The recent high-profile cases of hate crimes in the U.S., especially those targeting Asian Americans, have raised concerns about their risk of victimization. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, intimations—and even accusations—that the novel coronavirus is an “Asian” or “Chinese” virus have been linked to anti-Asian American hate crime, potentially leaving members of this group not only fearful of being victimized but also at risk for victimization. According to the Stop AAPI Hate Center, nearly 1900 hate crimes against Asian Americans were reported by victims, and around 69% of cases were related to verbal harassment, including being called the “Chinese Coronavirus.” Yet, most of the evidence martialed on spikes in anti-Asian American hate crime during the COVID-19 pandemic has been descriptive. Using data from four U.S. cities that have large Asian American populations (New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.), this study finds that hate crime against Asian Americans increased considerably in 2020 compared with that of 2019. Specifically, hate crime against Asian Americans temporarily surged after March 16, 2020, when the blaming labels including “Kung flu” or “Chinese Virus” were used publicly. However, the significant spike after March 16, 2020, in anti-Asian American hate crime was not sustained over the follow-up time period available for analysis.

This study examines predictors of immigrants’ confidence in the police at the individual and national levels, based on the instrumental and expressive frameworks. Using the World Value Survey, the study analyzes data from 5,746 immigrants across 34 nations. Generalized multilevel mixed-effects models are utilized to test the effects of individual-level attributes and national-level structural indicators. Immigrants with a citizenship of the resident nation report higher confidence in the police. Neighborhood security, neighborhood trust, and perceived community membership influence immigrants’ confidence in the police. The national-level indicators, including diversity of the nation’s population and discriminatory culture, were significantly related to confidence in the police. In a society with a variety of nationalities and a more discriminatory culture, immigrants report more confidence in the police. Ensuring neighborhood security and improving social capital, such as institutional trust, are important for building confidence in the police.

Police officers experience very stressful working environments which may lead to a range of negative outcomes including burnout. Police officers in Caribbean countries are no exception as they face demanding work conditions. Despite this, studies have paid little attention to Caribbean policing. Using data from the eight police divisions in Trinidad (N = 331 police officers), this study examined the relationship among social support (supervisor, co-worker, and family), occupational stress (organizational and operational) and burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment). Path analysis was used to test the hypothesis that social support served to reduce occupational stress, which in turn led to reduced burnout. The results suggested that supervisor support reduced organizational stress, while co-worker and family support reduced operational stress. Organizational stress, in turn affected emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, while operational stress affected emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.

The immigration-crime nexus has been the subject of much empirical attention and research findings consistently indicate that neighborhoods with large immigrant populations exhibit comparatively lower crime rates. However, it is still imperative to explain how these effects take place in different contexts of structural circumstances of communities. This study aims to examine the effects of immigrant concentration as well as its conditioning effects for racial/ethnic segregation and concentrated disadvantage in Dallas, Texas. Results show that immigrant concentration is negatively associated with crime counts and, most importantly, that immigrant concentration moderates the effect of structural conditions on crime. Generally, immigration has crime-reducing effects and helps ameliorate the negative effects of structural conditions on crime.

No abstract