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Title: An Examination of First and Second Generation Immigrant Offending Trajectories
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Bersani, Bianca Elizabeth
An Examination of First and Second Generation Immigrant Offending Trajectories
Justice Quarterly 31,2 (2014): 315-343.
Also: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418825.2012.659200
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Immigrants

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The myth of the criminal immigrant has permeated public and political debate for much of this nation’s history and persists despite growing evidence to the contrary. Crime concerns are increasingly aimed at the indirect impact of immigration on crime highlighting the criminal pursuits of the children of immigrants. Adding to extant knowledge on the immigration-crime nexus, this research asks whether immigrants are differentially involved in crime by examining immigrant offending histories (prevalence, frequency, seriousness, persistence, and desistance) from early adolescence to young adulthood. Particular attention is afforded to the influence of various sources of heterogeneity including: generational and nativity status, and crime type. Results suggest that the myth remains; trajectory analyses reveal that immigrants are no more crime-prone than the native-born. Foreign-born individuals exhibit remarkably low levels of involvement in crime across their life course. Moreover, it appears that by the second generation, immigrants have simply caught up to their native-born counterparts in respect to their offending. Implications of the findings for theory and future research are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Bersani, Bianca Elizabeth. "An Examination of First and Second Generation Immigrant Offending Trajectories." Justice Quarterly 31,2 (2014): 315-343.