Marriage and Offending: Examining the Significance of Marriage among the Children of Immigrants

Abstract

Although research shows that involvement in crime varies across immigrant generations, less is known about why this is so. Using 13 waves of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 data, we examine the influence of marriage-a key correlate of desistance from crime-to understand more fully patterns of offending across immigrant generations during the transition to adulthood. Results indicate a lower prevalence of offending among first-generation immigrants compared with their second-generation and third-plus-generation peers; however, among active offenders, rates of offending are similar across groups. Notably, marriage exerts a significantly stronger effect on offending for second-generation immigrants, suggesting that, while assimilation may be associated with more offending, it is also associated with a greater potency of marriage in promoting desistance from crime.

Immigration in an Era of Mass Reentry: Does Immigrant Concentration Guard Against Serious Recidivism?

“…At the turn of the 21st century, knowledge on the immigration-crime nexus was, at best, tenuous (Lee et al 2002; Martinez and Lee 2000). However, research today overwhelmingly shows that immigration is associated with less, not more, crime (Bersani and DiPietro 2016; Ousey and Kubrin 2017). Empirical scholarship also suggests that immigrant communities insulate area residents from engaging in criminal behavior and curtail their risk for victimization (Wolff et al 2015; Xie and Baumer 2018).…”

“…Contemporary scholarship on immigration and crime has primarily focused on examining the impact of immigrant status and immigrant concentration on a variety of criminological outcomes. At the individual level, studies consistently demonstrate that immigrants engage in fewer crimes than the native-born (Bersani and DiPietro 2016; Ramos and Wenger 2019). Similarly, studies at the ecological level find that immigration is often related to lower rates of crime or yields no effect (Barranco, Harris, and Feldmeyer 2017; Ousey and Kubrin 2017).…”

Immigrant perceptions of the police

“…foreign-born) (Davis and Hendricks, 2007; Lopez-Cevallos and Harvey, 2016; Wu and Alteimer, 2014). In other scholarly discussion, immigrant status applies to not only foreign-born individuals, but also the offspring of these individuals (Bersani and DiPietro, 2016; Wu et al, 2011). The term “immigrant generation” is relevant in this context, with the first-generation immigrants typically including foreign-born individuals, the second-generation including the native-born children of foreign born (or mixed) parents, and the third and higher generation including the native-born children of native-born parents.…”

Criminal Careers and Immigration: An Analysis of Offending Over the Life Course Among Homicide Inmates in Texas

“…First, the data available from the TDCJ did not contain detailed information on the time at risk for individuals, such as time in previous prison stay or time in the country (i.e., foreign citizens may have lower risk when younger because they were not in the country during those years). This missingness, which is quite common but needs to be addressed in the immigrant-crime literature (see Bersani & DiPietro, 2016;Morenoff & Astor, 2006), requires a much more expanded data collection effort that is needed at the state-level, involving new data collection as well as linkage with other state and/or national data repositories. Since some individuals currently incarcerated for homicide had lengthy criminal careers, it is also likely that they, and others with early serious offenses, spent time incarcerated throughout their life course.…”

“…The paradox operates contrary to the narrative that immigrants engage in disproportionate amounts of criminal activity. This is seen in macro-level and individual-level studies (e.g., Bersani, 2014;Bersani et al, 2014;Bersani & DiPietro, 2016;Bersani et al, 2018;Craig et al, 2020;Gunadi, 2021;Jennings et al, 2013;Lee & Martínez, 2009;Martínez, 2014;Martínez & Lee, 2000;Orrick et al, 2021;Ousey & Kubrin, 2009, 2018Piquero et al, 2016;Sampson, 2008;Sampson et al, 2005;Vaughn et al, 2014;Wadsworth, 2010).…”