Abstract

Despite a robust literature examining how immigration impacts community rates of crime, only a handful of studies have explored the heterogeneity of the foreign-born population. Using data for the year 2015 for over 1,000 incorporated census places in the United States, we examine how the diverse regional origins of immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Europe, and Africa are associated with community rates of crime. Findings reveal that (1) immigration is negatively associated with violent and property crime and (2) these negative associations are stronger – more protective – in places with more diverse immigrant populations. Moreover, (3) region-specific immigration is either not associated or negatively associated with crime, but (4) varies in magnitude in important ways, suggesting that immigration differs in its relationship with crime depending on sending region.

摘要

尽管有大量文献研究移民如何影响社区犯罪率，但只有少数研究探讨了外国出生人口的异质性。我们使用 2015 年美国 1,000 多个人口普查点的数据，研究来自拉丁美洲、亚洲、欧洲和非洲的移民的不同区域起源如何与社区犯罪率相关联。调查结果显示，(1) 移民与暴力和财产犯罪呈负相关，(2) 在移民人口更加多样化的地方，这些负相关更强烈——更具保护性。此外，(3) 特定地区的移民要么与犯罪无关，要么与犯罪负相关，但 (4) 在重要方面的幅度各不相同，