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California Crime and Immigrants: Facts vs. Fantasies |
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This report, which suggests that immigrants (both legal and illegal) commit fewer crimes than native-born American citizens in California, caught my eye today. I’m sure xenophobes will dismiss the results, and offer plenty of anecdotes to back up their claims that all immigrants are criminals, but the article speaks for itself:
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.
The study did not differentiate between documented immigrants and illegal immigrants.
[snip]
Among men 18 to 40, the population most likely to be in institutions because of criminal activity, the report found that in California, U.S.-born men were institutionalized 10 times more often than foreign-born men (4.2 percent vs. 0.42 percent).
Among other findings in the report, non-citizen men from Mexico 18 to 40 — a group disproportionately likely to have entered the United States illegally — are more than eight times less likely than U.S.-born men in the same age group to be in a correctional institution (0.48 percent vs. 4.2 percent).
“From a public safety standpoint, there would be little reason to further limit immigration, to favor entry by high-skilled immigrants, or to increase penalties against criminal immigrants,” the report said.
Maybe studies like this can help us cut through the climate of fear and hatred to the real facts - and, ultimately, to an immigration policy grounded in reality.
So, you’ve read the study and analyzed their findings? Or, is it that you didn’t even look up the study itself and aren’t even relying on their summary but the one provided by the MSM? And, based simply on that, you’re declaring the study accurate in every way and not, for instance, agenda-driven scholarship?
agenda-driven scholarship? perhaps, though the public policy institute of california (which published the report) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and the two authors of the study are economics professors from different universities. by the way, the reuters summary posted above is pretty much a direct copy of the press release for the report.
i think this report makes sense. though it would have been interesting to see the differences in crime rates between legal and illegal immigrants, the report does assert that the foreign-born population is likely to consist largely of illegal aliens, however convincing you may find that. nonetheless, assuming that the foreign-born, i.e. not naturalized, population does consist predominantly of illegals, i think it makes sense that the crime rate is lower in this demographic sector by mere virtue of the fact that illegal immigrants may not wish to attract the attention of the local authorities, which would, considering their status, seriously jeopardize their residence. particularly law-abiding behavior has also been observed among illegal immigrants in southern europe who often don’t even dare to risk riding a bus without a ticket for fear of discovery and deportation. perhaps this is not a sufficient explanation for the lower criminal activity of non-u.s. citizens as compared with naturalized americans, but it’s worth a thought and it definately applies to some cases.
The big flaw I see in this study is that 100% of the illegal immigrants in California have broken the law at least once in entering this country - hence the term “Illegal immigrants”. Does it make sense to ignore one law they’ve broken only because it is used to define categories in the study? What about the fraud committed when false Soc. Sec. Numbers are used?
Right, this study is based on prison population - you must be caught and convicted to be counted in this study. This leaves the door wide open for a large error rate due to unsolved crimes, where the criminals are just well practiced enough to not get caught. Amateurs without training get caught the first time out in much higher numbers, and you won’t get much argument over whether or not gangs provide their members with training and the benefit of the criminal experience of their other members. Have you located any studies of the correlation between legal status of immigrants and the incidence of hit and run behavior? Too many uncontrolled variables in this study for the broad conclusion people are advertising it for.
The undocumented workers = criminals argument doesn’t hold water for me. My concern is with real crime that really matters.
It might be a surprise to most, but the report states:
%u201D The study did not differentiate between documented immigrants and illegal immigrants.%u201D
Illegal implies %u201Cnot legal.%u201D
Any immigrants in California and/or working in California are doing so illegally.
This is an issue which makes this report wrong in and of itself, but to a thinking person
the report might prompt them to ask,%u201D How does one incarcerate undocumented immigrants?%u2019 The study (dare I call it that) looks at prison populations. To say it shows
immigrants commit fewer crimes because they are not in the system, actually supports
the fear you attempt to thwart.
I did not read the full report. This is based on just this article.
They already are criminals the moment they entered the country illegally dumbass.
And believe it or not, California is only one of 50 states.
Regarding the methodology of the study - it looks like it is based entirely on penal institutions. But if an illegal immigrant is arrested for a crime, are they always prosecuted and sent to prison, or are they sometimes deported? I honestly have no idea how it works - it just seems like that has the possibility to be a big flaw in the study.
(I’m not saying I think immigrants commit more crimes, I’m just questioning the study.)
This is a good question. I don’t know the answer though. Anyone?
Correct me if I am wrong but most illegal immigrants when caught commiting a crime are deported instead of being put in prison. This kind of skews the results doesn’t it?
J.R. could you tell me what is a “real crime”, if violating the sovereignty of our borders isn’t one?
The question is, does this study count those people? If it does, then the results are pretty revealing. If not, well then we need something better to really judge.
As for the “real crime” thing, I believe illegal border crossing is a misdemeanor. About on par with a bad speeding ticket. They may be criminals, but come on…
It has nothing to do with the fact that they commit less crimes. The point of the argument is that by being here, they are committing crimes if they are here illegally. Do you think social security numbers and records come from mid air. No, they are stolen or fabricated. Is this not a serious crime? If some white kid from the suburbs steals an identity to buy an xbox, he is crucified. If an illegal immigrant steals an identity to live in another country illegally, is it not also a crime? Doesnt matter what country or what ethniticity. Wrong is wrong.
How is this not crime? Is it illegal to work under the table? Yes. The issue with undocumented is that they take money and resources out of the american system, and put far to little back into the system. No taxes paid, free health care, the list goes on. If the company had hired a legal worker, dont care who or what color, there is allot of money going intot he economy from it. You have taxes from being paid, taxes on things you buy, taxes on just about everything. Not to mention, you dont qualify for the free healthcare and other things. Now, your paid under the table, no income taxes, most other taxes are moot because most things are bought under the table and off the radar. Its allot of money that could go to help a school. Could go to help allot of things. The problem is that when a child grows up in that environment, they take on those qualities. The apple doesnt fall far from the tree so to speak. Not being mean, but honest. Same as a racist will raise a racist. Now you have a family of illegal immigrants with 5 kids, all paid for on the government dime.
It’s actually a well documented fact that undocumented immigrants pay just as much if not more taxes than the average American worker. And they don’t use the services those taxes pay for.
I have to kinda jump in jasons corner on this…there not the evil burden that the repugs. put them out to be..there 3rd gen. vote’rs..and they want change just like the rest of us. there a proud people…no need to wall out there vote…
wow! thats a high hourse to fall off of..what if the whole country were under an AMBER ALEART!..for some missing cho-lo girl…git real..these are people just like you and me..would you want your kid climbing a barbed wire fence to git a chanch at a shitty job?
The current hot issue of illegal immigration is not served WHATSOEVER by this study regarding immigrants as a whole. It is clear, based on existing research, that illegal immigrants as a whole commit more crimes than those here legally. It’s not surprising one bit that LEGAL immigrants commit less crime than U.S.-born citizens because they are under close scrutiny and have shown a propensity for law-abiding conduct when they entered this country following the proscribed laws.
Many agenda-driven news agencies, like PHXnews, have actually used this study to claim that ILLEGAL immigrants commit less crime than U.S.-born citizens, which is quite simply not supported.