The idea that immigration increases crime rates has historically occupied an important role in criminological theory and has been central to the public and political discourses and debates on immigration policy. In contrast to the common sentiment, some scholars have recently questioned whether the increase in immigration between 1990 and 2000 may have actually been responsible for part of the national decrease in crime during the 1990s. The current work evaluates the influence of immigration on crime in urban areas across the United States between 1990 and 2000. Copyright (c) 2010 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Objective This paper addresses the relationship between suicide mortality and family structure and socioeconomic status for U.S. adult men and women. Methods We use Cox proportional hazard models and individual level, prospective data from the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File (1986–2002) to examine adult suicide mortality. Results Larger families and employment are associated with lower risks of suicide for both men and women. Low levels of education or being divorced or separated, widowed, or never married are associated with increased risks of suicide among men, but not among women. Conclusions We find important sex differences in the relationship between suicide mortality and marital status and education. Future suicide research should use both aggregate and individual level data and recognize important sex differences in the relationship between risk factors and suicide mortality—a central cause of preventable death in the United States.

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This study evaluates the assumption that deprivation among African Americans and racial inequality lead to black interracial homicide due to racial conflict and antagonism. Using refined race‐adjusted Supplemental Homicide Report data, Uniform Crime Report data and census data, we test an alternative hypothesis that draws on the macrostructural opportunity theory to assess and more accurately specify the relationship between structural characteristics and black interracial homicide. We find that first, the relationship between economic factors and black interracial homicide can be explained in large part by high rates of financially motivated crime such as robbery, and second, that economic factors are associated with financially motivated but not expressive black interracial killings. Analyses of black intraracial killings are performed for comparison purposes. Collectively, the findings suggest that conflict‐based explanations rooted in racial antagonism and frustration aggression may be premature.

The present study extends the understanding of the structural determinants of African American killings by analyzing the impact of key socioeconomic and demographic factors on disaggregated Black homicide rates in St. Louis neighborhoods. The findings reveal that (a) there is significant variation within Black homicides in terms of motive, victim and offender characteristics, victim-offender relationship, and type of death; (b) concentrated disadvantage is significantly associated with some but not all types of Black killings; and (c) residential instability is not significantly related to most Black killings but has a small negative effect on gang homicide. The findings reinforce the necessity of disaggregating homicide rates to understand the race-violence relationship. The theoretical, methodological, and policy implications of the findings are discussed.One of the most intriguing findings from a number of recent studies that examine the structural covariates of homicide rates is that many of the socioeconomic and demographic factors considered are found to have strong positive effects on White homicide rates but weak or nonexistent effects on Black rates. Most surprising to 3 AUTHORS' NOTE: We thank Tim Bray, Thomas Petee, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft.