Latino Criminalization. Illegal Immigration and Crime in the US

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Sociology - Law, Delinquency, Abnormal Behavior, grade: 10.0, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - Newark (School of Criminal Justice), course: Racial, Ethnic and Religious Diversity and Public Policy in America, language: English, abstract: This research paper examines the relationship of undocumented Latinos to crime in the United States. Many empirical studies in the past years argued that undocumented immigrants have been a reason in the decrease in crime rates over the past forty years.

Communities with a high number of undocumented immigrants tend to have very low crime rates compared to those of native-born Americans. Already deteriorated neighbourhoods, where undocumented newcomers establish their homes, show a significant decrease in crime. Both the spur of immigration and the decrease in crime rates have run parallel to each other since the 1980s.

However, in the last decade, a mass incarceration of undocumented Latinos was found in the U.S. corrections system due to an overwhelming target of minority groups and tough legislations passed by the U.S. government.