New Research on Illegal Immigration and Crime

Alex NowrastehHow illegal immigrants  affect crime is one of the most contentious subareas of debate in the entire immigration issue. Cato scholars have produced much original research on this topic, finding that illegal and legal immigrants both have lower incarcerationrates than native-born Americans and lower criminal conviction rates in thestate ofTexas, the only state where data are available. We ’ve also found that local government participation in immigrationenforcement programs doesn ’t affect crime rates.Academic researchers have also stepped into the fray. Sociologists Michael Light and Ty Millerfound that a higher illegal immigrant population does not increase violent crime rates. Those two researchers then teamed up with Purdue sociologist Bryan C. Kelly to look at how higher illegal immigrant populations affected drug arrests, drug overdose deaths, and DUI arrests. Theyfound large and significantly associated reductions in drug arrests, drug overdose deaths, and DUI arrests with no significant relationship between increased illegal immigration and DUI deaths. Further research by other criminologists alsofound that illegal immigrants report engaging in less crime prior to and following their first arrest than legal immigrants and native-born Americans.A recent paper by Christian Gunadi, an economist at the University of California Riverside, alsofound that illegal immigrants are 33 less likely to be institutionalized than native-born Americans despite possess...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs