Immigration and Crime Race, Ethnicity, and Violence [Paperback]

The original essays in this much-needed collection broadly assess the contemporary patterns of crime as related to immigration, race, and ethnicity. Immigration and Crime covers both a variety of immigrant groups—mainly from Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America—and a variety of topics including: victimization, racial conflict, juvenile delinquency, exposure to violence, homicide, drugs, gangs, and border violence.
The volume provides important insights about past understandings of immigration and crime, many based on theories that have proven to be untrue or racially biased, as well as offering new scholarship on salient topics. Overall, the contributors argue that fears of immigrant crime are largely unfounded, as immigrants are themselves often more likely to be the victims of discrimination, stigmatization, and crime rather than the perpetrators.
Contributors: Avraham Astor, Carl L. Bankston III, Robert J. Bursik, Jr., Roberto G. Gonzales, Sang Hea Kil, Golnaz Komaie, Jennifer Lee, Matthew T. Lee, Ramiro Martínez, Jr., Cecilia Menjívar, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Charlie V. Morgan, Amie L. Nielsen, Rubén G. Rumbaut, Rosaura Tafoya-Estrada, Abel Valenzuela, Jr., Min Zhou.

Immigration and Crime is a terrific collection that debunks the stereotype of the Latino & criminal immigrant. The systematic and thorough quantitative and qualitative data in the book should provide pause and help shape a new policy agenda on immigration and crime. Essential. This volume shines a much needed light on the complexity of connections between crime, race, ethnicity, and immigration in the United States. Drawing on a distinguished group of experts on crime and immigration, Martinez and Valenzuela pull together a stimulating blend of perspectives and methods to address a topic that has been sadly neglected by researchers. Serves as a much needed wake up call to scholars, policy makers, and the general public.