Urban crime rates and the changing face of immigration: Evidence across four decades |
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| Authors: | Robert Adelman Lesley Williams Reid Gail Markle Saskia Weiss Charles Jaret |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, USA;2. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA;3. Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA;4. Independent Scholar, Marietta, Georgia, USA;5. Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
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| Abstract: | Research has shown little support for the enduring proposition that increases in immigration are associated with increases in crime. Although classical criminological and neoclassical economic theories would predict immigration to increase crime, most empirical research shows quite the opposite. We investigate the immigration-crime relationship among metropolitan areas over a 40 year period from 1970 to 2010. Our goal is to describe the ongoing and changing association between immigration and a broad range of violent and property crimes. Our results indicate that immigration is consistently linked to decreases in violent (e.g., murder) and property (e.g., burglary) crime throughout the time period. |
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| Keywords: | Immigration crime US metropolitan areas |
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