Victims of domestic violence who live in rural areas face special challenges. While batterers tend to isolate their victims in any geographic setting, for women in rural areas, this isolation is often even more severe.

Some additional barriers to survivors living in rural areas include:

• May live miles from their nearest neighbor, friend or family member 
  
• Lack of available childcare 
  
• Few job opportunities 
  
• Inadequate public transportation 
  
• Distance from shelters and services
  
• Poverty and economic dependence 
  
• Lack of anonymity and confidentiality 
  
• May seem as if everyone knows everyone else 
  
• Judges and police officers who know both a batterer and his victim socially may be less likely to recognize the severity of an assault

In Rural Woman Battering and the Justice System, Neil Websdale reports that the existing research shows rural areas are far less likely to witness violent crime than urban areas. However, women in rural areas are as likely as women in central cities and suburban counties to report being the victims of intimate violence.