Usual suspects? Public views about immigrants’ impact on crime in European countries

Abstract

Using data from the 2002/3 module of the European Social Survey project, this study examines the relationship between public views about immigrants' impact on crime and measures of criminal behavior in 21 countries of Europe. The results from hierarchical regression models show that perceptions about immigrants' impact are unaffected by personal experience with crime and by contextual measures such as the homicide rate, prison population rate, and ratio of foreign inmate to non-European foreign population. The analysis further reveals that perceived immigrants' impact on crime is sensitive to having friends among immigrants, residing in an ethnic neighborhood, having affinity with right-wing ideologies, as well as several socio-demographic characteristics. At the country level, perceptions that immigrants worsen crime problems are more evident in societies harboring larger stocks of non-European immigrants, but such views are not affected by economic circumstances. These findings imply that Europeans' expressions of concern regarding immigrants' impact on crime may be a guised form of prejudice against foreigners, as they seem to be nurtured less by fear of crime and more by fear of immigrants. The reported results are discussed with respect to the restrictiveness of immigration regimes and the practice of criminalizing foreigners.

Immigration, Attitudes and the Rise of the Political Right: The Role of Cultural and Economic Concerns Over Immigration

“…e.g. Quillian (1995), Dustmann and Preston (2001), Semyonov et al (2008), andCeobanu (2010). As noted below, we are able to significantly advance the state of the literature regarding the role of immigrant share in influencing attitudes toward immigration.…”

“…This is an important finding because the existing evidence on the salience hypothesis has been decidedly mixed. For example, Quillian (1995), Dustmann and Preston (2001), Semyonov et al (2008), andCeobanu (2010) observe a positive association between the relative size of the foreign population and anti-immigrants attitudes, whereas, Evans and Need (2002), Semyonov et al (2004), Sides and Citrin (2007), Strabac and Listhaug (2008), and Jolly and DiGiusto (2014) find no such relationship. 4 The use of panel estimation techniques in this paper for cross-national comparisons puts this result on firmer econometric footing by reducing concerns over the impact of omitted country-level variables.…”

“…In contrast, studies employing cross-sectional data from a single point in time, such as Quillian (1995), Espenshade et al (1996), Evans and Need (2002), Sides and Citrin (2007), Semyonov et al (2008), Strabac andListhaug (2008), andCeobanu (2010), cannot address the how attitudes toward immigrants respond to changes in share or composition of the immigrant population, nor can they effectively control for omitted country-level variables that may be correlated with macroeconomic indicators, such as unemployment or the immigrant population share. Similarly, studies that employ national panel data, such as Dustmann and Preston (2001), Semyonov et al (2004), Wilkes andCorrigall-Brown (2011), andJolly andDiGiusto (2014), are unable to investigate the determinants of international differences in the sensitivity of attitudes toward immigrants, including various dimensions of national culture.…”

Punitive inclusion: The political economy of irregular migration in the margins of Europe

“…Comparative survey research, for example, has demonstrated that anti-foreigner sentiment is higher in Greece than anywhere else in Europe (Semyonov et al, 2006;Mulcahy, 2011), and that Greeks hold the most negative views on the continent regarding the impact of foreigners on society, including their impact on crime (Semyonov et al, 2012; see also Semyonov et al, 2008;Semyonov and Glikman, 2009;Ceobanu, 2011;Mulcahy, 2011;Swarts and Karakatsanis, 2013;Figgou et al, 2011). Domestic survey research has meanwhile found that Greeks are more likely to favour stricter police treatment for immigrants than for natives, just as they are more likely to favour imprisonment for immigrant offenders than for offenders from other socio-demographic groups (see further Cheliotis and Xenakis, 2011).…”

Political attitudes in a rapidly changing European landscape: methodological and substantive insights from the ESS-Netherlands panel component

“…According to ESS data with questions tapping considerations about the presumed consequences of immigration, respondents are mostly concerned with increasing crime rates in 20 of the 21 European countries (Ceobanu, 2010). However, research focusing on the immigration and crime relationship mainly concentrated on comparing crime rates for immigrant and native populations (Engbersen, van der Leun, & de Boom, 2007;Melossi, 2014;Reid, Weiss, Adelman, & Jaret, 2005), and the impact of ethnic composition on the perceptions of neighbourhood safety (Semyonov, Gorodzeisky, & Glikman, 2012).…”