypothesized to be associated with health, and their operationalization and components, using a social determinants of health framework. Findings are highly variable across methodologies, context, and groups. We pay particular attention to urban–rural differences. To that end, we examined the extent of gentrification in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties and average levels of mental distress among adults in gentrifiable communities that did and did not gentrify and found considerable variation. We conclude with policy implications and directions for future research.

In A Feminist Critique of Police Stops, Howard University Law Professor Josephine Ross makes an impassioned and compelling argument for the Supreme Court to overturn Terry v. Ohio (392 U.S. 1 (1968...