Immigrants without papers commit fewer crimes than citizens born in the United States: Report

A recently from the University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP) study by the University of Texas show that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than in the United States, which questions a recurring narrative in the political discourse of the American discourse.

The study financed by the National Institute of Justice and the Court of the El Paso County Commissioner Court analyzed thousands of prison documents and found a consistently lower criminogenic risk level in immigrants, especially without papers.

The researchers examined two data records: a quantitative analysis of 5,175 consecutive prisons in the prison of El Paso County and detailed structured interviews with 273 inmates, as El Paso Times explains. According to the findings, immigrants only made up 15% of the prison bookings, although 23% of the local population account for.

When booking, immigrants were less likely to be charged with serious crimes, had fewer pre-or convicts that were lower before the risk of pre-judicial risks. They tends to have more stable life situations and were less likely to be under supervision.

In the second part of the study, which was reported by the NBC subsidiary KTSM, the researchers used the “central eight” criminogenic risk factors to compare immigrants and citizens born in the USA:

• Pattern of criminal behavior
• Antisocial personality pattern
• Antisocial peers
• Pro-criminal knowledge
• Drug abuse
• Family and marriage problems
• Employment and educational problems
• Lack of prosocial leisure activities

The results showed that undocumented immigrants at seven out of eight indicators, including drug abuse, pro-criminal attitudes and association with anti-social risks. The only category in which undocumented immigrants had a higher risk was education and employment – factors that were found are often reasons for migration.

Theodore R. Curry from Utep, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, found that the idea that immigrants commit more crimes than the citizens are not supported by data. “Studies that were carried out here in El Paso and elsewhere in the United States consistently show that immigrants have lower crime rate than local US citizens,” he said.

These findings have strongly implemented the statements of political personalities in recent events such as last year's Republican National Congress, in which officials described a so -called increase in migrant crime. However, national data show that crime and immigration trends often move in opposite directions. For example, violent crime increased in 2020 when illegal immigration declined and declined in 2021 and 2022 with increasing immigration.

A broader review of the crime statistics also supports these results. For decades, immigrants have had lower detention and arrest rates than citizens born in the United States. Despite large population groups, the border districts in Texas consistently report lower violent crime than state and national average values.

Ultimately, the report comes to the conclusion that guidelines for reducing immigration are not based on the basis of concerns about public security. As in the abstract notes of the study, “politics that restrict immigration (especially from Mexico) will be misguided due to the idea that immigrants are susceptible to crimes, since it is determined that imprisoned immigrants have a low criminal risk risk factors.”