Does Immigration Increase Homicide? Negative Evidence From Three Border Cities

2001/09/01 by Matthew T. Lee, Ramiro Martínez, Richard Rosenfeld · 22 citations
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance #Homelessness and Social Issues

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2001.tb01780.x

openalex publication_date 2001/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

Understanding the complex relationship between immigration and crime was once a core concern of American sociology. Yet the extensive post-1965 wave of immigration to the United States has done little to rekindle scholarly interest in this topic, even as politicians and other public figures advocate public policies to restrict immigration as a means of preventing crime. Although both popular accounts and sociological theory predict that immigration should increase crime in areas where immigrants settle, this study of Miami, El Paso, and San Diego neighborhoods shows that, controlling for other influences, immigration generally does not increase levels of homicide among Latinos and African Americans. Our results not only challenge stereotypes of the “criminal immigrant” but also the core criminological notion that immigration, as a social process, disorganizes communities and increases crime.

Citations

• Economic Deprivation and Neighborhood Crime Rates, 1960–1980
• SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION AND THEORIES OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS*
• Immigrant Enclaves: An Analysis of the Labor Market Experiences of Cubans in Miami

Cited by

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• The immigration–crime relationship: Evidence across US metropolitan areas
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• The Role of Immigration: Race/Ethnicity and San Diego Homicides Since 1970
• Segmented Assimilation, Local Context and Determinants of Drug Violence in Miami and San Diego: Does Ethnicity and Immigration Matter?
• Latino immigration and White, Black, and Latino violent crime: A comparison of traditional and non-traditional immigrant destinations
• Spatial Heterogeneity in the Effects of Immigration and Diversity on Neighborhood Homicide Rates
• IMMIGRATION AND THE RECENT VIOLENT CRIME DROP IN THE UNITED STATES: A POOLED, CROSS‐SECTIONAL TIME‐SERIES ANALYSIS OF METROPOLITAN AREAS*
• The Effects of Immigrant Concentration on Changes in Neighborhood Crime Rates
• Exploring the Connection between Immigration and Violent Crime Rates in U.S. Cities, 1980–2000
• Immigration and Crime in the New Destinations, 2000–2007: A Test of the Disorganizing Effect of Migration
• The Politics of Refuge: Sanctuary Cities, Crime, and Undocumented Immigration
• Is Immigration Responsible for the Crime Drop? An Assessment of the Influence of Immigration on Changes in Violent Crime Between 1990 and 2000
• Safer Cities: A Macro-Level Analysis of Recent Immigration, Hispanic-Owned Businesses, and Crime Rates in the United States
• Why are Immigrants' Incarceration Rates so Low? Evidence on Selective Immigration, Deterrence, and Deportation
• What is the Contribution of Mexican Immigration to U.S. Crime Rates? Evidence from Rainfall Shocks in Mexico
• Immigration Policies and Access to the Justice System: The Effect of Enforcement Escalations on Undocumented Immigrants and Their Communities
• Providing Sanctuary or Fostering Crime? A Review of the Research on “Sanctuary Cities” and Crime
• The Effects of Racial/Ethnic Segregation on Latino and Black Homicide
• Immigration and crime [wikipedia]
• Immigration to the United States [wikipedia]