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Immigration And Crime Essay

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The economic theory of crime predicts that all else equal, individuals with lower outside options commit more crimes than others. While immigrants are known to have lower levels of education, lower wages, and higher unemployment rates than natives, previous studies have not found a relationship between immigration and crime. Crime rates have been on a decline, even in areas where there are large numbers of immigrant populations. Between the years 1990 and 2013, the foreign-born population grew from 7.9 percent to 13.5 percent in the U.S. Also during this time, data from the Federal Bureau Investigation indicates that the violent crime has decreased almost 50% in robbery, homicide, and assault. The property crime fell a little over 40% in motor …show more content…

This data has been similar for decades. The 2010 U.S Census shows incarceration rates for less educated Hispanics men who make up the majority of the unauthorized population is significantly lower than the incarceration rate among native-born young men without high school diplomas. “In 2010, less-educated native-born men age 18-39 had an incarceration rate of 10.7 percent—more than triple the 2.8 percent rate among foreign-born Mexican men, and five times greater than the 1.7 percent rate among foreign-born Salvadoran and Guatemalan men.” (Walter Ewing, Ph.D., Daniel E. Martínez, Ph.D.) Data collected shows a positive correlation between immigrants and crime rates, but not for violent crime rates due to illegal immigration. The crimes that were committed were brought about from Hispanics and White segregation. Hispanics were not given jobs or give low pay jobs with no benefits because of white segregation causing them to feel like they had to commit violent crimes to support their selves and families. All in all, the results are the null hypothesis, that immigration increases homicide rates in the U.S can be

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