Macro-Level Study Of Immigration Crime

Words: 593
Pages: 3

sis of census-data driven studies and macro-level studies finds that immigration does not increase crime rate. When we look at macro-level research we find that immigrants are less crime-prone than natives with some potential exceptions. There are several reasons why immigrant criminality is lower than native criminality. A broad explanation is that immigrants who commit crimes can be deported; therefore, they are punished more harshly for criminal behavior making them less likely to commit crimes. An additional explanation is that immigrants self-select for those willing to work rather than those willing to commit crimes (Harris, 2006).
Motivated and ambitious foreigners are more likely to immigrate, and those individuals are less likely to be criminals. This could explain why immigrants are less likely to engage in “anti-social” behaviors than natives despite having
…show more content…
Another possibility of course is that the federal government has employed more effective strategies regarding interior immigration and is catching and deporting those unlawful immigrants who are more likely to be criminals before they have a chance to be incarcerated.
Two broad studies that investigate immigrant criminality: Census data and the American Community Service (ACS) data, conclude that immigrants are less crime prone than the native-born population (Nowrasteh, Alex, 2015). These trends have also been found on a local level. Researchers Garth Davies and Jeffrey Fagan examined immigration crime in New York City and found that crime rates are not higher in areas with more immigrants. A comparative study was performed by Robert Sampson in the city of Chicago who concluded in his research that “Hispanic Americans do better on a wide range of social