Fear of Crime among Immigrants
A crime is an act against the law. Even though police systems and prisons justify an unlawful act committed, crime continues to happen every day and every minute. People commit crimes for reasons such as problems with relationships, jealousy, anger, and money. Those against the surge of immigrants believe that immigrants cause the increase of crime rates in the U.S. On the contrary, those for immigrants believe that they instead reduce the rate of crime in the U.S. I believe that immigrants do not bring up the crime rate in the U.S because they fear of crime.
It is clear that people prefer living in a safe place instead of an unsafe place. This causes more immigrants to come to New York because it is seen as a haven. In New York, immigrants are known to reduce the rate of crime. Many people believe that immigrants contribute to higher crime rates in the U.S. But if they look at the statistics of many places in the U.S, they will find evidence against their views. Anti-immigrant people say immigrants bring up the rate of crimes because they know themselves some immigrants are criminals. However, this statement is biased because they are accusing the whole population of such acts on a small portion of immigrants that are involved in criminal activities.
A number of people choose to leave their own countries for their families. It is stated that an addition of people will contribute to conditions that lead to crime. However, the influx of immigrants does not automatically cause the crime rate in the U.S. to go up. The immigrants actually make their communities safer. “Police statistics show that Sunset Park is much safer than it was 20 years ago. Homicides are down more than 90 percent. Crime rates ha...
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...m for bringing up rate of crimes. Instead of being criminals, it would be better for immigrants to do everything in the right ways.
Works Cited
Chapman, Steve. "Immigration and Crime." 22 February. 2010. Web. 9 December. 2013.
“From Anecdotes to Evidence: Setting the Record Straight on Immigrants and Crime.” 25 July.2013. Web. 9 December. 2013.
MacDonald, John, John Hipp, Charlotte Gill. “The Effects of Immigrant Concentration on
Changes in Neighborhood Crime Rates.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 29.2
(2013):191-215. Advanced Search Academic.Web. 8 Dec. 2013
Rose, Joel. “Does Crime Drop When Immigrants Move In?.” New York Times. New York
Times, 08 Mar. 2013.Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
Yun, Ilhong, Glen Kercher, Sam Swidell. “Fear of Crime among Chinese Immigrants.”Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice 8.2 (2010):71-90. Advanced Search Academic.Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
Bucerius, Sandra and Tonry, Michael. The Oxford Handbook of Ethnicity, Crime, and Immigration. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Research from Hanser and Gomila (2015) revealed that most minority groups “live in lower-class neighborhoods in large urban centers where the greatest concentration of law enforcement officers exists” (p. 340). Racial disparity and discrimination are common among juveniles who are born in the United States from immigrant parents, particularly those residing in lower-class neighborhoods where crime is prevalent. Minority juveniles will also find themselves facing various difficulties and challenges
The article by Rob Guerette is a case study involving the widely-reported increase of immigration into the United States. It tackles migration issues as well as related issues such as border security , security initiatives by individuals.. The article also provides in-depth research about the impact of illegal immigration into the United States including migrant deaths, deaths of non-migrants at the border, border security and the challenges faced by United States border patrol officers. The main purpose of the article was to provide an explanation as to whether the Border Patrol has any effect in saving the lives of people attempting to enter into the United States (Guerette, 2007).
Kevin Beck presented some information to us about day labors in New York. The part that stood out was that the community around the designated labor site was perceived to be an area where there was an excess of crime even though there had been no real record of such an event. This claim of crime contributed to the shutdown of the only legal means that unauthorized immigrants had to obtain work within the city (Beck). A similar situation happened in Manassas, Virginia where the exclusionary ordinance that was passed in city council was based purely on anecdotal evidence that there was a rise in crime caused by the “illegal immigrants”. When the facts were examined, there was actually a consistent yearly drop in crime in the city (Eric Byler,
The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute to Social Services and Medicaid through taxes and they help provide the backbone of America, especially by working jobs that natives may have not even considered.
Crime has always been a hot topic in sociology. There are many different reasons for people to commit criminal acts. There is no way to pinpoint the source of crime. I am going to show the relationship between race and crime. More specifically, I will be discussing the higher chances of minorities being involved in the criminal justice system than the majority population, discrimination, racial profiling and the environment criminals live in.
First, immigrants come to the U.S. to work and bring valuable skills which help grow the economy despite the negative views surrounding their part in the U.S. economy. Since the 2008-2009 recession the view on immigration and its effects on the economy has been more negative than positive (Peri, 2012). A study done by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government found that about 50 percent of American adults believe that immigrants burden the country because they, “take jobs, housing, and healthcare”, while the other 50 percent believe that, “immigrants strengthen the country due to their hard work and talents” (Delener & Ventilato, 2008). Over the past decade, “over half of the increase in the U.S. labor force,… was the result of immigration-l...
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2) While some argue that illegal immigrants burden the United States of America and its economy, others believe that they have become essential and are an important part of the US, economy.
The notion that recent Latino immigrants are harbingers of crime and adverse social behaviors has no basis in truth, and in fact, it has been shown that immigrants may in fact have an opposite effect on neighborhood crime. In his article, Sampson (2008) considers the concept of the “Latino Paradox” – the fact that Hispanic Americans often score higher on a wide range of social indicators than expected (including those related to crime), given their socioeconomic disadvantages – comparing and contrasting it with his research collected on Latino immigrant populations in Chicago. Through a case study in 180 Chicago neighborhoods, Sampson suggested that higher rates of immigration in a neighborhood effectively reduces crime rates. The researchers found a significantly lower rate of violent crime among Mexican-Americans compared to Blacks and Whites in the same areas.
The article for discussion this week regarding “Policing and the Fear of Crime” touched on the significant factors that reference the fear of crime. The article first addresses how people feel about crime in their community. Then it progresses the analysis fear from a collection of data and concepts retrieved from research, surveys, and polls. There was an evaluation done in the seventies and eighties, which showed an overwhelming percentage of people who were fearful of becoming victims of violent crimes. There was data retrieved from polls that suggested people were even limiting their activities because they felt uneasy about walking down the street. The sense of fear traveled across different ages, sexes, and professions. The least frightened group individuals were young men, and the most scared were senior women (Moore & Trojanowicz, 1988). There were also variables such as race, class, and residence that altered the public’s perception about fear of violence. The researchers investigated participants who felt as thou if they were ever to acquire wealth and status, their fears of being victims of crime would reduce dramatically. Next, the article addressed what causes someone to become fearful. It was the possibility of actually becoming a victim of a crime which was a considerable influence on person’s fear of crime. There are also the factors of hearsay information about victimization traveling through word of mouth and social networks that cause people to become fearful. While I was assigned to the Gang Unit, people would always ask the questions about the rumors that get passed around about gangs targeting specific individuals for initiations around certain days and times. During my time on the unit,
The arrival of immigrants to the United States is often associated with fear. Immigrants are vulnerable to attacks if they are cast as threats to the way of American life. A deeper look into immigration policies reveals that immigrant restrictions are seated in racialized notions. Immigrants before the founding of the nation came for the opportunities of a better life. The immigrants who would continue to come thereafter came for much the same reasons. But government policies demonstrate repeated attempts to block the immigration of undesirable immigrant communities.
Peterson, R, Krivo, L, & Hagan, J. (2006). The many colors of crime. NY: New York University Press.
Immigrants have always been an important part of United States’ population. Each year, there are hundreds of thousands of immigrants, from all around the world, including legal and illegal, come into the United States for job opportunities, new life, or the American Dream. “Immigrants have contributed significantly to the development of the United States. During the Lincoln administration, immigrants were actually encouraged to come to America, as they were considered valuable to the development of the country.” (Soylu & Buchanan, 2013). They believe that the US will give them more freedom, protection, and opportunities, which sometimes it becomes the major issues for immigrants. That’s why “the U.S. population is becoming more racially and
The thought of arriving immigrants in any host country has been accompanied by reactions of exclusion, and continues to expand throughout the years. During any social illness, immigrants tend to be the first to be held responsible by their recipient societies. Most crimes are associated with immigrants due to the fact that they may not possess the same socio-economic status as natives. Another contributing factor is the media that conducts numerous stories that highlight the image of immigrant crimes to recall the alleged difference between native and foreign born. Undoubtedly, the correlation between immigration and crime has become one of the most controversial discussions in current society.
As mentioned before, poverty and joblessness leads to crime. The difference between immigrants and other ethnicity is that immigrants have jobs but are still poor. Resources deprivation has a tremendous impact on communities and their crime rates. Another factor that helps explain why there are lower levels of crimes from immigrants in the United States is the socioeconomic inequality. The family structure of immigrant families’ are strong compared to African Americans or immigrants. Compared to Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants who have both parents at home to support the family, African American women usually are the heads of the families without a male role model. Mexicans have strong traditions which are practiced throughout their communities, and regular households had both parents that would prevent adolescents to commit crime. Collective efficacy is stronger in communities that have immigrants residing there because of the social ties and norms they all share. Cohesion and mutual trust amongst resident’s spikes up a greater chance for residents to acknowledge problems in the community and make an effort on how to address them and potential solve the