Immigration reduces crime rates
- added March 24, 2008
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- critter
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- Crime (1034)
- Violence (395)
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- Chicago (180)
Contrary to popular stereotypes, areas undergoing immigration are associated with lower violence, not spiraling crime, according to a new study. Harvard U's Robert Sampson examined crime and immigration in Chicago and around the United States to find the truth behind the popular perception that increasing immigration leads to crime.
Based on assumptions that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes and settle in poor, disorganized communities, prevailing wisdom holds that the concentration of immigrants and an influx of foreigners drive up crime rates. However, Sampson shows that concentrated immigration predicts lower rates of violence across communities in Chicago, with the relationship strongest in poor neighborhoods.
Not only does immigration appear to be "protective" against violence in poverty areas, violence was significantly lower among Mexican-Americans compared to blacks and whites. Sampson refers to this as the "Latino Paradox," whereby Hispanic Americans do better on a range of social indicators — including propensity to violence — than one would expect, given their socioeconomic disadvantages.
Sampson’s analysis also revealed that first-generation immigrants were 45 percent less likely to commit violence than third-generation Americans. Controlling for immigrant generation even narrowed the violence gap between whites and blacks in Chicago by 14 percent.
Based on assumptions that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes and settle in poor, disorganized communities, prevailing wisdom holds that the concentration of immigrants and an influx of foreigners drive up crime rates. However, Sampson shows that concentrated immigration predicts lower rates of violence across communities in Chicago, with the relationship strongest in poor neighborhoods.
Not only does immigration appear to be "protective" against violence in poverty areas, violence was significantly lower among Mexican-Americans compared to blacks and whites. Sampson refers to this as the "Latino Paradox," whereby Hispanic Americans do better on a range of social indicators — including propensity to violence — than one would expect, given their socioeconomic disadvantages.
Sampson’s analysis also revealed that first-generation immigrants were 45 percent less likely to commit violence than third-generation Americans. Controlling for immigrant generation even narrowed the violence gap between whites and blacks in Chicago by 14 percent.
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i'm sure that the guy who studied this, his grate grand parents were mexicans too.
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any people , regardless of race , who come to this country and work hard , pay taxes, and stay a while should be citizens - if you pay taxes ( which , of course , fund the "war on terror" ) you deserve to be an "american" - yeah , all the issues pertaining to mexicans here in the US could take days to cover , but from my personal experience i've seen mexican day laborers exposed to asbestos while helping to re-build new orleans , and if they were paid at all , they were usually paid shite - but their families depended on them - not on welfare - they usually know better than to commit a crime which would cause them to be incarcerated or deported . if any citizen of this country is not willing to work as hard as a mexican , they have no reason to whine - when anyone complains about labor being sent offshore to India or China , thank mexicans that they choose to work here and contribute .
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Malathion has touched on a significant point, in my view.
An immigrant wouldn't want to draw negative attention to themselves for fear of deportation resulting in lost revenue for family dependence.
The potential for crime drops due to fear of repercussion on a larger scale.
Removing that issue would, most likely, result in a more typical crime rate. The act would be more self-serving, as is usually the case.
Just a thought. -
I would like to see the footnotes on this study to see where the figures are coming from. If they are using the Fed's statistics on crime then they are working with a severe handicap, considering that they only work with crimes reported. Everyone knows that non-stranger crimes are severely underreported as well as stranger crimes against illegal immigrants. If this study is only showing crimes reported against and by legal immigrants, well, there's a handicap there as well considering the focus of media attention is on undocumented workers. So like I said, it would be interesting to see where the statistics are coming from...
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