Immigrant Threat? Crime Rates Say ‘No’
U.S. immigrants are far less likely than native-born residents to commit crime, registering significantly lower rates of incarceration and institutionalization, according to a report released by the Public Policy Institute of California.
The findings challenge the longstanding fear that undocumented immigrants, because they tend to be poor and poorly educated, rise crime rates.
“The findings are striking because immigrants in California are more likely than the U.S.-born to be young and male and to have low levels of education – all characteristics associated with higher rates of crime and incarceration,” the report said.
While immigrants represent 35 percent of California’s population, the reports notes, they make up 17 percent of the state prison population. And U.S.-born men are incarcerated at rates up to 3.3 times higher than foreign-born men.
Among the age group most likely to commit crime – men ages 18 to 40 – those born in the United States are 10 times more likely than foreign-born men to be in county jails of state prisons. Meanwhile, immigrant men from Mexico ages 18 to 40 are over 8 times less likely – 0.48 percent vs. 4.2 percent – that native-born men in the same age group to be in a correctional setting, the reports adds.
“Our research indicates that limiting immigration, requiring higher educational levels to obtain visas, or spending more money to increase penalties against criminal immigrants will have little impact on public safety,” said Kristin Butcher, co-author of the report. “In California, as in the rest of the nation, immigrants already have extremely low rates of criminal activity.”
The report concludes that low crime levels among immigrants may be due, in part, to U.S. immigration policy, which screens immigrants for criminal pasts and hands out stiffer penalties to foreign born residents who commit crimes.
The researchers studied 29 California cities from 2000 to 2005.
