Immigration and Crime in Comparative Perspective: An Emerging Framework for Research

Research on immigration and crime has experienced unprecedented growth. Studies reveal that immigration is not associated with increased crime rates in many countries including the United States, Canada, and Australia. In other places such as Europe, the findings are more mixed. Yet, limitations in this body of work hamper our understanding. In particular, researchers rely too heavily on conceptual dichotomies, or mutually exclusive categorizations (e.g., foreign-born vs. native-born, documented vs. undocumented, first generation vs. second generation), which insufficiently capture nuance or layers of diversity inherent in immigrant populations. Dichotomies must be replaced with an analytical framework that incorporates multiple dimensions of immigration. Beyond foreign-born (vs. native-born) status, intersections of immigrants’ legal statuses, assimilation levels, motives for migration, and settlement contexts create diverse groups whose backgrounds, experiences, and opportunities all have potential consequences for crime.