Immigration

Immigration

Introduction

In recent years, academics have been perplexed by the consistent decreases in violent crime rates in the past two decades, even in the midst of an economic recession. Meanwhile, immigration has continued to increase and only recently have scholars begun to suspect a correlation. The results of recent studies indicate that the correlation between immigration and crime has become increasingly negative since the beginning of the twentieth century, that there is in fact a causal relationship between increased immigrant concentration and decreases in violent crime rates, and that these results are robust for metropolitan areas throughout the United States (Stowell 2009).

The longstanding and broadly held belief that immigration leads to crime is misaligned with recent national trends. In reality, as violent crime rates have declined considerably, the United States has seen a sizable influx of immigrants. Since 1990, the foreign-born population grew by 28 percent, with an increase of nearly 9 million individuals. However, violent victimization rates in the United States reached an unprecedented low in 2008. Therefore, the drop in crime rates has been an adjunct to an influx of foreign-born persons. Notably, the overall dwindle in violent crime rates is not due to disproportionate declines in one type of offense, because homicide, rape, robbery, and assault rates have all experienced sizeable reductions. While, this correlation does not necessary indicate the existence of a causal relationship, there is sufficient data and information to test this theory.

In contrast with the social disorganization perspective's contention of a positive relationship between crime and immigration, non-empirical research on immigration describes the process of immigration more positively and offers knowledge regarding the likelihood of an inverse relationship between crime and immigration (Ogbu, 2010). A foremost clarification for the observed differences is the selectivity theory, which states that people who migrate to the United States do so for the chance to improve their life possibilities. Fundamental to the selectivity theory is the principle that “people who migrate are more motivated, talented, and assiduous than those who do not” (Raffalovich 2009).

Immigrants are also likely to have contact with social networks. These networks are key in that they can “offer information and facilitate the move and the process of adaptation” (Palloni and Morenoff 2010). Consequently, the assertions the selectivity theory makes concerning immigrants are in disaccord with those related to the social disorganization theory. In addition, the selectivity hypothesis implies that immigration is not necessarily associated with the disturbance of ecological dynamics as noted by the social disorganization theory. Therefore, the present study maintains that several theories of immigration provide strong reasons to expect an inverse correlation between immigration and crime.

Body part 1

In Immigration, Crime, and Incarceration in Early Twentieth-century America Raffalovich (2009) analyze the immigration and crime trends at the beginning of the twentieth century. The study used prison population data collected by the Census Bureau which is advantageous in that it contains both information on nativity and related factors and contains a census of all inmates, making the study representative on ...