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Study Reveals Crime in California Drops As Immigration Increases
Aired 10/18/10
In the last two decades, California's immigrant population has seen its fastest growth ever. A new study is linking this demographic trend with a drastic a drop in crime rates.
SAN DIEGO — In the last two decades, California's immigrant population has seen its fastest growth ever. A new study is linking this demographic trend with a drastic a drop in crime rates.
The findings in a report from U.C. Berkeley are not new. Other research studies from the last five years reveal that immigrants are under-represented in Calif. prisons compared to their representation in the overall population.
"Criminologists have historically found that first generation immigrants have much lower rates of crime than similarly situated people in terms of socioeconomics," says Barry Krisberg, author of the most recent study and criminologist at Cal Berkeley's School of Law. "You know, to say that immigration reduces crime is an interesting theory, but I didn't have the data to prove that."
But Krisberg did find that counties closest to the border experience a correlation between an increase in immigration and a decrease in crime. In San Diego County, the violent crime rate has declined by 58 percent since 1991, according to data from the Department of Justice. At the same time, the number of immigrants in San Diego has increased.
Krisberg warns against current political campaigns depicting undocumented immigrants as criminals. His study suggests that efforts to reduce immigration or to increase enforcement would not have a big impact on public safety.
Comments
oldschoolcool | October 18, 2010 at 8:11 a.m. ― 2 years, 7 months ago
Anyone with eyes and a wallet knows this is a pile of Bull SH&*.
Laughable if not so intentionally misleading.
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MdeG | October 18, 2010 at 12:18 p.m. ― 2 years, 7 months ago
No, not a pile of anything. Very probably the truth. The same effect has been observed in Arizona, despite Joe Arpaio's vocifeous claims and Gov. Brewer's Hallowe'en funhouse imagination. And I can observe the same in my own town, which is nowhere near the border.
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hboooo | October 18, 2010 at 1:54 p.m. ― 2 years, 7 months ago
so the crime here goes down as more people come here and mexico's goes up as people leave.??????
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