Neighborhood immigrant concentration and violent crime reporting to the police: A multilevel analysis of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey*

Abstract

Using data from the Area‐Identified National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), we provide a national assessment of the impact of neighborhood immigrant concentration on whether violence is reported to the police. By drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, we outline how the level of violence reporting could be higher or lower in immigrant neighborhoods, as well as how this may depend on individual race/ethnicity and the history of immigration in the county in which immigrant neighborhoods are located. Controlling for both individual‐ and neighborhood‐level conditions, our findings indicate that within traditional immigrant counties, rates of violence reporting in immigrant neighborhoods are similar to those observed elsewhere. In contrast, within newer immigrant destinations, we observe much lower rates of violence reporting in neighborhoods with a large concentration of immigrants. Our study findings reveal comparable patterns for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos. The results have important implications for theory, policy, and future research.

Attitude of Young People to the Criminality Problem in Ukrainian Postmodern Society

“…The results of our research are partly in line with the findings of scientists from other countries (Berthelot et al, 2018;Langton et al, 2017;Littleton et al, 2019;Lorincz & Magureanu, 2017;Owens, 2017;Xie & Baumer, 2019;Valieiev, Tohochynskyi et al, 2019).…”

Threat, emboldenment, or both? The effects of political power on violent hate crimes*

“…Furthermore, a comparison of hate crime rates generated from both the HCSA and NCVS shows that the HCSA data align more closely to victimization events known to the police than those unknown to the police, which helps us feel more confident that the HCSA is capturing the underlying dynamic of hate crimes reported to the police. Despite the possibility that Black people might be more likely to report hate crimes when the federal government is exhibiting support for civil rights, we find it highly unlikely that Latinx victims of violent hate crime would increase their reporting to police when the political climate is hostile toward immigrants, as research suggests that some Latinx persons in the U.S. view contact with police as risky (Vidales, Day, & Powe, 2009; Xie & Baumer, 2019). While the federal hate crime statistics are far from perfect, the fact that our models—which were derived from data combined from two much different collection efforts—are consistent raises confidence that the hate crime data were sufficient for our purposes.…”

Small Area Estimation for Crime Analysis

“…In order to analyze the concentration of crime at such detailed level of spatial granularity, it is key to ensure that data are not affected by sampling bias, coverage error or measurement error (Brantingham, 2018). Victimization surveys provide key information to study crime (known and unknown to the police) and trust in the police (Rosenbaum & Lavrakas, 1995;Xie & Baumer, 2019), but these surveys are not designed to produce reliable direct analyses at the increasingly refined spatial scales of the criminology of place. Victimization surveys are generally designed to allow producing precise direct estimates for very large areas, such as countries or states, but sample sizes in smaller areas are usually too small to allow producing direct estimates of adequate precision.…”

“…Police-recorded crimes and calls for police services are the main sources of data used to identify those micro places where crime is more prevalent. Crimes known to police, however, may be affected by missing data due to underreporting affecting some areas more than others (Brantingham, 2018;Xie & Baumer, 2019). Victimization surveys provide key information to account for crimes known and unknown to the police, and are the main source of information to analyze emotions about crime and perceptions about the police (Rosenbaum & Lavrakas, 1995;Xie & Baumer, 2019).…”

“…Crimes known to police, however, may be affected by missing data due to underreporting affecting some areas more than others (Brantingham, 2018;Xie & Baumer, 2019). Victimization surveys provide key information to account for crimes known and unknown to the police, and are the main source of information to analyze emotions about crime and perceptions about the police (Rosenbaum & Lavrakas, 1995;Xie & Baumer, 2019). The two main victimization surveys are probably the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) in the United States, and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) in the UK.…”