UT Research Questions Ties Between Immigration and Violence
According to a recent study conducted in the Department of Sociology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, recent waves of Latino immigration to the United States have had little overall effect on homicide rates. Additionally, in contrast to public perceptions that immigration increases crime, UT research shows that immigration has slightly reduced Latino robbery rates.
This study was conducted by Ben Feldmeyer, an assistant professor in the Sociology department, and was published in the Journal of Social Science Research.
This purpose of this project was to address a longstanding debate among academics, lawmakers, and the general public over the effects of immigration on crime. On the one hand, public opinion and several prominent social science theories suggest that immigration could increase violence by destabilizing or disorganizing communities. In contrast, other theories indicate that immigration strengthens important social institutions (i.e., traditional family structures, attachment to the labor force) and has beneficial, protective effects on communities that help reduce social problems like crime.
This study finds some support for both perspectives, but finds that the beneficial effects of immigration slightly outweigh the "violence-generating" effects. That is, immigration appears to have some violence-generating effects on communities, but these are completely offset by immigration's beneficial, violence-reducing effects. In sum, the analysis suggests that immigration is not part of the violence-generating process and may actually have some violence-reducing effects on Latino populations.
The findings of this research raise questions about popular perceptions linking immigration and crime and suggest that legislation aimed at curbing crime by restricting immigration may be inconsistent with social realities.