Neighborhood immigrant concentration and violent crime reporting to the police: A multilevel analysis of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey*

• Author: Eric P. Baumer,Min Xie
• Date: 01 May 2019
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12204

Received: 3 January 2018 Revised: 28 October 2018 Accepted: 9 November2018

DOI: 10.1111/1745-9125.12204

ARTICLE

Neighborhood immigrant concentration and violent

crime reporting to the police: A multilevel analysis of

data from the National Crime Victimization Survey*

Min Xie1Eric P. Baumer2

1Department of Criminology and Criminal

Justice, University of Maryland—College Park

2Department of Sociology and Criminology,

Pennsylvania State University

Correspondence

MinXie, Depar tment of Criminology and

Criminal Justice, Universityof Maryland,

CollegePark, MD 20742.

Email:mxie@umd.edu

Fundinginformation

NationalScience Foundation, Grant/Award

Numbers:1625698, 1625730; Russell Sage

Foundation,Grant/Award Number: 93-16-07

∗Additionalsupporting information

canbe found in the listing for this arti-

clein t he WileyOnline Library at

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/

10.1111/crim.2019.57.issue-2/issuetoc.

Thisresearch was supported by funding from

the NationalScience Foundation (Awards

1625730and 1625698) and (in par t) from the

RussellSage Foundation (Award 93-16-07).

Theopinions expressed in this ar ticle are those

oft he authors and do notnecessar ilyreflect

those of the NationalScience Foundation or the

RussellSage Foundation.

Abstract

Using data from the Area-Identified National Crime

Victimization Survey (NCVS), we provide a national

assessment of the impact of neighborhood immigrant

concentration on whether violence is reported to the

police. By drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives,

we outline how the level of violence reporting could be

higher or lower in immigrant neighborhoods, as well as

how this may depend on individual race/ethnicity and the

history of immigration in the county in which immigrant

neighborhoods are located. Controlling for both individual-

and neighborhood-level conditions, our findings indicate

that within traditional immigrant counties, rates of violence

reporting in immigrant neighborhoods are similar to those

observed elsewhere. In contrast, within newer immigrant

destinations, we observe much lower rates of violence

reporting in neighborhoods with a large concentration of

immigrants. Our study findings reveal comparable patterns

for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos. The results haveimpor tant

implications for theory, policy, and future research.

KEYWORDS

crime reporting, immigration, National Crime Victimization Survey

(NCVS), police, race/ethnicity

Immigration has long been a politically charged social issue in America (e.g., Portes & Rumbaut, 2014;

Sellin, 1938; Tichenor, 2002). It reemerged as an area of intense contestation after the 1996 immigra-

tion reform and the attacks of September 11, 2001 (Kubrin, Zatz, & Martinez, 2012; Pierotte, Xie, &

Criminology. 2019;57:237–267. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crim © 2019 American Society of Criminology 237

238 XIE AND BAUMER

Baumer, 2018; Varsanyi, Lewis, Provine, & Decker, 2012). As in the previouscentur y (Bennet, 1909;

Kelsey,1926), politicians have frequently linked immigration to crime during the contemporary era (for

reviews, see MacDonald & Sampson, 2012; Tonry, 1997; Zatz & Smith, 2012). Indeed, references to

crime and public safety have become a common refrain in recent calls formore restrictive immigration

policies in the United States, supported by repeated claims about higher levels of crime in immigrant

communities (e.g., Barrett, 2017; Rosenberg & Levinson, 2017).

Notwithstanding the rhetoric on immigration, in a timely and important systematic review of the

available empirical evidence, Ousey and Kubrin (2018) contradicted claims that crime is more preva-

lent in immigrant communities. After reviewing more than 50 studies published between 1994 and

2014, they concluded that the available scientific evidence reveals a small but noteworthy negative

association between community immigrant concentration and crime rates. In other words, the accu-

mulated empirical evidence runs counter to contemporary political rhetoric. Nonetheless, as Ousey

and Kubrin (2018) acknowledged, a large portion of the existing research is based on official crime

data from the police that have important limitations. A key data limitation of many of these studies—

the possibility of significant underreporting of crime in immigrant communities—is directly relevant

to the fundamental question of whether crime rates vary systematically with community immigrant

concentration. As Ousey and Kubrin (2018) noted, if the rate of reporting to the police is suppressed in

immigrant areas, using police-based crime data could yield misleading conclusions about community

differences in immigration and crime (also see the discussion by Davies & Fagan, 2012; Zatz & Smith,

2012). Moreover, the underreporting of crime in immigrant communities would raise serious concerns

for social justice and the equitable delivery of victim support services to those who are in need (Davis

& Erez, 1998). The formal social control function of the criminal justice system may be compromised

in communities as well when crimes are not reported to the police (Gottfredson & Gottfredson, 1988).

The potential underreporting of crime in immigrant neighborhoods is an important consideration,

but limited empirical research exists on this matter. Furthermore, as described in detail later in this

article, in the relevant theoretical literature, scholars have pointed to a complex (and not necessar-

ily inverse) relationship between neighborhood immigrant concentration and the likelihood of crime

reporting that warrants empirical investigation. We advance research on immigration and crime by

evaluating whether residents of immigrant neighborhoods are less likely to report crimes to the police

when victimized. The theoretical framework that we present integrates insights from the literatures

of place stratification, legal cynicism, neighborhood social capital, perceived group threat, and seg-

mented immigrant incorporation. This framework guides our assessment of whether victims in immi-

grant neighborhoods are less likely to notify the police, and whether this relationship is contingent on

the racial–ethnic background of victims and the local immigration history of the county in which the

neighborhoods are located. We explore these issues using a restricted-use version of the U.S. National

Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The analysisis timely, and the results demonstrate the influence

of neighborhood immigrant concentration on the likelihood of reporting crime for a pivotal period in

the trajectory of immigration to the United States (1996–2014).1

The article includes the following sections. In the first section, we describe the empirical context

and theoretical background relevant to the potential impact of neighborhood immigrant concentration

on levels of crime reporting. We highlight in this section the nuances and ambiguities in the theoretical

works to contrast competing hypotheses. In the next section, we outline the implications of the geo-

graphic expansion of immigrant settlement to newer immigrant-receiving areas in the United States

1In the 1990s, the United States saw the largest increase in immigrants in decades since 1965, and in 1996, Congress passed

the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act that was widely seen as unfriendly towardimmigration and

a major overhaul of the U.S. immigration law (Fragomen, 1997).