Immigrants, Including “Illegal Aliens” in California, Have Much Lower Crime Rate than the Rest of Us

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Major study debunks fear of crime wave from those who cross border from Mexico

By Frank D. Russo

A study released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) should lay to rest the myth that immigrants, including those who are here in California illegally, are responsible for crime waves. In fact, it is just the opposite of what some xenophobes would have you believe when they try to whip up fears about crime from those who cross over from Mexico to California. Even amongst this group, the rate of criminal activities is substantially lower than those who are native born Americans.

“Crime, Corrections, and California: What Does Immigration Have to Do with it?”, based on U.S. Census data, looks at the data from multiple points of view and probes for a different outcome. But in 26 pages of rigorous analysis, this is what the authors conclude:

• People born outside the United States make up about 35 percent of California’s adult population but represent only about 17 percent of the state prison population.

• U.S.-born adult men are incarcerated in state prisons at rates up to 3.3 times higher than foreign-born men.

• Among men ages 18-40 – the age group most likely to commit crime – those born in the United States are 10 times more likely than immigrants to be in county jail or state prison.

• Noncitizen men from Mexico ages 18-40 – a group disproportionately likely to have entered the United States illegally – are more than 8 times less likely than U.S.-born men in the same age group to be in a correctional setting (0.48% vs. 4.2%).

• California cities with a higher share of recent immigrants have lower property and violent crime rates than in those with fewer immigrants.

What is striking about this is that the immigrant population in California, as is true nationally, is skewed towards young adults and males—a group that statistically has a higher rate of crime. They also have lower educational levels. Yet they have much lower rates of incarceration and institutionalization—especially when compared with those who are born in the United States who have low levels of education.