Suchergebnisse

Latino Homicide is the first empirically based, but readable book for courses to counter the conventional wisdom that immigrant populations only contribute crime to their communities. For this second edition, Martinez further emphasizes his argument with updated data and the addition of a new city, San Antonio. With fascinating case studies from police reports and actual cases from six varied cities, Latino homicide rates are revealed to be markedly lower than one would expect, given the economic deprivation of these urban areas. Far from dangerous or criminal, these communities often have exc

Explores the link between the size of urban Latino immigrant populations & the frequency of specific types of Latino homicide victimization rates, based on data from the 1980 Supplemental Homicide Reports & the 1980 decennial census. Ordinary least squares regression analysis provides some support for economic deprivation & social disorganization interpretations of violence; however, the role of immigration varies by homicide type (eg, felony & acquaintance killings) & is limited. These findings stress the need for addressing the link between immigration, urban conditions, & types of Latino homicide victimization. 2 Tables, 24 References. Adapted from the source document.

One of American society's enduring debates centers on the immigration and violent crime relationship. This classic debate is revisited using data for individual homicide incidents and census-tract-level homicides in Miami, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively. The article starts with these two comparative cases because they mirror the immigration influx, Latino growth, and homicide decline seen throughout the country since 1980. These findings are also replicated in an analysis of the immigration and crime influx across the nation using U.S. counties in 2000. In sum, results from comparative cases, different time points, homicide motivations, and individual/community/national levels—and even controlling for Latino regional concentration—are reported. The findings were clear and unequivocal: more immigrants did not mean more homicide, and that outcome held across time and place.

We contribute to the field of immigration and crime research by conducting one of the first contemporary examinations of Afro-Caribbean homicides. Despite the growth of immigration across urban America, social scientists lack an understanding of both the extent and severity of immigrant violent crime. Several important findings emerge from our unique data set on Haitian, Jamaican and Mariel Cuban homicides in the city of Miami. Most notably, Miami's homicide rate led the country at various points throughout the 1980s, but immigrant group-specific rates rarely exceeded the city total. By 1990, immigrant Caribbean victim and violator rates had declined to a level and rate far below the city average. Compared to other cities, Miami has a more diverse population and a greater potential for intergroup contact, yet most killings were between ethnic group members. In addition, while the "criminal alien problem" is a prominent image fueling contemporary attempts to restrict immigration, our findings undermine this conventional wisdom. We conclude with suggestions for future elaboration on the causes and consequences of immigration and homicide.

Emerging research associated with the "immigration revitalization" perspective suggests that immigration has been labeled inaccurately as a cause of crime in contemporary society. In fact, crime seems to be unexpectedly low in many communities that exhibit high levels of the following classic indicators of social disorganization: residential instability, ethnic heterogeneity, and immigration. But virtually all research conducted to date has been cross‐sectional in nature and therefore unable to demonstrate how the relationship between immigration and crime might covary over time. This limitation is significant, especially because current versions of social disorganization theory posit a dynamic relationship between structural factors and crime that unfolds over time. The current study addresses this issue by exploring the effects of immigration on neighborhood‐level homicide trends in the city of San Diego, California, using a combination of racially/ethnically disaggregated homicide victim data and community structural indicators collected for three decennial census periods. Consistent with the revitalization thesis, results show that the increased size of the foreign‐born population reduces lethal violence over time. Specifically, we find that neighborhoods with a larger share of immigrants have fewer total, non‐Latino White, and Latino homicide victims. More broadly, our findings suggest that social disorganization in heavily immigrant cities might be largely a function of economic deprivation rather than forms of "neighborhood" or "system" stability.

Guided by social disorganization theory, this article examines the influence of neighborhood characteristics on intragroup and intergroup robbery, net of spatial proximity in a predominantly native-born Latino/Mexican-origin city—San Antonio, Texas. From census tract and official police robbery data, the findings indicate that intragroup robbery is more common than intergroup robbery. Multivariate results show that variation in black intragroup robbery lies primarily in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods; whereas variation in Latino intergroup robbery is found in neighborhoods with more disadvantage, racial/ethnic heterogeneity, recent immigrants, and blacks. Residential instability persistently influences all robbery types. Disaggregating robberies by race and ethnicity reveals the importance of examining Latinos as offenders and victims. The case of San Antonio serves as a harbinger of conditions that may exist in the growing number of majority-Latino cities—and suggests the need to investigate crime experiences that move beyond studying racial dichotomies of violence.

Objective. Using Poisson‐based negative binomial regression, we estimate the effect of neighborhood factors on homicides in two cities (San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California) that have large Mexican‐origin populations.Methods. Three independent data sources (official homicide police reports, medical examiner records, and the U.S. Census) are used to construct the dependent homicide, and independent neighborhood, variables. Census tracts represent the unit of analysis, which serve as a proxy for neighborhoods. Given the spatial nature of the data, spatial estimation procedures were also modeled.Results. Spatial proximity to violence, neighborhood disadvantage, and affluence (in San Antonio) consistently buffered homicide across neighborhoods, even in heavily populated Latino neighborhoods.Conclusions. Spatial embeddedness and neighborhood characteristics are important for improving our understanding about ethnic neighborhood variations in levels of violence. Comparative approaches across places, namely, Latino‐dominated cities, can yield considerable insight into how the local context intersects race/ethnicity and violent crime.