Crime among Dutch immigrant groups is predictable from country-level variables

Abstract

Immigrants can be classified into groups based on their country of origin. Group-level data concerning immigrant crime by country of origin was obtained from a 2005 Dutch-language report and were from 2002. There are data for 57 countries of origin. The crime rates were correlated with country of origin predictor variables: national IQ, prevalence of Islam and general socioeconomic factor (S). For males aged 12-17 and 18-24, the mean correlation with IQ, Islam, and S was, respectively, -.51, .37, and -.42. When subsamples split into 1st and 2nd generations were used, the mean correlation was -.74, .34, and -.40. A general crime factor among young persons was extracted. The correlations with the predictors for this variable were -.80, .34, and -.43. The results were similar when weighing the observations by the population of each immigrant group in the Netherlands. The results were also similar when using crime rates controlled for differences in household income. Some groups increased their crime rates from the 1st to 2nd generation, while for others the reverse happened.