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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:54 pm
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Results for immigrants and crime
56 results foundAuthor: Greene, Judith Title: Local Democracy on ICE: Why State and Local Governments Have No Business in Federal Immigration Law Enforcement Summary: 287(g) is a provision in federal immigration law that allows Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use local police to target immigrants for arrest without suspicion of crime. ICE described the 287(g) program as a public safety measure to target criminal illegal aliens. However, the largest impact has been on law-abiding immigrant communities. This report details findings from a year-long investigation of this provision and recommends that the ICE program be terminated. Details: Brooklyn, NY: Justice Strategies, 2009. 94p. Source: Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 114349 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Bell, Brian Title: Crime and Immigration: Evidence from Large Immigrant Waves Summary: This paper examines the relationship between immigration and crime in a setting where large migration flows offer an opportunity to carefully appraise whether the populist view that immigrants cause crime in borne out by rigorous evidence. The paper considers possible crime effects from two large waves of immigration that recently occurred in the U.K. The first of these was the late 1990s/early 2000s wave of asylum seekers, and the second the large inflow of workers from EU accession countries that took place from 2004. A simple economics of crime model, when dovetailed with facts about the relative labor market position of these migrant groups, suggests net returns to criminal activity are likely to be very different for the two waves. In fact, the paper shows that the first wave led to a small rise in property crime, whilst the second wave had no such impact. There was no observable effect on violent crime for either wave. Nor were immigrant arrest rates different to natives. Evidence from victimization data also suggests that the changes in crime rates during the immigrant waves cannot be ascribed to crimes against immigrants. Overall, the findings suggest that focusing on the limited labor market opportunities of asylum seekers could have beneficial effects on crime rates. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2010. 44p. Source: Internet Resource; IZA Discussion Paper No. 4996 Year: 2010 Country: United Kingdom URL: Shelf Number: 118789 Keywords: Crime RatesImmigrants (U.K.)Immigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Camarota, Steven A. Title: Immigration and Crime: Assessing a Conflicted Issue Summary: This study examines academic and government research on the question of immigrant crime. New government data indicate that immigrants have high rates of criminality, while older academic research found low rates. The overall picture of immigrants and crime remains confused due to a lack of good data and contrary information. However, the newer government data indicate that there are legitimate public safety reasons for local law enforcement to work with federal immigration authorities. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Immigration Studies, 2009. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, Nov. 2009: Accessed August 18, 2010 at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2009/crime.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.cis.org/articles/2009/crime.pdf Shelf Number: 119627 Keywords: Illegal Aliens (U.S.)Immigrants and CrimeImmigration (U.S.) |
Author: Krisberg, Barry Title: Where is the Fire? Immigrants and Crime in California Summary: In a recent May 2010 survey, 9% of Californians identified immigration as the most important issue facing the state today. In an identical poll conducted two months prior only 3% of Californians identified immigration as the top priority. What explains the 6% jump over the course of a few weeks? Notably, Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer signed a restrictive law targeting noncitizens, SB 1070, on April 23, 2010 in the time period between the two surveys. The Arizona law prompted a public debate over immigration enforcement and the proper role of state and local governments that continues today. One of the basic underlying assumptions of the Arizona law is that there is a nexus between immigration and crime. The rationale is that noncitizens are responsible for increasing crime and therefore states need to step in and enforce immigration laws. Locally, some current and potential elected officials reinforce this perception that California and the nation is beset by a crime epidemic that is caused to a large extent by undocumented immigrants. For example, California Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said “I support Arizona’s efforts to protect its citizens... it’s a reflection of their frustration and fear.” Congressman Duncan Hunter described his home town of San Diego as plagued by “massive murders on the border, massive illegal immigration, massive importation of drugs.” Another prominent California member of Congress, Ed Royce, wrote, “(v)iolence along the U.S. Mexican border continues to increase at alarming rates. Our communities shouldn’t continue to live in fear of violent drug cartels, gangs and human traffickers.” Do these statements reflect the reality in California, the state with the largest foreign-born population in the country? In order to determine whether there is an association between crime and immigration, this paper examines violent crimes and serious property crimes at a statewide level in California, in counties along the southwest border, and in all other southern California counties. Most of the data in this analysis covers “foreign‐born” immigrants. This demographic category includes persons with permission to be in the U.S. for work, travel or educational purposes, those who entered nation on an unauthorized basis, as well as those possessing U.S. citizenship. Details: Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice, University of California, Berkeley, 2010. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 29, 2010 at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Where_is_the_fire.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Where_is_the_fire.pdf Shelf Number: 120120 Keywords: Illegal AliensImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Spenkuch, Jorg L. Title: Understanding the Impact of Immigration on Crime Summary: Since the 1960s both crime rates and the share of immigrants among the American population have more than doubled. Almost three quarters of Americans believe immigration increases crime, yet existing academic research has shown no such effect. Using panel data on US counties from 1980 to 2000, this paper presents empirical evidence on a systematic and economically meaningful impact of immigration on crime. Consistent with the economic model of crime this effect is strongest for crimes motivated by financial gain, such as motor vehicle theft and robbery. Moreover, the effect is only present for those immigrants most likely to have poor labor market outcomes. Failure to account for the cost of increased crime would overstate the “immigration surplus” substantially, but would most likely not reverse its sign. Details: Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 2010. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: MPRA Paper No. 22864: Accessed April 28, 2011 at: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/22864/1/MPRA_paper_22864.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/22864/1/MPRA_paper_22864.pdf Shelf Number: 121382 Keywords: Economics and CrimeImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Jeszeck, Charles A.: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests, and Costs Summary: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimated that as of fiscal year 2009 the total alien--non-U.S.-citizen--population was about 25.3 million, including about 10.8 million aliens without lawful immigration status. Some aliens have been convicted and incarcerated (criminal aliens). The federal government bears these incarceration costs for federal prisons and reimburses states and localities for portions of their costs through the Department of Justice's (DOJ) State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). GAO was asked to update its April and May 2005 reports that contained information on criminal aliens. This report addresses (1) the number and nationalities of incarcerated criminal aliens; (2) the types of offenses for which criminal aliens were arrested and convicted; and (3) the costs associated with incarcerating criminal aliens and the extent to which DOJ's methodology for reimbursing states and localities for incarcerating criminal aliens is current and relevant. GAO analyzed federal and SCAAP incarceration and cost data of criminal aliens from fiscal years 2003 through 2010, and conviction and cost data from five states that account for about 70 percent of the SCAAP criminal alien population in 2008. GAO analyzed a random sample of 1,000 criminal aliens to estimate arrest information due to the large volume of arrests and offenses. GAO also estimated selected costs to incarcerate criminal aliens nationwide using The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons in fiscal year 2010 was about 55,000, and the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails was about 296,000 in fiscal year 2009 (the most recent data available), and the majority were from Mexico. The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons increased about 7 percent from about 51,000 in fiscal year 2005 while the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails increased about 35 percent from about 220,000 in fiscal year 2003. The time period covered by these data vary because they reflect updates since GAO last reported on these issues in 2005. Specifically, in 2005, GAO reported that the percentage of criminal aliens in federal prisons was about 27 percent of the total inmate population from 2001 through 2004. Based on our random sample, GAO estimates that the criminal aliens had an average of 7 arrests, 65 percent were arrested at least once for an immigration offense, and about 50 percent were arrested at least once for a drug offense. Immigration, drugs, and traffic violations accounted for about 50 percent of arrest offenses. About 90 percent of the criminal aliens sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2009 (the most recently available data) were convicted of immigration and drug-related offenses. About 40 percent of individuals convicted as a result of DOJ terrorism-related investigations were aliens. SCAAP criminal aliens incarcerated in selected state prison systems in Arizona, California, Florida, New York, and Texas were convicted of various offenses in fiscal year 2008 (the most recently available data at the time of GAO's analysis). The highest percentage of convictions for criminal aliens incarcerated in four of these states was for drug-related offenses. Homicide resulted in the most primary offense convictions for SCAAP criminal aliens in the fifth state--New York--in fiscal year 2008. GAO estimates that costs to incarcerate criminal aliens in federal prisons and SCAAP reimbursements to states and localities ranged from about $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion annually from fiscal years 2005 through 2009; DOJ plans to update its SCAAP methodology for reimbursing states and localities in 2011 to help ensure that it is current and relevant. DOJ developed its reimbursement methodology using analysis conducted by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2000 that was based on 1997 data. Best practices in cost estimating and assessment of programs call for new data to be continuously collected so it is always relevant and current. During the course of its review, GAO raised questions about the relevancy of the methodology. Thus, DOJ developed plans to update its methodology in 2011 using SCAAP data from 2009 and would like to establish a 3-year update cycle to review the methodology in the future. Doing so could provide additional assurance that DOJ reimburses states and localities for such costs consistent with current trends. In commenting on a draft of this report, DHS and DOJ had no written comments to include in the report. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2011. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-11-187: Accessed April 22, 2011 at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11187.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11187.pdf Shelf Number: 121479 Keywords: Costs of CrimeCriminal AliensHomeland SecurityIllegal AliensImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Burns, Casey Title: Literature Review on the Various Immigrant Generations and Their Affect on Crime and Reporting. Summary: Immigration and crime is a topic that becomes more and more popular with the influx of contemporary immigrants. When this topic is discussed, it is generally a blanket statement for all immigrants and how they relate to crime statistics. An important issue that isn’t widely publicized is the different immigrant generations and how they can affect crime rates. Reporting issues and the perceptions of these various immigrant groups is also an area that isn’t widely publicized. A big problem with determining the different levels of crime between the different immigrant groups is who fits into which immigrant generation. What has been found is that there isn’t a huge difference between definitions of immigrant generations, but they sometimes vary from source to source. This literature review is based on the most common definitions of different immigrant generations and how those groups relate to crime. Ultimately, what this paper is trying to discover is how the newest generations of immigrants are represented in crime data as they become more acculturated into American culture compared to the previous immigrant generations. It will also focus on reporting issues and immigrant perceptions of government officials across the different immigrant generations. Details: Rochester, NY: Center for Public Safety Initiatives, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2010. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper #2010-12: Accessed August 12, 2011 at: http://www.rit.edu/cla/cpsi/WorkingPapers/2010/2010-12.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.rit.edu/cla/cpsi/WorkingPapers/2010/2010-12.pdf Shelf Number: 122353 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Bell, Brian Title: Immigrant Enclaves and Crime Summary: There is conflicting evidence on the consequences of immigrant neighbourhood segregation for individual outcomes, with various studies finding positive, negative or insubstantial effects. In this paper, we document the evolution of immigrant segregation in England over the last 40 years. We show that standard measures of segregation point to gentle declines over time for all immigrant groups. However, this hides a significant increase in the number of immigrant enclaves where immigrants account for a substantial fraction of the local population. We then explore the link between immigrant segregation, enclaves and crime using both recorded crime and self-reported crime victimization data. Controlling for a rich set of observables, we find that crime is substantially lower in those neighbourhoods with sizeable immigrant population shares. The effect is non-linear and only becomes significant in enclaves. It is present for both natives and immigrants living in such neighbourhoods. Considering different crime types, the evidence suggests that such neighbourhoods benefit from a reduction in more minor, non-violent crimes. We discuss possible mechanisms for the results we observe. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor, 2011. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 6205: Accessed January 10, 2012 at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1976536 Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1976536 Shelf Number: 123541 Keywords: ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeNeighborhoods and Crime |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Migration Restrictions and Criminal Behavior: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Summary: We estimate the causal effect of immigrants' legal status on criminal behavior exploiting exogenous variation in migration restrictions across nationalities driven by the last round of the European Union enlargement. Unique individual-level data on a collective clemency bill enacted in Italy five months before the enlargement allow us to compare the post-release criminal record of inmates from new EU member countries with a control group of pardoned inmates from candidate EU member countries. Difference-in-differences in the probability of re-arrest between the two groups before and after the enlargement show that obtaining legal status lowers the recidivism of economically motivated offenders, but only in areas that provide relatively better labor market opportunities to legal immigrants. We provide a search-theoretic model of criminal behavior that is consistent with these results. Details: Moncaliere, Italy: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, 2011. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: FEEM Working Paper No. 53.2011: Accessed March 21, 2012 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1891689 Year: 2011 Country: Europe URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1891689 Shelf Number: 124622 Keywords: Illegal AliensIllegal ImmigrationsImmigrants (Europe)Immigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Papadopoulos, Georgios Title: Are Immigrants more Criminal than Natives? An Application of some Estimators for Under-reported Outcomes using the Offending, Crime, and Justice Survey Summary: This paper mainly studies the individual level relationship between immigration and property crime in England and Wales. For this purpose, the Offending, Crime, and Justice Survey is used, a representative national survey of self-reported crime. Models that account for under-reporting are used, as this is the major concern in selfreports. These models indicate that under-reporting is considerably large and depends on respondents' characteristics. However, our findings suggest that, if anything, immigrants tend to under-report less than natives. Binary choice models reveal that, after controlling for under-reporting and for basic demographic characteristics, the probability of committing a crime is lower for immigrants, but the difference is statistically insignificant. This finding is evident in count data models as well, as being an immigrant (insignificantly) decreases the mean number of crimes. Furthermore, violent crime results indicate that the immigrant-crime association is also negative for violent crime. Interestingly, a decomposition of immigrants by regions reveals that different regions attract immigrants of different criminal behavior, or that immigrants adapt differently across regions. Finally, the results also show that immigrants of different ethnic groups exhibit disparate criminal behavior. Details: Colchester, UK: Department of Economics, University of Essex, 2010. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2012 at: http://www.webmeets.com/files/papers/SAEE/2010/21/Job%20Market%20Paper-Are%20immigrants%20more%20criminal%20than%20natives-An%20application%20of%20estimators%20for%20under-reporting%20using%20the%20OCJS.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.webmeets.com/files/papers/SAEE/2010/21/Job%20Market%20Paper-Are%20immigrants%20more%20criminal%20than%20natives-An%20application%20of%20estimators%20for%20under-reporting%20using%20the%20OCJS.pdf Shelf Number: 125141 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeImmigration (U.K.)Property CrimesUnder-reporting |
Author: Hagen, Courtney Title: Bias in the Federal Judicial System: Do Sentencing Disparities Exist in the Southwest Border Region of the United States? Summary: Despite falling crime rates in recent years, political arguments have been made that illegal immigrants entering the country are contributing to increased crime along the Southwest Border region of the United States. Given existing literature that demonstrates bias in the judicial system, particularly regarding sentencing disparities based upon demographic characteristics, I intend to examine the potential effects of such policies, practices, and rhetoric in creating sentencing disparities in the Southwest Border. Specifically, I test the hypothesis that Hispanics and/or illegal immigrants receive longer sentences than other ethnic groups and U.S. citizens for similar crimes committed in the Southwest Border. Additionally, I test whether these disparities are greater in the Southwest Border than in the rest of the country. Using sentencing data provided by the United States Sentencing Commission for the years 2000 through 2008, I study the effects of ethnicity and citizenship while controlling for crime type and geographic region, and include control variables for additional demographic characteristics, prior criminal history, and other "legalistic" attributes. My hypothesis is inconsistently supported; certain crimes exhibited sentencing bias for Hispanics and/or illegal immigrants, while others did not. Moreover, no strong pattern emerged to identify which crimes would produce bias. The inconsistent and often suspect results suggest the absence of important data, likely attributable to a "deportation effect" which is not fully documented and therefore is not available for inclusion in tests regarding sentencing disparities for illegal immigrants and/or Hispanics. Details: Washington, DC: Georgetown University, 2011. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Master's Thesis: Accessed May 8, 2012 at: http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/553752 Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/553752 Shelf Number: 125179 Keywords: HispanicsIllegal AliensIllegal Immigrants (U.S.)Immigrants and CrimeSentencing Disparities |
Author: Moehling, Carolyn Title: Immigration and Crime in Early 20th Century America Summary: Research on crime in the late 20th century has consistently shown that immigrants have lower rates of involvement in criminal activity than natives. We find that a century ago immigrants may have been slightly more likely than natives to be involved in crime. In 1904 prison commitment rates for more serious crimes were quite similar by nativity for all ages except ages 18 and 19 when the commitment rate for immigrants was higher than for the native born. By 1930, immigrants were less likely than natives to be committed to prisons at all ages 20 and older. But this advantage disappears when one looks at commitments for violent offenses. Aggregation bias and the absence of accurate population data meant that analysts at the time missed these important features of the immigrant-native incarceration comparison. The relative decline of the criminality of the foreign born reflected a growing gap between natives and immigrants at older ages, one that was driven by sharp increases in the commitment rates of the native born, while commitment rates for the foreign born were remarkably stable. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series; Working Paper 13576: Accessed July 16, 2012 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13576.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13576.pdf Shelf Number: 110195 Keywords: Historical StudiesImmigrants and CrimeMigration (U.S.) |
Author: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Secure Communities: Criminal Alien Removals Increased, but Technology Planning Improvements Needed Summary: Data from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicate that the percentage of its removals attributable to Secure Communities increased from about 4 percent in fiscal year 2009 to about 20 percent in fiscal year 2011. Of about 183,000 aliens removed under the program from October 2008 through March 2012, about 74 percent had a criminal conviction. ICE did not have state or local arrest charges for about 56 percent of alien Secure Communities removals from October 2010 (when ICE began collecting arrest charges) through March 2012, so we were unable to determine the most frequent arrest charges under the program. For the 44 percent of aliens removed on whom ICE collected arrest charge data, traffic offenses, including driving under the influence of alcohol, were the most frequent arrest charges. ICE is taking steps to improve the collection of arrest charge data, but it is too early to assess the effectiveness of its efforts. ICE has not consistently followed best practices in acquiring technology to help determine the immigration status of aliens identified by Secure Communities. ICE awarded contracts to modernize its technology without fully defining requirements or developing an integrated master schedule—two best practices for managing capital programs. As a result, ICE encountered delays, cost increases, and products that did not meet ICE’s needs. For example, ICE spent $14.3 million for one contract to develop services that ICE found to be unusable. Establishing well-defined requirements and developing an integrated schedule for completing technology modernization could better position ICE to prevent delays and cost increases. Further, ICE plans to develop a workforce plan after the systems are deployed. Developing a workforce plan prior to full system deployment, consistent with internal controls, could better position ICE to effectively use staff when it deploys the modernized technology. DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and ICE identified four safeguards to help protect aliens’ civil rights under Secure Communities, including providing detainees with a revised detainer form with telephone numbers to call when they feel their civil rights have been violated. Officials are also developing briefing materials on how to protect aliens’ civil rights, statistically analyzing arrest and other information to identify potential civil rights abuses, and using an existing DHS complaint process for addressing Secure Communities concerns. Initiated in 2008, Secure Communities is an ICE program designed to identify potentially removable aliens, particularly those with criminal convictions, in state and local law enforcement custody. Fingerprints checked against a Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal database are checked against DHS’s immigration database to help determine whether an arrested individual is removable. GAO was asked to review Secure Communities operations. This report addresses (1) enforcement trends under Secure Communities, (2) ICE’s adherence to best practices in acquiring Secure Communities–related technology, and (3) ICE safeguards to help protect against potential civil rights abuses under Secure Communities. GAO analyzed ICE data on removals from October 2008 through March 2012, and arrest charges from October 2010 through March 2012; reviewed program guidance, policies, and reports; and interviewed ICE’s Law Enforcement Support Center and agency officials, local law enforcement and community groups in four locations selected for geographic diversity, among other factors. These perspectives are not generalizable, but provided insights into Secure Communities operations. GAO recommends that ICE develop well-defined requirements and an integrated master schedule that accounts for all activities for its technology contracts, and a plan for workforce changes in preparation for full technology deployment. DHS concurred with the recommendations. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2012. 59p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-12-708: Accessed August 3, 2012 at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592415.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592415.pdf Shelf Number: 125850 Keywords: Criminal Aliens (U.S.)ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigrationImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) |
Author: Chiru, Mihail Title: Physical Insecurity and Anti-Immigration Views in Western Europe Summary: This article assesses the effect of feelings of physical insecurity on the perceived consequences of immigration and the preferred level of restriction in this policy area. Our comparative analysis uses individual level and country level data for 12 Western European countries. Our statistical analyses indicate significant effects both at pooled level and in most of the separate tests conducted on national samples. Overall, a switch in physical insecurity from the minimal to the maximal level decreases the preference for liberal immigration policies by 7.4% and increases the negative evaluations of the immigration consequences by 8.3%. The findings also emphasize the importance of social alienation, radical-right partisanship, and of ‘tough on crime’ attitudes on the formation of anti-immigration opinions. The cross-country variation in the main effect is partially explained by the size of the immigration community, unemployment rates and the change in GDP real growth. Details: Oxford, UK: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, 2012. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 98: Accessed October 1, 2012 at: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/publications/working-papers/wp-12-98/ Year: 2012 Country: Europe URL: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/publications/working-papers/wp-12-98/ Shelf Number: 126535 Keywords: ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration Policy (Europe) |
Author: Bersani, Bianca Elizabeth Title: Are Immigrants Crime Prone? A Multifaceted Investigation of the Relationship between Immigration and Crime in Two Eras Summary: Are immigrants crime prone? In America, this question has been posed since the turn of the 20th century and more than 100 years of research has shown that immigration is not linked to increasing crime rates. Nevertheless, as was true more than a century ago, the myth of the criminal immigrant continues to permeate public debate. In part this continued focus on immigrants as crime prone is the result of significant methodological and theoretical gaps in the extant literature. Five key limitations are identified and addressed in this research including: (1) a general reliance on aggregate level analyses, (2) the treatment of immigrants as a homogeneous entity, (3) a general dependence on official data, (4) the utilization of cross-sectional analyses, and (5) nominal theoretical attention. Two broad questions motivate this research. First, how do the patterns of offending over the life course differ across immigrant and native-born groups? Second, what factors explain variation in offending over time for immigrants and does the influence of these predictors vary across immigrant and native-born individuals? These questions are examined using two separate datasets capturing information on immigration and crime during two distinct waves of immigration in the United States. Specifically, I use the Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency data and subsequent follow-ups to capture early 20th century immigration and crime, while contemporary data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. Three particularly salient conclusions are drawn from this research. First, patterns of offending (i.e., prevalence, frequency, persistence and desistance) are remarkably similar for native-born and immigrant individuals. Second, although differences are observed when examining predictors of offending for native-born and immigrant individuals, they tend to be differences in degree rather than kind. That is, immigrants and native-born individuals are influenced similarly by family, peer, and school factors. Finally, these findings are robust and held when taking into account socio-historical context, immigrant generation, immigration nationality group, and crime type. In sum, based on the evidence from this research, the simple answer to the question of whether immigrants are crime prone is no. Details: College Park, MD: University of Maryland, 2010. 258p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed December 4, 2012 at: http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/10783/1/Bersani_umd_0117E_11419.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/10783/1/Bersani_umd_0117E_11419.pdf Shelf Number: 127127 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Treyger, Elina Title: Migration and Violent Crime: Lessons from the Russian Experience Summary: The relationship between migration, both internal and international, and crime is not a matter of merely academic interest. Many laws and public policies directly and profoundly affect migration within and across national borders. At a time when international migration is attracting increasing attention of policy makers, courts, and legislators, there is a real need to better understand and predict the public-order consequences of laws affecting population movements. This article exploits the Russian experience to further that aim. The relationship between population movements and crime has been the subject of a growing social science literature. That literature yields but one clear conclusion: that the relationship defies generalization. In some contexts, a concentration of newcomers (whether native or foreign) in communities correlate with higher, and in other contexts, with lower, violent crime rates across space. Some population movements appear to improve, and others to erode, the social capacity for informal control over crime. In this article, I marshal evidence for one promising explanation for the disparate consequences of different population movements, emphasizing the role of social ties and networks. That explanation suggests that where migrations destroy social networks among the migrants or in receiving communities, the social capacity for informal control over violent behaviors is undermined, and public order is liable to suffer. By contrast, where social networks drive migrations and are preserved or reconstituted in areas of settlement, no comparable disruptive effects ensue. Russia’s experience under Soviet rule furnishes a singularly fitting example of population movements that definitively disrupted preexisting social structures and obstructed formation of new ones. I make use of statistical analysis to demonstrate that the Russian post-communist geography of homicide was shaped profoundly by communist-era migration and settlement patterns. In this way, it offers evidence for the proposition that network-disrupting migrations are strongly associated with higher violent crime rates, and that state laws and policies that produce these sorts of movements come at a high social cost. The idiosyncratic character of Russia’s migration history makes it an empirically convenient case – the proverbial “natural experiment” – to explore the full effects of specifically network-disrupting population movements. Its idiosyncrasy notwithstanding, the Russian experience yields generalizable implications for our understanding of the migration-crime relationship, and our ability to identify those policies that are most likely to disrupt the social processes of informal control and contribute to violent crime. Details: Washington, DC: George Mason University, School of Law, 2013. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: George Mason University Law and Economics Research Paper Series 13-01 Accessed January 22, 2013 at: http://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/files/publications/working_papers/1301Migration&ViolentCrime.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/files/publications/working_papers/1301Migration&ViolentCrime.pdf Shelf Number: 127346 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeImmigrationMigration (U.S.)Russian ImmigrantsSocial DisorganizationViolent Crime |
Author: Ruther, Matthew Howard Title: Essays on the Spatial Clustering of Immigrants and Internal Migration within the United States Summary: The chapters in this dissertation each look at some aspect of immigration or internal migration in the United States, highlighting the spatial nature of population distribution and mobility. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the effect of immigrant residential clustering on crime and Chapter 3 explores the internal migration behavior of Puerto Ricans. In the first chapter, we investigate the effect of immigrant concentration on patterns of homicide in Los Angeles County. We also suggest an alternative method by which to define immigrant neighborhoods. Our results indicate that immigrant concentration confers a protective effect against homicide mortality, an effect that remains after controlling for other neighborhood structural factors that are commonly associated with homicide. Controlling for the spatial dependence in homicides reduces the magnitude of the effect, but it remains significant. Chapter 2 examines how foreign born population concentration impacts homicide rates at the county level. This chapter utilizes a longitudinal study design to reveal how changes in the immigrant population in the county are associated with changes in the homicide rate. The analysis is carried out using a spatial panel regression model which allows for cross-effects between neighboring counties. The results show that increasing foreign born population concentration is associated with reductions in the homicide rate, a process observed most clearly in the South region of the United States. In Chapter 3 we explore the internal migration patterns of Puerto Ricans in the United States, comparing the migration behavior of individuals born in Puerto Rico to those born in the United States. Second and higher generation Puerto Ricans are more mobile than their first generation counterparts, likely an outcome of the younger age structure and greater human capital of this former group. Puerto Ricans born in the United States also appear to be less influenced by the presence of existing Puerto Rican communities when making migration decisions. Both mainland- and island-born Puerto Rican populations are spatially dispersing, with the dominant migration stream for both groups being between New York and Florida. Details: Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2012. 159p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed February 26, 2013 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/239863.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/239863.pdf Shelf Number: 127715 Keywords: HomicideIllegal ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigrationNeighborhoods and CrimePuerto Rican Immigrants |
Author: Freedman, Matthew Title: Immigration, Employment Opportunities, and Criminal Behavior Summary: There is little consensus on the effects of immigration on crime. One potential explanation for the conflicting evidence is heterogeneity across space and time in policies toward immigrants that affect their status in the community. In this paper, we take advantage of provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which granted legal resident status to long-time illegal residents but created new obstacles to employment for others, to explore how employment opportunities affect criminal behavior. Exploiting unique administrative data on the criminal justice involvement of individuals in San Antonio, Texas and using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find evidence of an increase in felony charges filed against Hispanic residents of San Antonio after the expiration of the IRCA amnesty deadline. This was concentrated in neighborhoods where recent immigrants are most likely to locate, suggesting a strong relationship between access to legal jobs and criminal behavior. Details: Unpublished paper, 2013. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 26, 2013 at: http://www.human.cornell.edu/pam/people/upload/IRCA_20130206.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.human.cornell.edu/pam/people/upload/IRCA_20130206.pdf Shelf Number: 127722 Keywords: Employment and CrimeImmigrants and CrimeImmigration (U.S.)Neighborhoods and Crime |
Author: Andersen, Synove N. Title: Age at Immigration and Crime: Findings for Male Immigrants in Norway Summary: Previous studies have identified an “immigrant paradox” in crime in which crime rates are highest among immigrants who are young when they arrive in the host country, even though social capital and integration in the labour market and social networks favour the young. We use Norwegian registry data to estimate the probability of committing at least one crime in any year after the year of immigration, and we include interaction terms between age and age at immigration to explore the troublesome temporal association between age, age at immigration and duration of residence. The results suggest an overall negative association between age at immigration and registered crime, which seems to be exaggerated by the residual effect of the omitted duration of residence variable. Comparability of results between studies depends crucially on how age at immigration is measured. Details: Oslo: Statistics Norway, Research Department, 2012. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Papers no. 728: Accessed February 27, 2013 at: http://www.ssb.no/publikasjoner/DP/pdf/dp728.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Norway URL: http://www.ssb.no/publikasjoner/DP/pdf/dp728.pdf Shelf Number: 127731 Keywords: AgeImmigrants and CrimeImmigration (Norway) |
Author: Piehl, Anne Morrison Title: Immigrant Assimilation into U.S. Prisons, 1900-1930 Summary: The analysis of a new dataset on state prisoners in the 1900 to 1930 censuses reveals that immigrants rapidly assimilated to native incarceration patterns. One feature of these data is that the second generation can be identified, allowing direct analysis of this group and allowing their exclusion from calculations of comparison rates for the “native” population. Although adult new arrivals were less likely than natives to be incarcerated, this likelihood was increasing with their years in the U.S. The foreign born who arrived as children and second generation immigrants had slightly higher rates of incarceration than natives of native parentage, but these differences disappear after controlling for nativity differences in urbanicity and occupational status. Finally, while the incarceration rates of new arrivals differ significantly by source country, patterns of assimilation are very similar. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper No. w19083 : Accessed June 3, 2013 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2272519 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2272519 Shelf Number: 128922 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeIncarceration RatesInmatesPrisoners (U.S.) |
Author: Strauss, Jack Title: Does Immigration, Particularly Increases in Latinos, Affect African American Wages, Unemployment and Incarceration Rates? Summary: This paper evaluates the impact of immigration on African American wages, unemployment, employment and incarceration rates using a relatively large cross-sectional data-set of 900 cities. An endemic problem potentially plaguing the cross-sectional metro approach to immigration has been endogeneity. Does increased immigration to a city lead to improved economic outcomes, or does a city's improving labor market attract immigrant inflows? The paper focuses on resolving the endogeneity concerns through a variety of controls, statistical methods and tests. Overall, results strongly support one-way causation from increased immigration including Latinos to higher African American wages and lower poverty. Rising immigration including from Latin America is not responsible for higher Black incarceration rates. Details: St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis University - Department of Economics, 2012. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 28, 2013 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2186978 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2186978 Shelf Number: 129195 Keywords: African-Americans (U.S.)EconomicsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Aliverti, Ana Title: Immigration Offences: Trends in Legislation and Criminal and Civil Enforcement Summary: This briefing analyses immigration offences in British immigration and asylum legislation, and trends in legislation and in criminal and civil enforcement against offenders. The briefing deals specifically with violations of the laws governing the UK system of immigration control and with enforcement of those laws in criminal and civil courts. It does not discuss data on crimes committed by migrants that do not involve the immigration system itself, such as thefts committed by migrants. Details: Oxford, UK: The Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, 2013. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: Briefing: Accessed July 11, 2013 at: http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/migobs/Briefing%20-%20Immigration%20Offences_0.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/migobs/Briefing%20-%20Immigration%20Offences_0.pdf Shelf Number: 129370 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeImmigrationImmigration Control |
Author: Manuel, Kate M. Title: Immigration Detainers: Legal Issues Summary: An "immigration detainer" is a document by which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) advises other law enforcement agencies of its interest in individual aliens whom these agencies are detaining. ICE and its predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), have used detainers as one means of obtaining custody of aliens for removal proceedings since at least 1950. However, the nationwide implementation of the Secure Communities program between 2008 and 2013 has prompted numerous questions about detainers. This program relies upon information sharing between various levels and agencies of government to identify potentially removable aliens. Detainers may then be issued for these aliens. Prior to 1986, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) did not explicitly address detainers, and the INS appears to have issued detainers pursuant to its "general authority" to guard U.S. borders and boundaries against the illegal entry of aliens, among other things. However, in 1986, Congress amended the INA to address the issuance of detainers for aliens arrested for controlled substance offenses. After the 1986 amendments, INS promulgated two regulations, one addressing the issuance of detainers for controlled substance offenses and the other addressing detainers for other offenses. These regulations were merged in 1997 and currently address various topics, including who may issue detainers and the temporary detention of aliens by other law enforcement agencies. There is also a standard detainer form (Form I-247) that allows ICE to indicate that it has taken actions that could lead to the alien's removal, and request that another agency take actions that could facilitate such removal (e.g., notify ICE before the alien's release). Some commentators and advocates for immigrants' rights have asserted that, because the INA addresses only detainers for controlled substance offenses, ICE's detainer regulations and practices are beyond its statutory authority insofar as detainers are used for other offenses. A federal district court in California found otherwise in its 2009 decision in Committee for Immigrant Rights of Sonoma County v. County of Sonoma. However, subsequent litigation has raised the issue anew in other jurisdictions. Some have also suggested that a federal regulation - which provides that law enforcement agencies receiving immigration detainers "shall maintain custody of the alien for a period [generally] not to exceed 48 hours" - means that states and localities are required to hold aliens for ICE. Prior versions of Form I-247 may also have been construed as requiring compliance with detainers. However, in its recent decision in Galarza v. Szalczyk, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected this view. Instead, it adopted the same interpretation of the regulation that DHS has advanced, construing it as prescribing the maximum period of any detention pursuant to a detainer, rather than mandating detention. However, district courts in other jurisdictions have indicated that they view the regulation as requiring states and localities to hold aliens for ICE. In addition, questions have been raised about who has custody of aliens subject to detainers, and whether the detainer practices of state, local, and/or federal governments impinge upon aliens' constitutional rights. Answers to these questions may depend upon the facts and circumstances of particular cases. For example, courts have found that the filing of a detainer, in itself, does not result in an alien being in federal custody, although aliens could be found to be in federal custody if they are subject to final orders of removal. Similarly, courts may be less likely to find that the issuance of a particular detainer violates an alien's constitutional rights if a warrant of arrest in removal proceedings is attached to the detainer, than if the alien is held after he or she would have been released because ICE has reason to believe he or she is removable. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2014. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: R42690: Accessed May 15, 2014 at: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R42690.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R42690.pdf Shelf Number: 132374 Keywords: Illegal AliensImmigrant DetentionImmigrants and CrimeImmigrationUndocumented Immigrants |
Author: Lorenzini, Pietro Title: Immigration, Politics, Social Discord and Criminality in Italy Summary: The initial studies concerned with immigration in modern Italy emerged in the 1970s. They provided basic statistical information regarding the national origins, gender, religious identity, and racial and ethnic make-up of the migrants. As such immigration studies were commonly written within the framework of human rights, they were politicized in ways which often unveiled the political slant of researchers. Italian studies which touched upon immigration's relationship to criminality similarly demonstrated that questions regarding crime and migration are intertwined with contemporary Italian politics. Thus published studies which analyze immigration, crime and imprisonment often reflect the political bias of the researchers. By looking directly at Parliamentary laws and regulations, as well as analyzing government reports on immigration, crime and prisons, however, this study seeks to provide a non-partisan summary of immigration's true impact on law and crime in Italy. Key to the unbiased assessment of the relationship of immigration to social discord is the objective analysis of the statistical evidence provided in government reports on penitentiaries, crime and immigration. Therefore, though fully reviewing scholarly publications, this study depends in a fundamental way on statistical evidence regarding crimes and criminals as provided by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice and Department of Penitentiaries. In particular, to further explore the link between immigration and crime on a macro-level, this study seeks the aggregate impact of immigration on criminality by paying particular attention to the Italian government's statistical reports covering the period from the early 1990s through January 2012. While scholarly literature has not provided definitive proof linking immigration to increased crime rates, this study suggests that statistical evidence clearly demonstrates that immigrants do in fact constitute an alarmingly high percentage of those incarcerated in the Italian penitentiary system. Increased immigration has thus led to the imprisonment of large numbers of immigrants who have turned to criminality. A preliminary explanation offered herein suggests the significantly high immigration incarceration rates result from: the continued flow of massive numbers of immigrants into a nation socially and economy unprepared to deal with massive migration; governmental inability (largely due to a polarized national debate over whether it is necessary to stem massive immigration or not) to forge a comprehensive immigration policy which seeks to rationalize immigration laws; lack of legal jobs available to illegal immigrants and the concomitant existence of ample criminal opportunities to meet immigrants' daily needs. Details: Terre Haute, IN: Indiana State University, 2012. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed August 28, 2014 at: http://scholars.indstate.edu/handle/10484/4578 Year: 2012 Country: Italy URL: http://scholars.indstate.edu/handle/10484/4578 Shelf Number: 129907 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeImmigration and Crime (Italy)Migration Policy |
Author: Miles, Thomas J. Title: Does Immigration Enforcement Reduce Crime? Evidence from "Secure Communities" Summary: Does immigration enforcement actually reduce crime? Surprisingly, little evidence exists either way-despite the fact that deporting noncitizens who commit crimes has been a central feature of American immigration law since the early twentieth century. We capitalize on a natural policy experiment to address the question and, in the process, provide the first empirical analysis of the most important deportation initiative to be rolled out in decades. The policy initiative we study is "Secure Communities," a program designed to enable the federal government to check the immigration status of every person arrested for a crime by local police. Before this program, the government checked the immigration status of only a small fraction of arrestees. Since its launch, the program has led to over a quarter of a million detentions. We exploit the slow rollout of the program across more than 3,000 U.S. counties to obtain differences-in-differences estimates of the impact of Secure Communities on local crime rates. We also use rich data on the number of immigrants detained under the program in each county and month-data obtained from the federal government through extensive FOIA requests-to estimate the elasticity of crime with respect to incapacitated immigrants. Our results show that Secure Communities led to no meaningful reductions in the FBI index crime rate. Nor has it reduced rates of violent crime-homicide, rape, robbery, or aggravated assault. This evidence shows that the program has not served its central objective of making communities safer. Details: Chicago: University of Chicago School of Law; New York: New York University Law School, 2014. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Draft, August 21, 2014: Accessed September 15, 2014 at: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/does_immigration_enforcement_reduce_crime_082514.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/does_immigration_enforcement_reduce_crime_082514.pdf Shelf Number: 133328 Keywords: Crime PreventionImmigrants (U.S.)Immigrants and CrimeImmigrationImmigration EnforcementSecure CommunitiesUndocumented Citizens |
Author: Hasselberg, Ines Title: An ethnography of deportation from Britain Summary: In the past decades, immigration policies have been refined to broaden eligibility to deportation and allow easier removal of unwanted foreign nationals. Yet how people respond to a given set of policies cannot be fully anticipated. Studying the ways people interpret, understand and experience policies allows for a better understanding of how they work in practice. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in London, this thesis examines experiences of deportation and deportability of migrants convicted of a criminal offence in the UK. It finds that migrants' deportability is experienced in relation to official bodies, such as the Home Office, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, Immigration Removal Centres and Reporting Centres, and becomes embedded in their daily lives, social relations and sense of self. The lived experience of deportation policies emphasizes the material and human costs associated with deportation and highlights its punitive and coercive effects. Deportability marks migrants' lives with chronic waiting and anxiety. As a result, migrants awaiting deportation make use of four coping strategies: enduring uncertainty, absenting and forming personal cues (Agard & Harder 2007), and also re-imagining their futures. In turn, migrants' understandings of their own removal appear incompatible with open political action and with the broader work of Anti-Deportation Campaign support groups. Resistance is thus enacted as compliance with state controls (such as surveillance and immobility), which are perceived as designed to make them fail, rendering them ever more deportable. By enduring this power over them, migrants are resisting their removal and fighting to stay. The thesis concludes that the interruption of migrants' existence in the UK is effected long before their actual removal from the territory. It is a process developing from the embodiment of their deportability as their present and future lives become suspended by the threat of expulsion from their residence of choice Details: Brighton, UK: University of Sussex, 2012. 179p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed September 24, 2014 at:http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/43788/1/Hasselberg%2C_Ines.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/43788/1/Hasselberg%2C_Ines.pdf Shelf Number: 133402 Keywords: Deportation (U.K.)ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration Policy |
Author: Echazarra, Alfonso Title: Social disorganisation, immigration and perceived crime in Spanish neighbourhoods Summary: This dissertation adopts a quantitative approach to investigate the determinants of residents' perceptions of neighbourhood crime, focusing specifically on a series of structural factors at the community level, in accordance with the social disorganisation model. Using different statistical models, including correlations, linear regression, multilevel models and spatial regression analyses, and several Spanish data sources, in particular the 2001 Population and Housing Census and a nationally representative survey conducted in 2006, the research confirms the relevance of its exogenous sources in explaining perceived neighbourhood crime. These include classical variables, such as neighbourhoods' socioeconomic status, residential stability, ethnic diversity, family disruption and degree of urbanisation, but also other features related to the time, skills and resources deployed by residents in their residential areas such as commuting time to work, the number of working hours and the availability of a second home. For its part, other local conditions traditionally associated specifically with perceived neighbourhood crime, such as social incivilities and physical decay, act as mediators of other contextual effects, in particular of the number of retail shops and offices.The research also demonstrates the urban nature of the social disorganisation theory. That is, that the local conditions typically associated with social disorganisation, urban unease and the various social problems that can affect neighbourhoods, are better predictors of residents' perceptions of crime in town and large cities than in rural areas, operationalized as municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Small municipalities seem particularly successful in controlling their younger residents for neither the proportion of adolescents and young adults, nor the number of children per family exert an important effect on residents' perceptions of neighbourhood crime. Among these local conditions, special attention has been devoted to measures of diversity and immigration demonstrating that their effect on residents' perceptions of neighbourhood crime, except for the positive impact of Asians, is not necessarily robust to different model specifications and statistical methods. This erratic immigrant effect is surprising given how consistent the belief in a crime-immigration nexus is among Spaniards. Precisely on this point, the dissertation has investigated why the belief in a crime-immigration nexus varies significantly between individuals and across communities. Three variables have been identified as determining factors: contextual parochialism, right-wing ideology and the media. In rural areas with high residential stability, a significant presence of elderly population and a low socioeconomic status, residents are more likely to unconsciously associate immigration and crime, even when individual attributes are adjusted for and, more importantly, even if few migrants live in the surroundings. Not surprisingly, right-wing residents are more likely to associate both phenomena yet, in contrast to many statements by scholars and pundits, the media in Spain seems to exert a moderator effect. Details: Manchester, UK: University of Manchester, School of Social Sciences, 2012. 255p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 1, 2014 at: https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:183476&datastreamId=FULL-TEXT.PDF Year: 2012 Country: Spain URL: https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:183476&datastreamId=FULL-TEXT.PDF Shelf Number: 127611 Keywords: Immigrants and CrimeNeighborhoods and Crime (Spain)Social DisorganizationSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeUrban Areas and Crime |
Author: American Immigration Council Title: Misplaced Priorities: Most Immigrants Deported by ICE in 2013 Were a Threat to No One Summary: No one can say with certainty when the Obama administration will reach the grim milestone of having deported two million people since the President took office in 2008. Regardless of the exact date this symbolic threshold is reached, however, it is important to keep in mind a much more important fact: most of the people being deported are not dangerous criminals. Despite claims by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that it prioritizes the apprehension of terrorists, violent criminals, and gang members, the agency's own deportation statistics do not bear this out. Rather, most of the individuals being swept up by ICE and dropped into the U.S. deportation machine committed relatively minor, non-violent crimes or have no criminal histories at all. Ironically, many of the immigrants being deported would likely have been able to remain in the country had the immigration reform legislation favored by the administration become law. ICE's skewed priorities are apparent from the agency's most recent deportation statistics, which cover Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. However, it takes a little digging to discern exactly what those statistics mean. The ICE report containing these numbers is filled with ominous yet cryptic references to "convicted criminals" who are "Level 1," "Level 2," or "Level 3" in terms of their priority. But when those terms are dissected and analyzed, it quickly becomes apparent that most of these "criminal aliens" are not exactly the "worst of the worst." Details: Washington, DC: American Immigration Council, Immigration Policy Center, 2014. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 2, 2014 at: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/misplaced_priorities_march_2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/misplaced_priorities_march_2014.pdf Shelf Number: 133553 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrants (U.S.)Immigrants and CrimeImmigration PolicyUndocumented Immigrants |
Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office Title: Managing and removing foreign national offenders Summary: Despite increased resources and tougher powers, the Home Office has made slower progress than expected in managing foreign national offenders (FNOs) in the UK and in removing them to their home countries. Today's report by the National Audit Office highlights the fact that the number of FNOs in prison and the number deported from the UK have remained broadly unchanged since 2006. Over that period, the number of foreign nationals in prison in the UK increased slightly (by 4%) from 10,231 to 10,649, despite a tenfold increase in the number of the Department's staff working on FNO casework. After an initial surge in the number removed from 2,856 in 2006-07 to 5,613 in 2008-09 (following the problems in 2006 when the Department found that 1,013 FNOs had been released without being considered for deportation), removal numbers have declined to 5,097 in 2013-14. With regard to prevention and early action, the Government did relatively little before December 2012 to tackle the problem of potential FNOs entering the UK. A new 2013 action plan has focused efforts on this aspect of prevention but it lacks a structured and informed approach. The Department is looking at better use of intelligence databases and has changed its immigration rules, but progress in modernising its border information system - the Warnings Index - has been slow. The NAO estimates that $70 million could be saved each year if all early identification opportunities were seized and acted upon. Today's report recognizes that the barriers to removal are considerable; these include FNOs exploiting legal and medical obstacles to removal. However, the spending watchdog identifies measures and opportunities for making progress which are not being maximized. NAO analysis of 1,453 failed removals in 2013-14 indicated that at least a third might have been avoided through better co-ordination of the bodies involved and fewer administrative errors. Following a change of approach from April 2013, all FNOs are now considered for deportation. This has increased removals from 4,722 in 2012-13 to 5,097 in 2013-14. The time taken to deport FNOs has also reduced from 369 days on average in 2012-13 to 319 days in 2013-14. According to the NAO, however, because of delays in starting cases and an over-reliance on form-filling, there is considerable scope to speed up the process. Greater use of early removal schemes could also save money. The NAO estimates that the 37% of FNOs who left as part of the Early Removal Scheme in 2013-14 saved L27.5 million, by reducing the average number of days spent in prison by 146. The Department and Ministry of Justice do not use cost data to manage FNOs. The NAO estimates that, in 2013-14, public bodies spent $850 million on managing and removing FNOs - around $70,000 per FNO. The Department has made limited progress since 2006 in removing FNOs who have completed their sentences. At the end of March 2014, more than one in six FNOs living in the community (760) had absconded, up 6% since 2010. Furthermore, 395 absconders have been missing since before 2010, of which 58 are high harm individuals. Despite the 2006 crisis, the Department did not keep records of FNOs released without consideration for deportation before January 2009, and estimates 151 FNOs have been released without consideration since then. Details: London: NAO, 2014. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 22, 2014 at: http://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Managing-and-removing-foreign-national-offenders.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Managing-and-removing-foreign-national-offenders.pdf Shelf Number: 133797 Keywords: DeportationForeign NationalsImmigrants and CrimePrisoners, Foreign (U.K.) |
Author: Nunziata, Luca Title: Immigration and Crime: New Empirical Evidence from European Victimization Data Summary: We exploit the increase in immigration flows into western European countries that took place in the 2000s to assess whether immigration affects crime victimization and the perception of criminality among European natives. Using data from the European Social Survey, the Labour Force Survey and other sources, we provide a set of fixed effects and instrumental variable estimations that deal with the endogenous sorting of immigration by region and with the sampling error in survey based measures of regional immigration shares, whose implications in terms of attenuation bias are investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Our empirical findings show that an increase in immigration does not affect crime victimization, but it is associated with an increase in the fear of crime, the latter being consistently and positively correlated with the natives' unfavourable attitude toward immigrants. Our results reveal a misconception of the link between immigration and crime among European natives. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2014. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA DP No. 8632: Accessed January 31, 2015 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8632.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Europe URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8632.pdf Shelf Number: 134512 Keywords: Fear of CrimeImmigrants and CrimeImmigration (Europe)VictimizationVictims of Crime |
Author: University of Miami School of Law, Immigration Clinic Title: Aftershocks: The Human Impact of U.S. Deportations to Post-Earthquake Haiti Summary: Haiti still reels from the devastating effects of the January 12, 2010 earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people, rendered one in seven Haitians homeless, and wreaked $9 billion of damage in a country whose 2009 GDP was only $7 billion. The United States recognized the enormity of the crisis and granted Temporary Protected Status to eligible Haitians. Excluded from protection are individuals with certain criminal convictions (one felony or two misdemeanors). Over the past five years, the United States has forcibly returned approximately 1,500 men and women, including those with only minor criminal records, mothers and fathers of U.S. citizen children, people with severe medical and mental health conditions, and others. The result has been utterly devastating to deportees in Haiti and the families they leave behind in the United States. This report details the experiences of deportees - who sometimes refer to themselves as "strangers in a strange land" - and their U.S.-based family members. The report argues that the United States violates the fundamental human rights of Haitian nationals and their family members when it deports them to post-earthquake Haiti without due consideration of the deportees' individual circumstances and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Haiti. Details: Miami: University of Miami School of law, Immigration Clinic, 2015. 92p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 19, 2015 at: http://www.law.miami.edu/clinics/pdf/2015/haiti-report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Haiti URL: http://www.law.miami.edu/clinics/pdf/2015/haiti-report.pdf Shelf Number: 134647 Keywords: Immigrant DeportationImmigrants (U.S.)Immigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Vaughan, Jessica M. Title: Catch and Release: Interior immigration enforcement in 2013 Summary: A review of internal ICE metrics for 2013 reveals that hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens who were identified in the interior of the country were released instead of removed under the administration's sweeping "prosecutorial discretion" guidelines. In 2013, ICE reported 722,000 encounters with potentially deportable aliens, most of whom came to their attention after incarceration for a local arrest. Yet ICE officials followed through with immigration charges for only 195,000 of these aliens, only about one-fourth. According to ICE personnel, the vast majority of these releases occurred because of current policies that shield most illegal aliens from enforcement, not because the aliens turned out to have legal status or were qualified to stay in the United States. Many of the aliens ignored by ICE were convicted criminals. In 2013, ICE agents released 68,000 aliens with criminal convictions, or 35 percent of all criminal aliens they reported encountering. The criminal alien releases typically occur without formal notice to local law enforcement agencies and victims. These findings raise further alarm over the Obama administration's pending review of deportation practices, which reportedly may further expand the administration's abuse of "prosecutorial discretion". Interior enforcement activity has already declined 40 percent since the imposition of "prosecutorial discretion" policies in 2011.1 Rather than accelerating this decline, there is an urgent need to review and reverse the public safety and fiscal harm cause by the president's policies. Key Findings - In 2013, ICE charged only 195,000, or 25 percent, out of 722,000 potentially deportable aliens they encountered. Most of these aliens came to ICE's attention after incarceration for a local arrest. - ICE released 68,000 criminal aliens in 2013, or 35 percent of the criminal aliens encountered by officers. The vast majority of these releases occurred because of the Obama administration's prosecutorial discretion policies, not because the aliens were not deportable. - ICE targeted 28 percent fewer aliens for deportation from the interior in 2013 than in 2012, despite sustained high numbers of encounters in the Criminal Alien and Secure Communities programs. - Every ICE field office but one reported a decline in interior enforcement activity, with the largest decline in the Atlanta field office, which covers Georgia and the Carolinas. - ICE reports that there are more than 870,000 aliens on its docket who have been ordered removed, but who remain in defiance of the law. - Under current policies, an alien's family relationships, political considerations, attention from advocacy groups, and other factors not related to public safety can trump even serious criminal convictions and result in the termination of a deportation case. - Less than 2 percent of ICE's caseload was in detention at the end of fiscal year 2013. - About three-fourths of the aliens ICE detained in 2013 had criminal and/or immigration convictions so serious that the detention was required by statute. This suggests the need for more detention capacity, so ICE can avoid releasing so many deportable criminal aliens. Unless otherwise noted, the data for this report are from the 2013 fiscal year-end edition of ICE's "Weekly Departures and Detention Report" (WRD), which is prepared by the Information Resource Management Unit of ICE's Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).2 This report compiles a variety of ICE caseload statistics, including encounters, arrests, detention, and removal of aliens. The tables in this report use data taken directly from the WRD. Details: Washington, DC: Center for Immigration Studies, 2014. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 29, 2015 at: http://cis.org/sites/cis.org/files/vaughan-ice-3-14_0.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://cis.org/sites/cis.org/files/vaughan-ice-3-14_0.pdf Shelf Number: 135405 Keywords: DeportationIllegal ImmigrantsImmigrant DetentionImmigrants and CrimeImmigration (U.S.)Undocumented Immigrants |
Author: Dimant, Eugen Title: A Crook is a Crook ... But is He Still a Crook Abroad? On the Effect of Immigration on Destination-Country Corruption Summary: This paper analyzes the impact of migration on destination-country corruption levels. Capitalizing on a comprehensive dataset consisting of annual immigration stocks of OECD countries from 207 countries of origin for the period 1984-2008, we explore different channels through which corruption might migrate. We employ different estimation methods using Fixed Effects (FE) and Tobit regressions in order to validate our findings. Moreover, we also address the issue of endogeneity by using the Difference-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator. Independent of the econometric methodology, we consistently find that while general migration has an insignificant effect on the destination country's corruption level, immigration from corruption-ridden origin countries boosts corruption in the destination country. Our findings provide a more profound understanding of the socio-economic implications associated with migration flows Details: Munich: Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute, 2014. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper no. 5032: Accessed April 30, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2518956 Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2518956 Shelf Number: 135433 Keywords: CorruptionImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Collins, Jock Title: Immigrant Crime in Europe and Australia: Rational or Racialised Responses? Summary: In Australia and the European Union today there is a very negative immigration discourse linked to the (alleged) criminality of immigrant minorities - particularly those from Asia and the Middle East - and the existence of ethnic criminal gangs. The issue of immigrant crime - linked to the issue of undocumented migrants and refugees - is driving much of the political agenda in Australia and Europe. This paper first reviews the recent European and Australian experience of immigrant crime and the politicisation and racialisation of the immigrant crime issue. It then draws on the findings from a two-year research project into Youth, Ethnicity and Crime in Sydney - funded by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and 25 industry partners, including 10 local government authorities and 10 ethnic community organizations in Sydney - to explore the myths and realities of immigrant crime in Sydney, including gender dimensions. The paper then critically analyses media portrayals of such crime and investigates appropriate policy responses at federal, provincial and local government level. Finally, the implications of the immigrant crime debate for immigration and settlement policies in Australia and Europe are discussed. Details: Paper presented to conference entitled The Challenges of Immigration and Integration in the European Union and Australia, 18-20 February 2003, University of Sydney. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 21, 2015 at: https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/41423/3/collins_paper.pdf Year: 2003 Country: Australia URL: https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/41423/3/collins_paper.pdf Shelf Number: 136527 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeUndocumented Citizens |
Author: Cantor, Guillermo Title: Enforcement Overdrive: A Comprehensive Assessment of ICE's Criminal Alien Program Summary: The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) is a massive enforcement program administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and has become the primary channel through which interior immigration enforcement takes place. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of individuals removed from the interior of the United States are removed through CAP. Each year, Congress allocates hundreds of millions of dollars to fund this program. Until now, however, little has been known about how CAP works, whom CAP deports, and whether CAP has been effective in meeting its goals. Based on government data and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), this report examines CAP's evolution, operations, and outcomes between fiscal years 2010 and 2013. That data shows that through CAP's enormous web, ICE has encountered millions and removed hundreds of thousands of people. Yet, CAP is not narrowly tailored to focus enforcement efforts on the most serious security or safety threats - in part because CAP uses criminal arrest as a proxy for dangerousness and because the agency's own priorities have been drawn more broadly than those threats. As a result, the program removed mainly people with no criminal convictions, and people who have not been convicted of violent crimes or crimes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) classifies as serious. CAP also has resulted in several anomalies, including that it appears biased against Mexican and Central American nationals. Moreover, the number of CAP removals differs significantly from state to state. ICE's reliance on CAP to achieve its goals will likely continue as ICE further narrows its focus on removing noncitizens with criminal convictions and continues to seek partnerships with state and local law enforcement to find them. This examination of CAP's outcomes from fiscal years 2010 to 2013 offers important insights into CAP's operations over time and its potential impact on communities moving forward. In particular, it raises questions about the ability of a broad "jail check" program to effectively remove serious public safety threats without resulting in serious unintended consequences, such as those described in this report Details: Washington, DC: American Immigration Council, 2015. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 5, 2015 at: http://immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/enforcement_overdrive_a_comprehensive_assessment_of_ices_criminal_alien_program_final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/enforcement_overdrive_a_comprehensive_assessment_of_ices_criminal_alien_program_final.pdf Shelf Number: 137194 Keywords: DeportationImmigrant DetentionImmigrants and CrimeImmigration EnforcementUndocumented Immigrants |
Author: de Noronha, Luke Title: Unpacking the Figure of the "Foreign Criminal": Race, Gender and the Victim-Villain Binary Summary: The UK's Foreign National Prisoner (FNP) crisis' of June 2006 provides a key moment to unpack the figure of the 'foreign criminal' through. Through an analysis of media articles, Commons debates and NGO documents, I discuss the racialised and gendered stereotypes that were invoked in the construction of 'foreign criminals', as they were positioned within the victim-villain binary that characterises migration debates. In explaining the specific kinds of migrantness and criminality made to represent the FNP 'crisis', I argue that race and gender matter, and that they work through one another. The FNP 'crisis' incensed the media and politicians who framed the issue in terms of dangerous foreign men whose hypermasculinist violence presented a severe and existential threat to the British people. These images relied upon race for their intelligibility. While NGOs and advocates sought to challenge the idea that all, or even most, 'foreign criminals' deserve to be deported, they still tended to frame their arguments in terms of victims and villains. In doing so, advocates failed to challenge the gendered and racialised stereotypes that distinguish good migrants from bad ones - victims from villains. In the end, advocates and academics should retain critical distance from state categories if they are to avoid reifying these deeply entrenched narratives surrounding race and gender. Details: Oxford, UK: COMPAS, University of Oxford, 2015. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: COMPAS Working Paper 121: Accessed March 26, 2016 at: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/media/WP-2015-121-deNoronha_Unpacking_Foreign_Criminal.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/media/WP-2015-121-deNoronha_Unpacking_Foreign_Criminal.pdf Shelf Number: 138421 Keywords: DeportationForeign CriminalsGenderImmigrants and CrimeMigrantsRace |
Author: Al-Faris, Khamael Hasan Naji Title: Immigration policy and the role of political discourses in the relationship between foreign nationals and crime in England and wales Summary: Significant criminological attention has been given to the relationship between immigration and crime. However, this relationship has not been researched in the UK to any great extent, and consequently the information on the UK context is limited. This research investigates how the criminality of foreign nationals have been constructed by examining the nature of immigration policy, foreign criminality discourses, and the media in the UK to understand how crime in particular has been used to define, refine, and inform control of immigrants. This study refers to the legislative, policy, and political factors that underpin this process, and particularly explains how immigration policy and political debates have emphasised the criminality of foreign nationals in the UK. In order to achieve these goals, this research reviews a brief history of British immigration policy and legislation and outlines the connections made between foreign nationals and non-immigration criminal offences. In addition, secondary data from different British institutions and data collected via the Freedom of Information Act 2000 have been used to illustrate the level of foreigners' criminality as well as the type of crimes compared to the British representation. Finally, Parliamentary debates and related political discourses have been used to examine the role of politics has in reinforcing the relationship between foreign nationals and crime and elevating negative public sentiment and the relationship with media reports. This research highlights the limitations of existing data relating to the criminality of foreign nationals in offending records in England and Wales, partly due to the disorganised recording of offender nationality. This study reveals that nationality is the new racism; whilst immigration has become a central focus in political and public discourses on crime they as a group in statistical terms exhibit low levels of offending but are more likely to be imprisoned for less serious crimes. The relationship between foreign nationals and crimes is thus a political issue rather than a legal one. As such, foreign nationals supposed criminality has been used to control immigration, avoid the blame of failing policies, gain electoral votes, and facilitate changes in immigration and crime policies. Details: Plymouth, UK: Plymouth University, 2016. 366p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 30, 2016 at: https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/4576 Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/4576 Shelf Number: 140081 Keywords: Foreign CriminalsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration Policy |
Author: National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) Title: Foreign National Offenders, Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System Summary: The mental health needs of foreign national individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system are a neglected issue, with what discussion does exist on this subject confining itself solely to the prison system. Whilst this is to an extent understandable as this is where the concentration of foreign national individuals lies, it is also important to look at the criminal justice system as a whole (as well as its interface with the mental health and the immigration system) in any examination of the mental health needs of foreign national offenders and detainees. Foreign nationals - including those with a learning disability - often have mental health needs which go beyond (and are different to) those experienced by the general offender population, and which can be exacerbated by other factors that render them more vulnerable than other indigenous defendants or offenders. In addition to the usual health stresses that accompany being arrested and incarcerated, foreign national prisoners may experience: - mental health and welfare problems (such as isolation, separation from family, trauma and loss, particularly if they are seeking refuge or asylum) - a lack of access to information about their current experience - a lack of legal and immigration advice - language barriers and a shortage of translation facilities - a period of effectively being held in bureaucratic limbo following the serving of their sentence and prior to deportation - limited preparation for release and insufficient access to resettlement programmes - a fear of return to their home country fuelled either by a lack of affinity with that country or by other reasons. All of the above factors can impact on the experience of foreign nationals in the criminal justice process and, as such, affect their well-being and mental health. Details: London: NACRO, 2010. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: A Nacro Mental Health Briefing Paper: Accessed September 7, 2016 at: https://3bx16p38bchl32s0e12di03h-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Foreign-national-offenders-mental-health-and-the-criminal-justice-system.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://3bx16p38bchl32s0e12di03h-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Foreign-national-offenders-mental-health-and-the-criminal-justice-system.pdf Shelf Number: 147898 Keywords: Asylum SeekersForeign InmatesForeign National OffendersForeign PrisonersImmigrants and CrimeMentally Ill Offenders |
Author: Fasani, Francesco Title: Immigrant Crime and Legal Status: Evidence from Repeated Amnesty Programs Summary: Do general amnesty programs lead to reductions in the crime rate among immigrants? We answer this question by exploiting both cross-sectional and time variation in the number of immigrants legalized generated by the enactment of repeated amnesty programs between 1990 and 2005 in Italy. We address the potential endogeneity of the "legalization treatment" by instrumenting the actual number of legalized immigrants with alternative predicted measures based on past amnesty applications patterns and residential choices of documented and undocumented immigrants. We find that, in the year following an amnesty, regions in which a higher share of immigrants obtained legal status experienced a greater decline in non-EU immigrant crime rates, relative to other regions. The effect is statistically significant but relatively small and not persistent. In further results, we fail to find any evidence of substitution in the criminal market from other population groups - namely, EU immigrants and Italian citizens - and we observe a small and not persistent reduction in total offenses. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2016. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 10235 : Accessed October 12, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2846326 Year: 2016 Country: Europe URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2846326 Shelf Number: 145422 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration Policy |
Author: Pinotti, Paolo Title: Clicking on Heaven's Door: The Effect of Immigrant Legalization on Crime Summary: We estimate the effect of immigrant legalization on the crime rate of immigrants in Italy by exploiting an ideal regression discontinuity design: fixed quotas of residence permits are available each year, applications must be submitted electronically on specific "Click Days", and are processed on a first-come, first-served basis until the available quotas are exhausted. Matching data on applications with individual-level criminal records, we show that legalization reduces the crime rate of legalized immigrants by 0.6 percentage points on average, on a baseline crime rate of 1.1 percent. The effect persists for (at least) two years after legalization. Details: London: Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), University College London, 2016. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper Series; CPD 25/16: Accessed November 16, 2016 at: http://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_25_16.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy URL: http://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_25_16.pdf Shelf Number: 144852 Keywords: ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Joyner, Kara Title: Arresting Immigrants: Unemployment and Immigration Enforcement in the Decade Following the September 11 Terrorist Attacks Summary: Recent research on the arrest of immigrants in the United States is largely descriptive and focused on a few localities. This study provides an examination of immigrant arrest involving two different agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): The Border Patrol (BP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Descriptive time series analyses track yearly changes in immigrant arrest in the decade following the September 11 terrorist attacks (2002- 2012). For many DHS jurisdictions, changes in the rates of immigrant arrest closely mirrored changes in the rates of unemployment. Fixed effects models pooling yearly data for the ICE jurisdictions demonstrate that the associations between changes in unemployment rates and changes in immigrant arrest rates were positive and significant. The strength of the associations varied considerably across jurisdictions, with magnitudes that ranged from weak to strong. The results suggest that decisions to arrest immigrants in the interior region of the country during this period were discretionary. Details: Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University The Center for Family and Demographic Research, 2016. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: 2016 Working Paper Series: Accessed February 4, 2017 at: http://papers.ccpr.ucla.edu/papers/PWP-BGSU-2016-007/PWP-BGSU-2016-007.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ccpr.ucla.edu/papers/PWP-BGSU-2016-007/PWP-BGSU-2016-007.pdf Shelf Number: 145878 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration EnforcementImmigration Policy |
Author: Wong, Tom K. Title: The Effects of Sanctuary Policies on Crime and the Economy Summary: As the Trump administration begins to implement its immigration policy agenda, the issue of local assistance with federal immigration enforcement officials is back in the spotlight. So-called sanctuary jurisdictions are one focus of that debate. Sanctuary counties - as defined by this report - are counties that do not assist federal immigration enforcement officials by holding people in custody beyond their release date. Using an Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, dataset obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the analyses in this report provide new insights about how sanctuary counties perform across a range of social and economic indicators when compared to nonsanctuary counties. To understand the effects of having a sanctuary policy, we statistically match counties based on a broad range of demographic characteristics and then compare sanctuary counties to nonsanctuary counties to better understand the effects that sanctuary policies have on a local jurisdiction. The data are clear: Crime is statistically significantly lower in sanctuary counties compared to nonsanctuary counties. Moreover, economies are stronger in sanctuary counties - from higher median household income, less poverty, and less reliance on public assistance to higher labor force participation, higher employment-to-population ratios, and lower unemployment. Among the main findings: There are, on average, 35.5 fewer crimes committed per 10,000 people in sanctuary counties compared to nonsanctuary counties. Median household annual income is, on average, $4,353 higher in sanctuary counties compared to nonsanctuary counties. The poverty rate is 2.3 percent lower, on average, in sanctuary counties compared to nonsanctuary counties. Unemployment is, on average, 1.1 percent lower in sanctuary counties compared to nonsanctuary counties. While the results hold true across sanctuary jurisdictions, the sanctuary counties with the smallest populations see the most pronounced effects. Altogether, the data suggest that when local law enforcement focuses on keeping communities safe, rather than becoming entangled in federal immigration enforcement efforts, communities are safer and community members stay more engaged in the local economy. This in turn brings benefits to individual households, communities, counties, and the economy as a whole. Details: Washington, DC: Center for American Progress; National Immigration Law Center, 2017. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 6, 2017 at: https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Effects-Sanctuary-Policies-Crime-and-Economy-2017-01-26.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Effects-Sanctuary-Policies-Crime-and-Economy-2017-01-26.pdf Shelf Number: 146030 Keywords: Economics and CrimeImmigrants and CrimeImmigration PolicySanctuary PolicyUndocumented Immigrants |
Author: Martin, Jack Title: Illegal Aliens and Crime Incidence: Illegal Aliens Represent a Disproportionately High Share of the Prison Population Summary: Most Americans equate illegal aliens with a higher incidence of crime. Some academic researchers have attempted to prove that is a mis-impression. But, in fact, data show that the American public understands the facts better than the academics. Adult illegal aliens represented 3.1 percent of the total adult population of the country in 2003. By comparison, the illegal alien prison population represented 4.54 percent of the overall prison population. Therefore, deportable criminal aliens were nearly half again as likely to be incarcerated as their share of the population. Details: Washington, DC: Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), 2007. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2017 at: http://www.fairus.org/site/docserver/crimestudy.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.fairus.org/site/docserver/crimestudy.pdf Shelf Number: 144540 Keywords: Illegal Aliens Illegal Immigrants Immigrants and CrimeImmigration Undocumented Citizens |
Author: Zhang, Yinjunjie Title: Effects of the Alabama HB 56 Immigration Law on Crime: A Synthetic Control Approach Summary: The act of Alabama HB 56, passed in 2011 is considered to be the strictest anti-illegal immigration bill in the United States. This paper evaluates the impact of this policy on crime, by using the synthetic control method to create a counterfactual Alabama. The results provide suggestive evidence of heterogeneous causal effects of Alabama HB 56 on crime. Compared to the synthetic group, the violent crime rate increased as a response to Alabama HB 56, while there was no significant change in property crime rate after the act. A placebo test was also performed to demonstrate the robustness of the results. Details: College Station, TX: Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, 2016. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Associ ation (SAEA) Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, February 6‐9, 2016. Accessed march 27, 2017 at: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/229780/2/alabama.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/229780/2/alabama.pdf Shelf Number: 144592 Keywords: Illegal Immigrants Immigrants Immigrants and CrimeImmigration Policy |
Author: Glosser, Angela Title: Gangs in a rural town: An analysis of community perceptions of crime, gangs, and the new in-migrant population. Summary: Urban gangs have captivated social scientists and been the topic of research for decades. However, recent gang member migration has created a relatively new interest in the possibility of non-metropolitan, or rural, gang presence and activities. Current research literature contends that this phenomenon is the result of the in-migration of urban minority and immigrant gang members, whereas law enforcement asserts gang growth is caused by community apathy toward the growing problem. This research examined community perceptions within the rural case study community of Bridgetown, Iowa. Bridgetown has been experiencing an influx of minority immigrants entering the community to work in its meat packing facility, and, according to local law enforcement, supposedly has a gang presence. Participants were residents and members of institutions of social control within the community. These individuals were selected because they would be the most likely within the community to come into direct contact or be aware of a real gang presence. They completed questionnaires and participated in one-on-one interviews designed to ascertain their general perceptions towards topics regarding crime, gangs, and the new immigrant population within the community. The research also attempted to discover what steps these individuals believed that people within their profession and other community members could take in embracing diversity within the community and whether these ideas might contribute to the reduction or elimination of gang activity within the community. The results show that while these residents do acknowledge the socioeconomic importance of the new immigrant community members, they do believe that gangs are present and are the result of the migration of these minority groups within the community. Most participants also agreed that diversity programs should be offered to combat the potential gang problem and eliminate racial and ethnic tensions that might exist between the native and immigrant populations. Details: Ames, IA: Iowa State University, 2013. 217p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed April 22, 2017 at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4468&context=etd Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4468&context=etd Shelf Number: 145151 Keywords: Gangs Immigrants and CrimeRural Crime Rural Gangs Youth Gangs |
Author: Males, Mike Title: Refuting Fear: Immigration, Youth, and CA's Stunning Declines in Crime and Violence Summary: As California's population moved from two-thirds white in 1980 to over 60 percent people of color today, the state has seen dramatic reductions in crime in each category. Additionally, indicators of social health and safety-such as violence, violent death and school dropouts-have decreased significantly, and California has weathered the national opioid epidemic better than elsewhere in the country. Since 1980, two demographic events have occurred alongside California-s decrease in crime that are important to explore. Racial and ethnic diversity driven by foreign immigration has increased sharply; Among young people (California's most diverse population), crime and violence trends have diverged sharply from those of older populations, led by a 72 percent decrease in youth violent crime rates and a 92 percent drop in homicide arrests of urban youth from 1980 to 2015. California's positive trends and lower levels of crime, particularly among young people, occurred alongside its transition to an all-minority state. These findings refute claims that increasing immigration will negatively impact society, or that "sanctuary cities," such as those found in California, cause increased crime. Once a state with unusually high rates of drug overdose, gun violence, and crime, California has demonstrated substantial gains in health and safety as its demographic composition has become more diverse and immigration has increased. The state's experience shows that racial transition can accompany greater public safety and well-being, a reality that should impact the national discussion over immigration. Details: San Francisco: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2017. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 20, 2017 at: http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/refuting_fear_-_immigration_youth_and_californias_stunning_declines_in_crime_and_violence.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/refuting_fear_-_immigration_youth_and_californias_stunning_declines_in_crime_and_violence.pdf Shelf Number: 146320 Keywords: Crime TrendsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Sanchez, Joseph Title: The Mara Salvatrucha and Regional Insecurity: How MS-13 perpetuates a cycle of Migration and Violence between the United States and Central America Summary: The Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) is a transnational gang that has spread from the United States to El Salvador and other Central American countries. The gang is unique, as it possesses characteristics of both a street and a transnational criminal organization. Due to its brutality and expansion, MS-13 has created an environment of public insecurity within Central America. This in turn has spurred several initiatives with the United States and its partners in an attempt to control a cycle of violence and migration between the countries. Details: El Paso: University of Texas at El Paso, National Security Studies Institute, 2015. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 13, 2017 at: https://academics.utep.edu/Portals/4302/Student%20research/Capstone%20projects/J_Sanchez_MS-13%20and%20Regional%20Insecurity.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://academics.utep.edu/Portals/4302/Student%20research/Capstone%20projects/J_Sanchez_MS-13%20and%20Regional%20Insecurity.pdf Shelf Number: 148152 Keywords: Criminal Network Gang Violence Immigrants and CrimeMara Salvatrucha MS-13 |
Author: Eagly, Ingrid Title: Criminal Justice in an Era of Mass Deportation: Reforms from California Summary: After a sustained period of hypercriminalization, the United States criminal justice system is undergoing reform. Congress has reduced federal sentencing for drug crimes, prison growth is slowing, and some states are even closing prisons. Low-level crimes have been removed from criminal law books, and attention is beginning to focus on long-neglected issues such as bail and criminal court fines. Still largely overlooked in this era of ambitious reform, however, is the treatment of immigrants in the criminal justice system. An unprecedented focus on immigration enforcement targeted at "felons, not families" has resulted in a separate system of punitive treatment reserved for noncitizens, which includes crimes of migration, longer periods of pretrial detention, harsher criminal sentences, and the almost certain collateral consequence of lifetime banishment from the United States. For examples of state-level solutions to this predicament, this Essay turns to a trio of bold criminal justice reforms from California that (1) require prosecutors to consider immigration penalties in plea bargaining; (2) change the state definition of "misdemeanor" from a maximum sentence of a year to 364 days; and (3) instruct law enforcement agencies to not hold immigrants for deportation purposes unless they are first convicted of serious crimes. Together, these new laws provide an important window into how state criminal justice systems could begin to address some of the unique concerns of noncitizen criminal defendants. Details: Unpublished paper, 2017. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: UCLA School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 16-53; Criminal Justice, Borders and Citizenship Research Paper No. 2873925: Accessed January 22, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2873925 Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2873925 Shelf Number: 148901 Keywords: Criminal Justice Reform Deportation Immigrants and CrimeImmigration Enforcement Mass Incarceration |
Author: Lott, John R., Jr. Title: Undocumented Immigrants, U.S. Citizens, and Convicted Criminals in Arizona Summary: Using newly released detailed data on all prisoners who entered the Arizona state prison from January 1985 through June 2017, we are able to separate non-U.S. citizens by whether they are illegal or legal residents. This data do not rely on self-reporting by criminals. Undocumented immigrants are at least 142% more likely to be convicted of a crime than other Arizonans. They also tend to commit more serious crimes and serve 10.5% longer sentences, more likely to be classified as dangerous, and 45% more likely to be gang members than U.S. citizens. Yet, there are several reasons that these numbers are likely to underestimate the share of crime committed by undocumented immigrants. There are dramatic differences between in the criminal histories of convicts who are U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants. Young convicts are especially likely to be undocumented immigrants. While undocumented immigrants from 15 to 35 years of age make up slightly over 2 percent of the Arizona population, they make up almost 8% of the prison population. Even after adjusting for the fact that young people commit crime at higher rates, young undocumented immigrants commit crime at twice the rate of young U.S. citizens. These undocumented immigrants also tend to commit more serious crimes. If undocumented immigrants committed crime nationally as they do in Arizona, in 2016 they would have been responsible for over 1,000 more murders, 5,200 rapes, 8,900 robberies, 25,300 aggravated assaults, and 26,900 burglaries. Details: Crime Prevention Research Center, 2018. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 8, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3099992 Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3099992 Shelf Number: 149028 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrants and CrimeImmigrationMigrantsUndocumented Immigrants |
Author: Peck, Sarah Herman Title: Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity Summary: Congress's power to create rules governing the admission of non-U.S. nationals (aliens) has long been viewed as plenary. In the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended, Congress has specified grounds for the exclusion or removal of aliens, including on account of criminal activity. Some criminal offenses, when committed by an alien who is present in the United States, may render that alien subject to removal from the country. And certain criminal offenses may preclude an alien outside the United States from being either admitted into the country or permitted to reenter following an initial departure. Further, criminal conduct may disqualify an alien from certain forms of relief from removal or prevent the alien from becoming a U.S. citizen. In some cases, the INA directly identifies particular offenses that carry immigration consequences; in other cases, federal immigration law provides that a general category of crimes, such as "crimes involving moral turpitude" or an offense defined by the INA as an "aggravated felony," may render an alien ineligible for certain benefits and privileges under immigration law. The INA distinguishes between the treatment of aliens who have been lawfully admitted into the United States and those who are either seeking admission into the country or are physically present in the country without having been lawfully admitted. Aliens who have been lawfully admitted into the country may be removed if they engage in conduct that renders them deportable, whereas aliens who have not been legally admitted into the United States-including both aliens seeking initial entry into the United States as well as those who are physically present in the country but were never lawfully admitted-may be excluded or removed from the country if they have engaged in conduct rendering them inadmissible. Although the INA designates certain criminal activities and categories of criminal activities as grounds for inadmissibility or deportation, the respective grounds are not identical. Moreover, a conviction for a designated crime is not always required for an alien to be disqualified on criminal grounds from admission into the United States. But for nearly all criminal grounds for deportation, a "conviction" (as defined by the INA) for the underlying offense is necessary. Additionally, although certain criminal conduct may disqualify an alien from various immigration-related benefits or forms of relief, the scope of disqualifying conduct varies depending on the particular benefit or form of relief at issue. This report identifies the major criminal grounds that may bar an alien from being admitted into the United States or render an alien within the country removable. The report also discusses additional immigration consequences of criminal activity, including those that make an alien ineligible for certain relief from removal, including cancellation of removal, voluntary departure, withholding of removal, and asylum. The report also addresses the criminal grounds that render an alien ineligible to adjust to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, as well as those grounds barring LPRs from naturalizing as U.S. citizens. The report also discusses the scope of several general criminal categories referenced by the INA, including "crimes involving moral turpitude," "aggravated felonies," and "crimes of violence. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2018. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: R45151: Accessed April 17, 2018 at: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R45151.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R45151.pdf Shelf Number: 149839 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrantsImmigrant DeportationImmigrants and CrimeImmigrationImmigration Policy |
Author: Hing, Bill Ong Title: Entering the Trump Ice Age: Contextualizing the New Immigration Enforcement Regime Summary: During the early stages of the Trump ICE age, we seem to be witnessing and experiencing an unparalleled era of immigration enforcement. But is it unparalleled? Didn't we label Barack Obama the "Deporter-in-Chief?" Wasn't it George Bush who used the authority of the Patriot Act to round up nonimmigrants from Muslim and Arab countries and didn't his ICE commonly engage in armed raids a factories and other worksites? Aren't there strong parallels that can be drawn between Trump enforcement plans and actions and those of other eras? What about the fear and hysteria that seems to really be happening in immigrant communities? Is the fear unparalleled? Why is there so much fear? Is the fear justified? Why do things seem different, in spite of rigorous immigration enforcement that has occurred even in recent years? This article begins with a comparison of what the Trump administration has done in terms of immigration enforcement with the enforcement efforts of other administrations. For example, I compare (1) the attempted Muslim travel bans with post-9/11 efforts by George W. Bush and Iranian student roundups by Jimmy Carter, (2) the Border Wall proposal with the Fence Act of 2006 and Operation Gatekeeper in 1994, (3) restarting Secure Communities (fingerprint sharing program) with Obama's enforcement program of the same name, (4) expanding INA S 287(g) agreements with Bush efforts under the same statute, (5) the threat of raids by an ICE deportation army with Bush gun-toting raids, (6) extreme vetting of immigrants and refugees with what already existed under Bush and Obama, (7) threatening to cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities with the prosecution of sanctuary workers in the 1980s, (8) prioritizing "criminal" immigrants with Obama's similar prioritization, and (9) expedited removal in the interior with Bush and Obama expedited removals along the border. Then I turn to the fear and hysteria in immigrant communities that has spread throughout the country. I ask why that fear has occurred and whether the fear has a reasonable basis. I close with a personal reflection on the parallels I have seen and experienced since I began practicing immigration law as a legal services attorney in 1975 and contemplate why enforcement and the resulting fear are different today. Details: California, 2017. 69p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 14, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3032662 Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: file:///C:/Users/AuthUser/Downloads/SSRN-id3032662.pdf Shelf Number: 151533 Keywords: Customs EnforcementImmigrants and CrimeImmigrationImmigration EnforcementImmigration PolicySanctuary Cities |
Author: Crino, Rosario Title: Fighting Mobile Crime Summary: We develop a model in which two countries choose their enforcement levels non- cooperatively, in order to deter native and foreign individuals from committing crime in their territory. We assume that crime is mobile, both ex ante (migration) and ex post (fleeing), and that criminals who hide abroad after having committed a crime in a country must be extradited back. We show that, when extradition is not too costly, countries over-invest in enforcement compared to the cooperative outcome: insourcing foreign criminals is more costly than paying the extradition cost. By contrast, when extradition is sufficiently costly, a large enforcement may induce criminals to flee the country in which they have perpetrated a crime. Surprisingly, the fear of extraditing criminals enables countries to coordinate on the e cient (cooperative) outcome. Details: Naples, Italy: Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, 2018. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: CSEF Working Paper no. 504: Accessed September 18, 2018 at: http://www.csef.it/WP/wp504.pdf Year: 2018 Country: International URL: http://www.csef.it/WP/wp504.pdf Shelf Number: 151568 Keywords: ExtraditionImmigrants and CrimeMigrants and CrimeOffender MobilityOrganized Crime |
Author: Feldmeyer, Ben Title: Race/Ethnicity, Social Structure, and Violence: Summary: It is widely recognized that poverty, disadvantage, and other structural conditions shape racial/ethnic patterns of violence. However, ecological research on race/ethnicity and violence has been limited almost exclusively to black-white comparisons and has overlooked Hispanics and other race/ethnic groups. Additionally, studies on race/ethnicity, social structure, and violence have been limited in that they (1) continue to debate whether the structural sources of violence are "racially invariant" (similar), (2) have focused on the effects of disadvantage while often overlooking how segregation, immigration, and other structural factors influence violence across race/ethnic groups, and (3) have faced methodological limitations that may have biased prior findings about racial/ethnic differences in violence and the structural predictors of violence. In light of its recent population growth and the paucity of research in the area, the primary objective of this project is to expand ecological research on race/ethnicity and violence by examining the structural sources of Hispanic violence - both alone and compared to whites and blacks. Three key questions about the relationship between race/ethnicity, social structure, and violence are addressed. First, this project tests the racial invariance hypothesis, which argues that the structural sources of violence are similar across race/ethnicity. Specifically, I examine whether the structural predictors of violence and especially the effects of disadvantage on violence are the same for whites, blacks, and Hispanics, and also whether support for the racial invariance argument depends on how invariance is defined (Chapter 2). Second, moving beyond the effects of disadvantage, this project examines whether racial/ethnic isolation influences black and Hispanic violence and whether the effects of segregation on violence are similar/invariant across race/ethnicity (Chapter 3). Third, focusing specifically on Hispanics, I examine whether immigration influences Hispanic violence and whether immigration disorganizes or stabilizes Hispanic communities. To address these questions, I use arrest data on violent crime and measures of social structure for whites, blacks, and Hispanics for more than 200 census places across California and New York during the 1999 to 2001 period. Data on white, black, and Hispanic violent crime are drawn from the California Arrest Data (CAL) and the New York State Arrest Data (NYSAD). Race/ethnicity-specific measures of social structure are drawn from 2000 U.S. Census data for each race/ethnic group at the census place-level. Seemingly Unrelated Regression techniques are used to compare the structural sources of violence across race/ethnic groups, and structural equation models are used to identify the total, direct, and indirect effects of immigration on Hispanic violence rates. Findings from Chapter 2 provide mixed support for racial invariance arguments and indicate that disadvantage contributes to violence for whites, blacks, and Hispanics. However, the effects of particular structural predictors and the magnitudes of structural effects on violence vary widely across race/ethnicity. Thus, the racial invariance hypothesis is not supported when using narrowly-defined interpretations and receives modest support when using the broadest possible definitions of "invariance." Chapter 3, which examines the effects of racial/ethnic segregation on black and Hispanic violence, also provides mixed evidence for the racial invariance hypothesis and reveals that being residentially isolated (from whites and from all other race/ethnic groups) contributes to Hispanic violence and black homicide but appears to reduce black Violent Index rates. Additionally, findings suggest that segregation effects on violence for both blacks and Hispanics are mediated by concentrated disadvantage. Chapter 4 relies on social disorganization theory and community resource arguments drawn from the social capital perspective to examine the effects of immigration on Hispanic violence. The findings from this chapter suggest that immigration has little direct effect on Hispanic violence. However, immigration appears to have multiple, offsetting indirect effects on Hispanic violence that work through social disorganization and community resource/social capital measures. The combination of these direct and indirect effects shows that immigration has little total effect on Hispanic violence. Chapter 5 concludes by discussing important implications of this project for research and theory on the ecology of crime and the relationship between race/ethnicity, social structure, and violence. Details: State College: Pennsylvania State University, 2007. 178p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed Dec. 10, 2018 at: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/677 Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/677 Shelf Number: 153955 Keywords: Ethnic Minorities Immigrants and CrimeRace and Crime Racial Disparities Violence Violent Crime |
Author: Couttenier, Mathieu Title: The Logic of Fear - Populism and Media Coverage of Immigrant Crimes Summary: We study how news coverage of immigrant criminality impacted municipality-level votes in the November 2009 "minaret ban" referendum in Switzerland. The campaign, successfully led by the populist Swiss People's Party, played aggressively on fears of Muslim immigration and linked Islam with terrorism and violence. We combine an exhaustive violent crime detection dataset with detailed information on crime coverage from 12 newspapers. The data allow us to quantify the extent of pre-vote media bias in the coverage of migrant criminality. We then estimate a theory-based voting equation in the cross-section of municipalities. Exploiting random variations in crime occurrences, we find a first-order, positive effect of news coverage on political support for the minaret ban. Counterfactual simulations show that, under a law forbidding newspapers to disclose a perpetrator's nationality, the vote in favor of the ban would have decreased by 5 percentage points (from 57.6% to 52.6%). Details: London: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 2019. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper DP13496: Accessed February 15, 2019 at: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=13496# Year: 2019 Country: Switzerland URL: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=13496# Shelf Number: 154619 Keywords: Fear of CrimeImmigrants and CrimeMass CommunicationsMedia and CrimeMuslimsNewspapersViolent Crime |
Author: Blanchard, Daphne N. Title: .Immigration and National Security: An Empirical Assessment of Central American Immigration and Violent Crime in the United States Summary: Executive Summary - The arrival of the October 2018 Central American caravan became a flashpoint in the immigration debate between human rights and national security. Thousands of migrants traveled in a caravan from Central America's Northern Triangle to the United States in October of 2018. President Trump called on Mexico to stop the influx, sent troops to the U.S.-Mexican border, and threatened to cut aid to the Central American country. While several hundred returned on Honduran-sponsored busses and roughly 2,000 people applied for asylum in southern Mexico, the group totaled 6,500 migrants when they arrived at the wall lining the San Ysidro-Tijuana border. Conflicts between the migrants, Mexican police, citizens of Tijuana and U.S. protesters made national headlines. Meanwhile, international aid groups offered makeshift housing, basic necessities, and legal representation for the asylum seekers. Immigration was central to the November mid-term election debates. - Central American immigration has risen significantly over the last few decades. Presently 3.4 million people born in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are living in the United States, more than double the estimated 1.5 million people in 2000, with half of them undocumented. In the time period between 2011 and 2017, the number of Northern Triangle immigrants rose approximately 400,000 which indicated a growth of 0.1 percent of the foreign-born population. The number of Northern Triangle migrant arrivals nearly quadrupled in 2014, with the arrival of approximately 131,000 migrants. El Salvador is the largest sending country from the region, with 1.4 million immigrants in the United States, a 112- fold increase since 1970. Guatemala is second with 815,000, followed by Honduras with 623,000. - The number of unaccompanied minors (also known as UACs) crossing the U.S.- Mexico border has dramatically increased since 2008. Between 2008 and the first eight months of 2014, the number of unaccompanied minors that crossed the U.S. southern border each year jumped from about 8,000 to 52,000, prompting the U.S. Congress to request further research and a hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations. The year 2014 was dubbed the Central America migration crisis due to the 90 percent increase in UACs between 2013 and 2014. The composition of the recent caravans that arrived in April and October of 2018 suggest that child and family migration from the Northern Triangle is an enduring phenomenon. - The root causes of the flows are pervasive violence and systematic persecution in the Northern Triangle region. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are consistently ranked among the world's most violent countries not at war due to their exceptionally high rates of homicide, extortion, gang proliferation, narcotics trafficking, weak rule of law, and official corruption. Many migrants reported fleeing systematic persecution from authorities, pervasive violence from organized criminal organizations, and forced gang recruitment. - Northern Triangle migrants make up less than one percent of the U.S. population. To put the increases in immigrant population in perspective and understand the scope of Central American migration, it is important to note that in 2017 the Northern Triangle subset of immigrants constitute 0.9% of the share of overall population, of which by far the largest percentage is attributed to those with El Salvadoran origins. Asian foreign-born are the most prevalent with 4.3 percent of the share, which consists of Eastern, South Central, and South Eastern Asian immigrants. Those born in Mexico are second with 3.4 percent; while European and African foreign-born make up 1.2 and 0.7 percent respectively. - Public anxiety over Central American migrants stalls immigration reform. The tension at the U.S.-Mexico border due to Central American asylum seekers has reached a fever pitch, polarizing views on how to deal with ever increasing immigration. Although seven percent of Northern Triangle refugees were granted asylum the year after the 2014 surge in migration, compared to 24 percent of refugees from China, the continual flow of Central American migrants to the United States' southern border elicits anxiety, protests, and much public debate. As rhetoric from high-level politicians and news media make connections between violent crime and immigration, political parties' stances on immigration become more divergent -- leading to the inability to agree on comprehensive immigration reform. The difference in opinion between Democrats and Republicans has grown over time with 42 percent of Republicans, compared to 84 percent of Democrats, saying that immigrants strengthen the country, the largest partisan gap on openness to immigrants since 1994. Democrats triple the share of Republicans with the opinion that the nation has a responsibility to care for refugees. - The internet and social media have heightened the risk of mass manipulation and emotional decision-making in immigration policy. Although the Trump administration and news outlets of today are not the first to make a public connection between crime and immigration - the debate has been ongoing for decades - changes in media technology have exacerbated the issue. The internet and social media platforms have significantly increased the scope and reach of consumers at hyper speed without third-party filtering, fact-checking, or editorial judgement to add context to complex issues. This is evident in a Republican-sponsored political commercial that connected an undocumented Mexican cop-killer with the tagline: "Stop the caravan. Vote Republican." Although widely rejected by major television and news outlets on both sides of the aisle for being misleading, the ad was seen approximately 6.5 million times while featured atop Trump's Twitter page. Studies have shown how elite discourse shapes mass opinion and action on immigration policy without necessarily tying the rhetoric to empirical data of the actual threat posed by the group. - Studies show that as immigration levels have risen in the United States, overall violent crime rates have reduced. The relationship between immigration and crime in the United States has been studied at length by scholars whose findings convey a similar conclusion: that immigration does not increase crime and violence, in fact, in the first generation it seems to reduce it. Since 1970 to today, the share and number of immigrants in the United States have increased rapidly while violent crime has been trending in the opposite direction to a level below what it was in 1980. Even as the U.S. undocumented population doubled to 12 million between 1994 and 2005, the violent crime rate in the United States declined 34.2 percent. In addition, cities with large immigrant populations such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Miami also experienced declining crime rates during that period. - Evidence does not support the notion that increases in Central American immigrant populations lead to increases in violent crime rates. Although Northern Triangle immigration has surged over the past several years, the evidence does not support the claim that they are posing a U.S. national security threat. Not only did overall U.S. violent crime rates descend as Central American migration share rose; but the influx of these foreigners in 27 metro areas showed no correlation when compared to the violent crime rate changes of each one during 2012 to 2017. When compared to homicide rate changes, there is no correlation between the changes in the immigrant population from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras; in fact, the vast majority of cases demonstrate a reduction in crime. Not one of the 27 metros with high concentration of immigrants from that region is within the top ten of the most violent metros in the United States. The violence that Northern Triangle migrants are fleeing is not translating into more violence in American communities, as the public discourse seems to suggest. The Central American migration threat has been hyper-inflated in scope and potential for insecurity. - The scope of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang is narrow by comparison. According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), approximately ten thousand MS-13 members inhabit the United States, amounting to 0.3 percent of the overall U.S. population. By comparison, there are approximately 1.4 million gang members living in the United States that make up more than 33,000 gangs. Of the 45,400 UACs apprehended at the border in the five-year period of 2012 and 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) apprehended 159 UACs with confirmed or suspected gang affiliations, 56 of which were suspected or confirmed to be affiliated with MS-13. The Cato Institute reports that 0.1 percent of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol arrests were MS-13 gang members at the border midyear in 2018, similar to the statistics from prior years. - The brutality of MS-13 has the potential to disrupt neighborhoods, but not the United States as a whole. The threat of the MS-13 gang is far smaller in scope and reach than high-profile dialogue suggests, and it is given disproportionate attention in the public discourse considering the levels of crime. Of the 1.2 million violent crime offenses committed in the United States between 2012 and 2017, 345 were committed by members of the MS-13 gang. Although spread throughout cities in the United States and a legitimate concern for the communities which they inhabit, the members of this murderous gang do not demonstrate an ability to disrupt the stability and security of the entire nation and show no sign of expansion. Containing the threat of this violent criminal organization is best left to local authorities with local solutions. This research does not advocate ceasing to address the root causes of MS-13 criminal activity, only to keep the risk in perspective to reduce the negative consequences of fear-based decision-making. - The conflating of MS-13 with all immigrants in public discourse is unfounded and problematic. Connecting all immigrants with the violent acts of the few stalls progress on immigration reform, influences public opinion and immigration policy decisions without data to support the level of threat, creates an atmosphere of conflict surrounding those requesting asylum and settling in American neighborhoods, and is counterproductive to keeping Americans safe. Anxiety-inducing messaging from elite levels slows productive, compromise-driven dialogue that is necessary for immigration reform and effective allocation of finite resources. Details: San Diego: Justice in Mexico, Department of Political Science & International Relations, University of San Diego, 2019. 40p. Source: Internet Resource:JUSTICE IN MEXICO WORKING PAPER SERIES Volume 16, Number 1: Accessed May 9, 2019 at: https://justiceinmexico.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/BLANCHARD_Immigration-and-National-Security.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://justiceinmexico.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/BLANCHARD_Immigration-and-National-Security.pdf Shelf Number: 155705 Keywords: Asylum SeekersGang ViolenceImmigrants and CrimeImmigration and CrimeImmigration PolicyMS-13 - Mara SalvatruchaNational SecurityNorthern TriangleSocial MediaUnaccompanied MinorsUndocumented MigrantsViolent Crime |
Author: Ryo, Emily Title: Predicting Danger in Immigration Courts Summary: Every year, the US government detains thousands of noncitizens in removal proceedings on the basis that they might pose a threat to public safety if released during the pendency of their removal proceedings. Using original audio recording data on immigration bond hearings, this study examines immigration judges' determinations regarding which noncitizens pose a danger to the community. My multivariate analysis that controls for a variety of detainee background characteristics and criminal-conviction-related measures produced three main findings. First, I find that Central Americans are more likely to be deemed dangerous than non-Central Americans. Second, I find that detainees with attorneys are less likely to be deemed dangerous than pro se detainees. Finally, my analysis shows that whereas felony and violent convictions are associated with higher odds of being deemed dangerous, the recency of criminal convictions and the total number of convictions are not predictive of danger determinations. Together, these findings provide new insights into the socio-legal construction of immigrant criminality. Details: Los Angeles: University of Southern California Gould School of Law, 2019. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Law and Social Inquiry, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2019; USC CLASS Research Paper No. CLASS19-16; USC Law Legal Studies Paper No. 19-16; Accessed June 26, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3406467 Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3406467 Shelf Number: 156703 Keywords: Illegal Immigrants Immigrants Immigrants and CrimeImmigration Courts Immigration Enforcement Immigration Policy |