Homicide and Nativity

Abstract

Immigration has been associated with crime. Whether immigrants are more involved than native-born persons in violent crime, in general, and in homicide, in particular, is less clear. The authors addressed the latter question by examining the 9,442 homicides from 1990 to 1994 in Los Angeles County. To avoid attributing to nativity the risk associated with age, gender, and ethnicity, population structure differences of the two groups were taken into account. Immigrants are at slightly higher risk of becoming a homicide victim than native-born persons. Offense rates are difficult to interpret because in 42.3% of the homicides, no suspect was identified; using data from known suspects, U.S.-born persons are 1.29 times more likely than foreign-born persons to commit homicide. The nature of the homicides of immigrants and by immigrants are, with some exceptions, substantially similar to the homicides of and by natives. More and better data are needed to inform policy.