Immigrants don't do crime....

[Bigmack]

One of the accusations made against "illegals" is that they're more inclined to be involved in crime. This article straightens that out.

Snips below.... whole article at
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080307/news_lz1e7piehl.html

"Based on data from the state prison system and the 2000 Census, we found that immigrant adults are considerably less likely than the U.S.-born to be in a California prison or jail. This holds true regardless of immigrants' education levels, length of time in the United States, or the region of the world they come from.
The hard numbers? Immigrants, who make up 35 percent of California's adult population, constitute only 17 percent of the state prison population. In fact, U.S.-born men have an incarceration rate up to 3.3 times higher than immigrant men.

The gap between the native-born and immigrants is even wider when using the broader measure of institutionalization – confinement in jails, halfway houses and similar institutions. Among men ages 18 to 40 – the demographic group most likely to be criminally active – U.S.-born men are 10 times more likely than immigrants to be institutionalized."

"Male noncitizens born in Mexico – a group much more likely than the overall foreign-born population to include illegal immigrants – have much lower rates of institutionalization than the native-born. U.S.-born men have rates more than eight times higher."

"Among male noncitizens from Mexico who are 18 to 40 and have less than a high school diploma – the most likely group to have entered the United States illegally – institutionalization rates are extremely low compared with U.S.-born men with the same age range and education levels."

[madeline_con]

1. Does the study mention what percent of immigrant men are

Mexican? Could it be a little skewed?

[EFerrari]

2. All the studies I've ever seen sort of say the same thing.

We are less at risk from immigrants than we are from nonimmigrants.

And that flies in the fact of the more or less cyclical hysteria that we have over immigrants.

[madeline_con]

3. Not all immigrants from south of the border are Mexican, tho.

In fact, I'd bet money only a small percentage are. Focusing the study on Mexican immigrants skews the whole thing.

[EFerrari]

4. Actually, I believe the majority are, madeline_con.

There are a number from other countries we have fucked up -- Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua. For a while, there was a stream from Colombia and Argentina. But, iirc, the biggest demographic is from Mexico.

[provis99]

5. they don't seem to draw conclusions from their results however

Since illegal immigrants are much less likely to report being victims of crimes to police, and illegal immigrants tend to victimize other illegal immigrants, it may simply be the case that illegal immigrants are less represented in jail because their crimes are underreported.