Rise in immigration may help explain drop in violent crimes

[DavidDvorkin]

During the 1990s, immigration reached record highs and crime rates fell more precipitously than at any time in U.S. history. And cities with the largest increases in immigration between 1990 and 2000 experienced the largest decreases in rates of homicide and robbery, a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher has found.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/uoca-rii051310.php

As an immigrant myself, I could speculate that this is due to immigrants being inherently superior people, but I'd never say that out loud. Or post it anywhere.

[Frances]

1. I worked in a tutoring lab at a community college a few years ago

One of the tutors was an immigrant; she said, "You know, the immigrant students are smarter than the native students." She was right.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. And we're Americans by choice

not accident of birth.

[pampango]

3. "From the late 1800s to the present, the association between immigration and crime

has been a center point of anti-immigrant discourse and public policy," Wadsworth writes. "Although there has been scant empirical research to support such claims, they have persisted with little debate."

"Using long-term analyses, Wadsworth noted, cities that experienced the largest growth in the proportion of foreign-born and newly arrived immigrant populations experienced larger decreases in violent crime between 1990 and 2000. That finding, Wadsworth wrote, "suggests that Sampson may be right -- that immigration may be partly responsible for the decrease in violent crime."

Wadsworth's research suggests that, controlling for a variety of other factors, growth in the new immigrant population was responsible, on average, for 9.3 percent of the decline in homicide rates, and that growth in total immigration was, on average, responsible for 22.2 percent of the decrease in robbery rates.

Exactly why growth in immigration is accompanying decreases in violent crime is hard to determine with city-level data. Some have suggested that immigrant communities are often characterized by extended family networks, lower levels of divorce, and cultural and religious beliefs that facilitate community integration. Wadsworth notes that "criminologists have long known that these factors provide buffers against crime.""

While this study is not conclusive "may help explain a drop in violent crimes", at least it's an attempt to interject some research (and potentially "facts") into a factless, republican scare tactic based on "The immigrants are coming! The immigrants are coming! Be very afraid!".

Of course, repubs ignore the fact that crime is down in Arizona, illegal crossing are down by two-thirds, there are twice as many Border Patrol agents now, so ignoring research should be easy for them. (You have to ignore a lot of things in pursuit of the "Control the Border or we are all going to die!" campaign strategy that they have for 2010.) :)