Latino Immigration, Economic Deprivation, and Violence: Regional Differences in the Effect of Linguistic Isolation

Abstract

One of the many contributions of Land, McCall, and Cohen’s landmark study was the confirmation of a long-held view in criminology—that deprivation raises homicide. Yet recent literature finds that although Latino immigrant communities are often poor, paradoxically they have low levels of crime. Unfortunately, this seemingly contradictory evidence is based on studies of long-established, well-organized, traditional immigrant communities where Spanish is a modal form of communication. However, recent Latino migrants opted for new destinations that are unprotected by a shell of common culture and language, making Latinos in these areas more vulnerable to serious violence. In acknowledging these critical differences between old and new Latino communities, we observe four interrelated findings: (a) The widely held view that Latinos generally live in safe places is true only for those in traditional destinations; (b) Latinos in new destinations are murdered at an exceedingly high rate; (c) This elevated risk is linked to English nonfluency among Latinos in new destinations only; and (d) In these areas, linguistic isolation increases homicide not just directly but indirectly as well by first increasing Latino economic deprivation. Thus, once differences in place are considered, there is no “paradox” about Latino immigration and crime. Our results uphold the benchmark assessment of Land, McCall and Cohen, that deprivation is linked to homicide—even in Latino communities.

Assessing the Effects of Recent Immigration on Serious Property Crime in Austin, Texas

“…Recent work by Shihadeh and Winters (2010) suggests that Latinos may be able to offset the lack of existing immigrant community by relying more on local religious ecology to keep crime low and community strong. This study also adds weight to previous findings of Shihadeh and Barranco (2010;, however, to suggest that high Latino immigration areas are not the safe havens they are in traditional destinations. Instead Latinos are murdered at an exceedingly high rate.…”

“…Recent immigrants to new destinations are disproportionately young men from Mexico and Central America who come in search of work but typically have little education and often no proof of citizenship. Under such conditions, while evidence has shown that Latinos may be murdered at an exceedingly rate (Shihadeh and Barranco 2010), elevated rates of property crime would also be expected.…”

“…As these traditional immigrant gateway cities, such as Los Angeles, have approached saturation levels in certain employment areas, foreign-born workers have relocated to other fast growing areas much like Austin, Texas (Castillo 2004;Light 2006). While past neighborhood research suggests overwhelmingly that areas with higher concentrations of Latino immigrants tend to have lower rates of crime, the evolving immigrationcrime literature has provided ample theoretical reasons to expect entry into these new destinations to be more problematic for Latinos (e.g., Cravey 1997; Crowley and Lichter 2009;Shihadeh and Barranco 2010).…”

“…Although studies have begun to examine the effect on violent crime in communities of new immigrant destinations (e.g., Shihadeh and Barranco 2010), the dearth of community-level studies examining recent immigration and serious property crime in these new destinations represents a significant gap in this emerging literature. New Latino arrivals to the United States are predominantly those most determined to overcome the contradiction between their life aspirations and the means to fulfill them in their countries of origin (Portes and Rumbaut 2006).…”

“…Given the historical importance of the co-ethnic community in helping to incorporate newcomers, provide networks for employment opportunities, and buffer the potentially disorganizing effects of immigration (Portes and Rumbaut 2006;Telles and Ortiz 2008), it is increasingly critical to examine areas of new immigrant settlement. Indeed evidence from new destinations offers a less fortuitous picture for new Latino immigrants and crime (e.g., Cravey 1997;Kandel and Parrado 2005;Shihadeh and Barranco 2010;Shihadeh and Winters 2010). The first key contribution of this study, therefore, is to examine immigration and crime in the context of communities experiencing extensive new immigrant settlement.…”