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Report: California Has No Immigrant Crime Problem

By Jeralyn

Via the Crime Report:

Violent crime in California dropped dramatically during the same period of intense immigration to the state, found a new study by Barry Krisberg of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice, which is based at the School of Law. The study, which disputes the link between violent crime and immigration, also found that the increase in state prison populations is not related to the influx of immigrants.

Here's the full study, Where Is The Fire?

Data obtained from the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice reveal that during a long period of new immigration, crime has shown a large and steady decline in California.

[More...]

The study cites similar findings elsewhere:

Other scholars who have conducted a detailed examination of the crime‐immigration connection in California have reached the same conclusion. A 2000‐2005 analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California looked at 29 California cities and found that there was no statistically significant relationship between the number of recent foreign‐born immigrants and rates of property crime, and in fact, increased immigration was correlated with declining rates of violent crime. The finding is consistent with research on Chicago which actually concluded that immigrants were responsible for a drop in crime.

Another finding:

The large growth in the California immigrant population does not appear to be associated with a significant increase in foreign‐born immigrants in state prisons.

Bottom Line:

[There is] no support for the assertion that immigration increases crime, particularly violent crime.

The message:

The data in this paper confirms that there is no evidence that California is in the midst of a crime emergency as a result of substantial migration of persons born in other nations. To allow this myth to guide public policy discussions about newly arrived noncitizens and future American citizens is harmful.

California is facing a myriad of serious social and economic challenges33 in the years ahead. The danger is to fall prey to Governing through Crime – turning meaningful conversations about policy issues into opinions based on fear, myths, and political manipulation.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 11, 2010 (boomark / email).