It is the city dweller's old dream: a cottage far from the lethal crowd, perhaps in a little town where the air is sweet, the living easy and, most important, the streets are clean of muggers, rapists and Saturday night specialists.
Such asphalt visionaries may be better off restricting their rural fantasies to improved air quality. Good ol' country living now suffers from that big-city disease known as a rising crime rate, according to the FBI'S annual Uniform Crime Reports released last week. In rural areas, serious crimemurder, rape, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny and theftwas up 8% in 1975. That increase...