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Version edited by the New York Times Magazine Published: December 17,
2006 Eyal Press's essay (Dec. 3) on the lower crime rates in
immigrant communities was thought-provoking. As to why immigrants commit less
violent crime, common sense suggests they came here, whether legally or
illegally, to work, and they're too busy doing that -- and are too well
rewarded by economic opportunities they find here that don't exist in their
former countries. Illegal immigrants may be deterred from criminality by the
relatively high penalty of deportation for even minor crimes, even when
they're innocent of any crime beyond entering the country. The data for minor
crimes may be biased by underreporting of victimization suffered by illegal
immigrants who, with good cause, fear deportation. Associate Professor of Economics Western Carolina University Cullowhee, N.C. Complete
version: Eyal Press’s
article (Dec. 3) on the lower crime rates in immigrant communities is thought-provoking
and timely. As to why immigrants
commit and apparently suffer less violent crime, common sense suggests they
came here, whether legally or illegally, to work, and they’re too busy doing
that – and are too well-rewarded by economic
opportunities they find here which don’t exist in their former
countries. Illegal immigrants may be
deterred from criminality by the relatively high penalty of deportation for
even minor crimes, even when they’re innocent of any crime beyond entering
the country. The data for minor crimes
may be biased by underreporting of victimization suffered by illegal
immigrants who, with good cause, fear deportation, but this will not be so
for documented immigrants, or for serious crimes resulting in death. Data on crimes committed by immigrants on
non-immigrants should also be free of this reporting bias. Similarly, the reason why second and
third-generation immigrant communities experience higher crime rates is
because the children and grandchildren of immigrants do not make the same
conscious decision to relocate to another country, accepting cultural
dislocation as the price for economic opportunity. They take both the mainstream cultural
environment and economic opportunities more for granted. To some extent the kids are rebelling
against their parents’ conformity, but largely it’s just another case of
regressing to the mean. Robert
F. Mulligan, Ph.D. Associate
Professor of Economics Department
of Business Computer Information Systems and Economics College
of Business Western
Carolina University Cullowhee
NC 28723 USA 828-227-3329
fax 828-227-7414 http://paws.wcu.edu/mulligan/ |
