Study finds immigrants commit less California crime

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Immigrants are far less likely than the average U.S.-born citizen to commit crime in California, the most populous state in the United States, according to a report issued late on Monday.

People born outside the United States make up about 35 percent of California's adult population but account for about 17 percent of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California showed.

According to the report's authors the findings suggest that long-standing fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified. The report also noted that U.S.-born adult men are incarcerated at a rate more than 2 1/2 times greater than that of foreign-born men.

"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 and associate professor of economics at Wellesley College.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN246261520080226

[Selatius]

1. I guess the bigger question is why Americans are so prone to resorting to violence.

I think it's cultural views towards violence, personally. Shoot first, ask questions later.

[Pogue.Mahone]

11. Can't totally agree...

i think both anglo and latino cultures are equally full of machismo and a ready resort to violence!

[bemildred]

2. Duh, you think? nt

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Excellent! Something to counter all those RW idiots. Paging Tom Tancredo and

Duncan Hunter!

[Tempest]

4. It won't stop them

They'll just attack the study.

[Turbineguy]

5. That's because they don't have

access to as many white-collar jobs.

I'll be here all week.

[underpants]

6. We already knew that this study reinforces it

and I am just SURE it will be in the lead 5 minutes of every news broadcast tonight
:sarcasm:

[Steerpike]

7. hey wait a minute!

What about all those Mexican gangs cheating on welfare and cutting off people's heads while indiscriminately gunning down people of color while stealing jobs from the white man?

[Igel]

8. I saw the article, then looked at the report.

The report itself says it doesn't talk about crime rates, because it can't: It doesn't have numbers on who commits crimes. Oddly enough, "cannot discuss crime rates" becomes, in journalese, "explicitly and definitively discusses crime rates."

The report has numbers on who is in prison; that's what the report is about, just those who were or are in prison, and specifically various age cohorts of illegal immigrants vs similar cohorts by age and SES in the general populatin (with no comparison for ethnic subgroups). Now, there's a correlation between committing a crime and being in prison, or at least most of us like to think so, but the authors are aware that the correlation doesn't translate readily into a number like "37% of those who commit crime are institutionalized". Some people that commit crimes are never turned in because friends and families don't want him caught; in some cases, the victim doesn't trust law enforcement; in other cases, the accused run and hide before they're arraigned (or after they make bail), and assume (yet) another identity; in other cases they leave the country. I suspect illegal immigrants are at least slightly more likely to do this. Looking at unreported crime figures by community and over time might give a clue as to the rate, but no more.

The authors make the valid point that illegal immigrants have a large disencentive to not commit crimes; but at the same time, they tacitly allow for the existence of factors that would reduce the likelihood of their being institutionalized. Had they not allowed for such factors, the report would be judged tripe from the get-go; had they been explicit and attempted to quantify the numbers, it would have mitigated a likely goal of the report.

[slackmaster]

9. "The study did not differentiate between documented immigrants and illegal immigrants"

Which makes the whole thing kind of irrelevant, because someone here illegally is committing a crime simply by being here.

:eyes:

[Megahurtz]

10. Lol!

:D

[BeHereNow]

12. Eh... this study really doesn't mean much.

They are looking at the numbers of people who are CAUGHT.
Not the numbers of people committing crimes.

Where I live the majority of crimes are committed
by Armenian/Russian and Mexican gangs.
Not many are caught and therefore not counted in a survey like this.

We have a HUGE Russian/Armenian gang in my area
who are committing very serious identity theft operations.
The police know what they are doing and have not
been able to catch them. I know, I was a victim.
They cloned my debit card and pin number and
hit my account for a thousand dollars in an hour.
The last place I used it?
An Armenian market near my house.
The cops told me they can't catch them because they
continually move the device and often, the person
who owns the shop doesn't even know they are an accomplice!
Crazy huh?

The Mexican gang bangers are more just a nuisance
in my opinion. Sad little punks with few or no male family figures
to guide them. That would be because they are all
in prison and when they get out, they just perpetuate the
gang lifestyle with their younger relatives.
It's really very sad.

I think that could change if they started deporting
known gang criminals instead of incarcerating
them with our tax dollars.

I have no problem with ANY immigrants coming to
this country as long as they are not making
it a worse place to live.

BHN