The Academic Minute

Christopher Salas-Wright, University of Texas at Austin – Immigrants and Crime

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Academic Minute
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Salas-Wright, Christopher 2015 - School of Social Work
Salas-Wright, Christopher 2015 – School of Social Work

Are immigrants wrongly portrayed as being criminals in the public sphere?

Christopher Salas-Wright, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin, explains his research into this newsworthy topic.

Dr. Christopher Salas-Wright is Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his PhD from Boston College and completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. Dr. Salas-Wright’s research interests include: adolescent substance use and violence prevention; the epidemiology of high-risk and antisocial behavior; and the role of cultural processes in the development of Latino youth. Since 2012, Dr. Salas-Wright has authored more than 70 scholarly publications that have appeared in journals such as Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Addictive Behaviors, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, and Annals of Epidemiology. His research has been featured numerous media outlets, including: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, USA TODAY, and NBC News. Prior to his graduate training, Dr. Salas-Wright lived for several years in San Salvador, El Salvador where he worked in the fields of youth development, addictions treatment, and international higher education.

Immigrants and Criminal Behavior

AMico

Over the last few months, we have often seen the portrayal of immigrants as criminals prone to drug use, violence, and other problem behaviors. And yet, our research—and that of scholars across the United States—suggests that these depictions have little basis in reality. Indeed, a large and growing body of evidence suggests that, despite experiencing adversity on multiple fronts, immigrants are substantially less likely than those born in the US to be involved in an array of criminal and antisocial behaviors.
During the past few years, we have used data from multiple nationally representative surveys to systematically examine the behavior of immigrants and non immigrants in the US.  We have looked at behaviors such as shoplifting, forgery, drug selling, fight starting, weapon carrying, problem gambling, and substance abuse.
Again and again, we see lower rates of problem behavior among immigrants. The pattern holds with immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. We even see that the children of immigrants tend to be less likely to be involved in most bad behaviors.Why are immigrants less prone to problem behavior?More research is needed to answer that important question, but a number of possibilities exist.
One simple explanation is that immigrants have a lot to lose, including deportation. Another explanation is that immigrants tend to self-select, such that they may be more motivated and less inclined to do things that might interfere with their economic and educational advancement.Are some immigrants involved in crime and other problem behaviors? Absolutely. But of all the bad things a person can do, in general, the least likely to do them are immigrants.
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