Opinion: 5 reasons why immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than other people

Editor’s note: Stephen E. Barkan is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Maine. Michael Locke is an associate professor and professor of sociology at Bates College. Both authors have written extensively on crime and criminal justice topics. The views expressed in this commentary are their own.read more CNN opinion here.

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Americans have often associated immigration with crime. For example, in the 19th century, native-born Americans were bombarded with messages branding Irish immigrants as violent and subhuman. Similarly, in the 19th century, links between Chinese immigrants and opium use, accusations that these people were bringing vice and crime to the United States, and several anti-immigrant laws were enacted. The immigration of millions of Italians in the early 20th century raised similar concerns about their alleged violent tendencies.

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly stoked this fear, reminding us of previous concerns. At the start of his 2016 presidential campaign, he declared about Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing in drugs. They’re bringing in crime. They’re rapists. And I think some of them are good people.” He called incoming migrants “people coming in from prisons and detention centers, long-term killers,” and a day earlier called them “animals” and “not human beings.”

Do immigrants actually increase crime rates? Many Americans certainly think so. In a recent Pew Research Center survey, a majority of respondents said the large number of immigrants entering the United States is causing an increase in crime.

But just because a lot of people believe something doesn’t mean it’s true. Social science research regularly generates evidence full of inconvenient facts that contradict people’s strongly held beliefs. Immigration and crime research and evidence is one such area.

Based on much research over the past 20 years, the answer here is clear. Immigration does not increase violence or other crimes, and immigrants do not have higher crime rates than native-born Americans. Many studies even suggest that immigration reduces crime rates and that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. This finding applies not only to those who are admitted or become citizens, but also to illegal immigrants.

If immigrants have lower crime rates, despite what many think, why is this the case? Several reasons seem to explain this inconvenient fact.

First, most immigrants come here seeking a better life for themselves and their families, so they are highly motivated to do well and stay out of trouble.

Second, immigrants tend to have strong family structures and stable jobs. These advantages may help immigrants be less likely to commit crimes when compared to similarly low-educated white-born men who often lack the supportive advantages of family and employment. expensive.

Third, many immigrants live in close-knit communities with strong churches and other social institutions and own or work in small businesses. These areas are exactly what criminologists say have low crime rates.

Fourth, immigrants who are able to immigrate to the United States may have more advantageous social backgrounds than those who cannot. These backgrounds likely make them less likely to commit crime, as is evident among American-born people.

Fifth, immigrants who are not yet citizens may fear deportation if they commit a crime.

Given all the research evidence, why do so many Americans think immigrants pose a risk to public safety? One reason is that they’re not familiar with the research. Another reason is that people tend to ignore information that contradicts their strongly held beliefs. The third reason is that President Trump’s disturbing statements and similar statements by others on social media are simply false and are fueling people’s concerns about crime.

Unfortunately, we have seen similar disinformation spread throughout American history. There are many examples of mainland-born white Americans fearing, without any evidence, that immigrants and people of color will kill, assault, and rape them and their children. .

After the Civil War, many mainland-born Americans believed that Chinese immigrants would use opium dens in the mountains and western states to kidnap and rape white children. In the 1930s, many believed that if Mexican immigrants used marijuana, white people would be assaulted and murdered. Perhaps the most outlandish example is that many white people in the early 1900s were not willing to assault and kill white people because of black people’s use of cocaine (which was legal at the time and was an ingredient in early Coca-Cola). I was worried. They even feared that cocaine use would make black people more cunning and so strong that they would be invulnerable to bullets.

These absurd notions certainly had no basis, but many white people still believed them. As now, racial and ethnic prejudice fueled their fears. People of color have historically been targets of that action, as have Irish and Italian immigrants who were not considered white decades ago. Today, when you hear warnings about immigration and crime, most of them seem to target immigrants from certain countries or people who look a certain way (not white).

While it’s true that some immigrants do commit crimes, they don’t commit as many crimes as native-born Americans, and studies consistently show that they commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. It is thought that there are few. As the debate over immigration continues, we must let the facts guide our discussions and policy decisions, even when they are inconvenient. And one inconvenient fact is clear. That is, immigration does not increase crime and may even reduce crime rates. Anyone who says otherwise either doesn’t know the evidence or just wants to stir up anti-immigrant hostility.