BUFFALO, N.Y. — The prevalence of crime among immigrants remains a heated topic of debate in America between political parties, but an extensive study finds fears may not be justified. A recent analysis of data going back 40 years concludes that an influx of immigrants into a given community is not correlated with an increase in crime.
Led by Robert Adelman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Buffalo, the researchers published their findings in the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice.
“Our research shows strong and stable evidence that, on average, across U.S. metropolitan areas crime and immigration are not linked,” Adelman says in a release. “The results show that immigration does not increase assaults and, in fact, robberies, burglaries, larceny, and murder are lower in places where immigration levels are higher. The results are very clear.”
Prior research had found that, as a whole, immigrants have committed crime to a lesser extent than native-born Americans. This research aimed to examine the statistics on a deeper level.
‘Little support for notion that more immigrants leads to more crime’
Rather than looking at what immigrants did directly, Adelman et al. wanted to examine whether the potential displacement that foreigners caused average Americans — such as by taking their jobs — led to an uptick in crime in the community.
Using Census and FBI data from 200 metropolitan areas throughout the U.S., the research examined the period from 1970 to 2010. Despite some political pundits arguing otherwise, the study’s authors firmly concluded that “the empirical evidence in this study and other related research shows little support for the notion that more immigrants lead to more crime.”
Adelman seeks to clarify that his study does not “claim that immigrants are never involved in crime.” Rather, “in many cases, crime was either stable or actually declined in communities that incorporated many immigrants.”
Although Adelman calls for continued research into immigration and crime, this study not only reaffirms the fact that immigrants are usually law-abiding citizens, but that they can contribute immensely to a country’s social and economic well-being.
This study is of very limited value because it does not include the current Muslim “refugee” crisis that has seen a rapid rise in crime across Europe among those nations who have been flooded by “refugees” from barbaric, Sharia-infested cesspools like Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan, etc
Immigrants tend to settle in inner cities. To the extent that they replace or dilute the population of inner city blacks in any given neighborhood, it would be no surprise to see crime decrease in that neighborhood.
As long as the study avoids comparing immigrant crime rates with the population at large, they can obscure their criminal propensity.
Wait a second. Their study is of immigrants, not illegals. If that’s the case, I’d agree with that, they came in the front door.
As for the others, the illegals or those who over stay visas, there is no doubt because our Federal prison system is full of them… 37% of all Federal sentencing in 2014 were criminals here illegally.
Nice try Daniel. The study doesn’t include illegal immigrants and therefore misleading.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/07/illegal-immigrants-accounted-for-nearly-37-percent-of-federal-sentences-in-fy-2014/
yep…if they can’t do these studies right…why do they bother…to trick people is my guess…
Illegal is a crime. There goes the study.