An Examination of American Perceptions of the Immigrant-Crime Relationship

Abstract

The notion that immigrants are more crime prone or increase crime has been largely debunked by criminologists over the last two decades. However, there is a lack of contemporary research on explaining perceptions of immigrant criminality, specifically. This study examines the factors that relate to American’s belief that immigrants increase crime rates in local communities. Using weighted blocked logistic regression analyses, this study found that individual factors related to identity (e.g. race, gender, age, religion, etc.) were not significant predictors of the view that immigrants increase crime. Instead, individuals who believe immigrants are a burden to society, already have negative views of immigrants, and are more resistant to societal and cultural change are more likely to believe this falsehood. Overall, the findings offer partial support for the social disorganization and conflict perspectives, with the latter receiving the most support. Economic competition hypotheses received no support.