Abstract: Abstract Immigration and crime are an old topic that has fluctuated as a public concern over centuries from the vagrancy laws of the Middle Ages to today's campaign against human trafficking. Many but not all criminological studies have found that immigrants appear to be less involved in crime than natives. Despite such findings, the public continues to believe that immigrants are crime‐prone. Anti‐immigrant prejudice varies by a country's experience with immigration. Second‐generation immigrants tend to be more involved in crime than natives but not everywhere. Research on immigrants and crime is seriously hampered by the lack of data regarding the immigrant status of criminals and victims. Studies indicate that immigrants are primarily the victims of other immigrants for conventional crime. Living in ethnic enclaves tends to protect immigrants from intergroup conflict but exposes them to intragroup conflict. The deportation of immigrants who have committed crimes has contributed to new crime problems in less‐developed countries as well as the growth of transnational gangs. The criminalization of immigration policy has provided governments with a means to achieve crime control objectives via immigration rules which do not abide by the traditional safeguards against the unfair use of power or the infliction of excessive punishment.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-10-13
Language: en
Type: other
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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