Institutional Completeness and Crime Rates in Immigrant Neighborhoods

• Author: Charis E. Kubrin,John R. Hipp,Young-An Kim
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0022427818799125
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Institutional

Completeness

and Crime Rates

in Immigrant

Neighborhoods

Charis E. Kubrin

1

, Young-An Kim

1

,

and John R. Hipp

1

Abstract

Objectives: A growing body of research finds that immigration has a null or

negative association with neighborhood crime rates. We build on this

important literature by investigating the extent to which one theory, insti-

tutional completeness theory, may help explain lower crime rates in immi-

grant communities across the Southern California region. Specifically, we

test whether two key measures of institutional completeness—the pres-

ence of immigrant/ethnic voluntary organizations in the community and the

presence and diversity of immigrant/ethnic businesses in the community—

account for lower crime rates in some immigrant communities. Method:

Compiling a tract-level data set utilizing various data sources, we estimate

negative binomial regression models predicting violent and property crime

levels that include measures of institutional completeness while controlling

for a range of neighborhood correlates of crime. We also account for

1

Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Charis E. Kubrin, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine,

Social Ecology II, Room 3379, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.

Email: ckubrin@uci.edu

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2019, Vol. 56(2) 175-212

ªThe Author(s) 2018

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0022427818799125

journals.sagepub.com/home/jrc

possible endogeneity by estimating instrumental variable models. Results:

The results reveal very limited support for institutional completeness the-

ory. Conclusions: Several possible explanations for these findings are

discussed.

Keywords

immigration, communities and crime, institutional completeness theory

Over the past two decades, studies investigating the immigration–crime link

have proliferated. In particular, researchers have extensively investigated

how immigration and crime are associated at the neighborhood level (Akins,

Rumbaut, and Stansfield 2009; Chavez and Griffiths 2009; Desmond and

Kubrin 2009; Feldmeyer and Steffensmeier 2009; Graif and Sampson 2009;

Kubrin and Ishizawa 2012; Lee and Martinez 2002; MacDonald, Hipp, and

Gill 2013; Martinez, Stowell, and Cancino 2008; Martinez, Stowell, and Lee

2010; Martinez, Lee, and Nielsen 2004; Nielsen, Lee, and Martinez 2005;

Nielsen and Martinez 2009; Stowell and Martinez 2007, 2009; Velez 2009).

Unlike other areas of research, the con sistency in findings across these

studies is striking. Overwhelmin gly, studies show that immigration a nd

crime do not go hand in hand and that immigration to an area may actually

decrease crime rates, contrary to popular perception. A recently published

meta-analysis confirms this assessment. Examining over 540 effect size

estimates from more than 50 U.S.-based macrolevel studies published

between 1994 and 2014, Ousey and Kubrin (2018) find that, overall, the

immigration–crime association is negative—but very weak. Indeed, signif-

icant negative effects were found to be 2.5 times as common as significant

positive effects, but null effects were by far the most common result

reported in prior studies.

Less understood, however, are the intervening mechanisms tha t may

account for lower crime rates in immigran t neighborhoods (Kubrin and

Desmond 2015). Also relatively less understood is what differences may

exist across immigrant neighborhoods and how such differences are asso-

ciated with community crime rates, despite the fact that researchers have

long argued “more attention should be given to the social organization of

ethnic communities, particularly to the wide variation which exists among

them in this respect” (Breton 1964:193; see also Bursik 2006:29; Kubrin,

Hipp and Kim 2016). This point is especially relevant in light of extensive

theorizing about certain kinds of immigrant communities, particularly

176 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 56(2)

ethnic enclaves. Definitions vary, however, an ethnic enclave is defined as

an area “characterized by a concentration of businesses owned and operated

by immigrants from the same country of origin, or their direct descendants”

(Bohon 2001:4). Research on ethnic enclaves suggests that these commu-

nities offer several benefits for immigrants such as social networks, jobs,

information, and support for entrepreneurial activities that help accelerate

upward mobility (Portes and Rumbaut 2014; Waters and Esbach 1995;

Wilson and Portes 1980; Zhou 2010).

As is obvious from the definition, a key dimension of this type of immi-

grant community relates to the formal organizational structure of the neigh-

borhood, which is the focal point of a related theory, institutional

completeness theory. First outlined by Breton (1964), institutional comple-

teness theory recognizes that ethnic communities can vary enormously in

their social organization. At one extreme, there is the community that exists

essentially in a network of interpersonal relations. Members of a certain

ethnic group seek each other’s companionship, and friendship groups and

cliques are formed. But beyond this informal network, no formal organiza-

tion may exist. According to Breton (1964:194), the immigrant who is a

member of such a group will establish institutional affiliations in the native

community since their ethnic group has little or no organization of its own.

At the other extreme are institutionally complete communities, which have

developed a more formal structure and contain ethnic organizations of

various sorts including business, religious, educational, political, and

recreational. Some have organized welfare and mutual aid societies and

operate their own radio station or publish their own newspapers and period-

icals. In this extreme case, the ethnic community is able to perform the

services required by its members, and residents need not seek to have their

needs fulfilled elsewhere. Of course “Between the two extremes much

variation can be observed in the amount and complexit y of community

organizations; the degree of institutional completeness in fact shows varia-

tions from one ethnic group to another” (Breton 1964:194).

Studies of institutional completeness have examined the implications for

ethnic identification and assimilation (Goldenberg and Haines 1992:309)—

both of which likely matter a great deal for crime, the focus of this study.

Examining immigrant neighborhoods across the Southern California land-

scape, we investigate the extent to which institutional completeness may

account for lower crime rates in some immigrant communities, in line with

theoretical arguments. In particular, we examine two key measures of insti-

tutional completeness—the presence of immigrant/ethnic voluntary orga-

nizations in the community and the presence and diversity of immigrant/

Kubrin et al. 177