Abstract

While an abundance of literature demonstrates that immigration is associated with lower rates of crime, public opinion expects the opposite. There remain many reasons for such incongruity, including crystalized political ideologies and structural barriers to assimilation. The current study examines another important dimension: media narratives among the most prominent immigration and crime news articles. Specifically, we explore how news outlets narratively describe or “frame” the link between immigration and crime and, in turn, how such frames influence the prominence of news stories. Using content analysis of over 3,800 articles from 2008 to 2012 geo-located and paired with a host of macro-level data, multi-level models reveal that (1) one-third of local stories describe immigration as crime-increasing; (2) articles that link immigration to rising rates of crime are more likely to appear on the front page of newspapers, as are stories describing immigration’s impact on the justice system or the rights of immigrants within it; and (3) articles published in places with lower rates of crime, higher median household incomes, and smaller foreign-born populations are more likely to feature on the front page. We conclude with implications for ongoing public policy debates and research on immigration and crime.

摘要

尽管大量文献表明移民与犯罪率降低有关，但舆论认为情况恰恰相反。仍然存在许多这种不一致的原因，包括明确的政治意识形态和同化的结构性障碍。本研究考察了另一个重要方面：最著名的移民和犯罪新闻文章中的媒体叙事。具体来说，我们探索新闻媒体如何通过叙事方式描述或“构架”移民与犯罪之间的联系，进而探讨这些构架如何影响新闻故事的知名度。通过对从2008年到2012年的3,800篇文章的内容分析（按地理位置进行定位并与大量宏观数据配对），多层次模型显示：（1）三分之一的当地故事将移民描述为犯罪增加；（2）报纸头版上更有可能出现将移民与犯罪率上升相关的文章，以及描述移民对司法系统或司法系统中移民权利的影响的报道；（3）在犯罪率较低，家庭收入中位数较高和外国出生人口较少的地方发表的文章更有可能出现在首页上。最后，我们将对正在进行的有关移民和犯罪的公共政策辩论以及研究进行启示。较小的外国出生人口更可能出现在首页上。最后，我们将对正在进行的有关移民和犯罪的公共政策辩论以及研究进行启示。较小的外国出生人口更可能出现在首页上。最后，我们将对正在进行的有关移民和犯罪的公共政策辩论以及研究进行启示。