When hearing the term “rural crime”, you could be forgiven for thinking it referred to crimes committed within rural communities. However the term is usually only used when referring to crime against the farming community.

So the theft or damage to property such as agricultural machinery/tools, fencing, hay/straw, heating oil/red diesel, livestock, horses and horse boxes, if occurring within the boundaries of a working farm, would be called “rural crime”.

Theft and criminal damage offences occurring in other parts of a rural community would not.

Similarly wildlife crime, although predominately rural, is treated separately within most police forces.

Illegal activities such as trespass, fly tipping, illegal occupation and off-road vehicle nusiance tend to occur more often in rural areas but these in the main are civil offences. Although often requiring police intervention, the ultimate responsibility for enforcement lies with other organisations.

Essex 

Population density of Essex Districts ( A hectare is 100m x 100m) 

As can be seen from the table opposite, Essex has a population density very simillar to that of the country as a whole. However, there is wide variance of population distribution within the county.

Southend on Sea district is the most urban with a density of 41.6 and Uttlesford the most rural having only 1.2 people per hectare. If we look at the four least populated police districts within Essex, they occupy 56% of the counties area but contain only 30% of the population. These districts are still primarily agricultural and therefore most likely to suffer from rural crime. 

In 2013 there were 17,911 crimes recorded in these rural districts, the details being as follows.

Essex Police does not differentiate between rural (farm) crime and other crime committed within these rural communities. So the extent of farm crime cannot be established. However, the following limited information comes via a FOI request.

 Crime Rates

When considering the number of crimes committed within a given area, it is generally accepted that an urban area will generate more opportunities for a potential offender than a rural one.

Within Essex there are 15 police districts, fourteen if we discount Stansted Airport. In most cases they consists of 

urban areas set within an accessible rural landscape. The majority of the population living in the urban fringes and commuter belts around the main towns of the district. Consequently no police district within Essex can be described as truly rural.

Using  population density, on its own, to evaluate a districts ruralness is very much a generalization but it does provide a reasonable indicator.    

The police district with the lowest population density is Uttlesford with just 1.2 people per Hectare, Southend with 41.6 is the highest. 

Table 1 compares the crime rate, during 2013, for each district against the population density. 

Table 2 Shows the expected number of crimes according to the districts' population, using the average crime rate for Essex and compares it with the actual number of crimes recorded.

Crime Trends 

The Police record crime under 10 main categories and any crime reported will be recorded within the district it occurred.

The percentage of crime recorded within these categories will vary from district to district.  

Table 3 shows the number of crimes for each category, during 2013,  expressed as a percentage of all crime recorded in the County. 

Violent crime being the most reported and Robbery the least.

It then shows the variations for Rural and Urban districts, when compared to the County average

(The Rural districts used in the table are Rochford, Uttlesford, Maldon and Braintree and the Urban districts Harlow and Southend.)