Immigration and Violent Crime: A Critical Assessment

Samuel Jimenez
University of San Diego
LEPS 500 Issues in Law Enforcement
Professor Grgurina
June 19, 2017
 Immigration in the United States has always been a controversial topic. Public opinion about

immigrants in the United States is divided. That is, there are members of the public who have

positive and negative perspectives of immigrants residing in the United States. Those who have

a negative perspective of immigrants residing in the United States often associate crime with

immigrants. However, historical, and contemporary research finds that at the individual level,

immigrants are not more inclined to commit crime than the native born.

Prior research has been conducted to determine or establish any relationship(s) between

immigrants and crime. Most of the research has been consistent in that the incorporation of

immigrants does not necessarily attribute to higher levels of crime (Ferraro 2013). Moreover,

even if members of the immigrant population do become involved in criminal activity, they do

so at a lower rate than that of native born. In a study conducted by the National Commission on

Law Observance and Enforcement--- commonly known as the Wickersham Commission--- they

reported that in proportion to their numbers the foreign-born commit considerably fewer

crimes than the native born (Ousey and Kubrin 2009).

When it comes to incarceration rates, US born males have higher incarceration rates than

foreign born males residing in the United States. Data from the 5 percent Public Use Microdata

Sample (PUMS) of the 2000 census was used by Martinez and Valenzuela to measure the

institutional rates of immigrants and natives. Martinez and Valenzuela focused on males 18-39.

They focused on males 18-39 because that was the predominant age group of males who were

incarcerated at the time of the 2000 census. The research conducted by Martinez and

Valenzuela revealed the incarceration rate of the US born was four times (3.51 percent) that of

the foreign born (0.86 percent).

 Working as a School Resource Officer in the city of Los Angeles, I have a seen a similar trend

in juvenile delinquency as it relates to immigration and crime. When it comes to juvenile

delinquency, native born juveniles are arrested at a higher rate than foreign born juveniles in

Los Angeles Unified Schools. Even in high schools where many of students who are enrolled are

foreign born and have low prior education, most of the juvenile arrestees are native born. Thus,

incarceration rates are lowest among immigrant young men, even among the least educated

(Martinez and Valenzuela 2006).

Contrary to popular belief, there is not a lot of research that supports the idea that

immigration causes higher crime rates. Research that has been conducted thus far, has shown

an inverse relationship between immigration and crime. Research on immigration and crime

has shown that immigrants nearly always exhibit lower crime rates than native groups.

Although by no means are these findings conclusive, they serve as a starting point to challenge

the popular belief that associates immigration with crime.

 References

Ferraro, V. A. (2013). Chapter 4: Are New Americans Really New Criminals? The Relationship

Between Crime and Immigration. In Immigrants and crime in the new destinations (1st

ed., The New Americans: Recent Immigration and American Society, pp. 117-142). El

Paso, Texas: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC.

Martinez, R. J., & Valenzuela, A. (2006). Chapter 3: Immigration and Incarceration. In

Immigration and crime : race, ethnicity, and violence (pp. 88-121). New York, New York:

New York University Press

Ousey, G. C., & Kubrin, C. E. (2009). Exploring the Connection between Immigration and Violent

Crime Rates in U.S. Cities, 1980- 2000. Social Problems, 56(3), 447-473. Retrieved June

13, 2017.