 | VirileVagabond (32)
10/11/2006 | Frankly, I can't see how even false logic would lead to the conclusion that immigration lowers crime. For starters, illegal immigration would (or at least should) be considered a crime in and of itself. Moreover, if memory serves heterogeneous societies tend to have more crime than homogenous societies due to higher culture clashes within the former. Immigration would (in all likelihood) increase the differences resulting in more crime. In addition, the prior comment noted the increase in foreign gang activity in recent years. I suppose that the general truth that the ambitious are the ones who tend to move voluntarily may mitigate these factors somewhat, but my intuition (which admittedly may be incorrect) says that any mitigation would not result in a net crime reduction.
(1 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | DrEntropy (38)
05/05/2006 | This argument was made by a Harvard sociologist, and has received a lot of press coverage (notably in the New York Times). It is deeply misleading, and riddled with elementary methodological errors (especially 'Correlation implies Causation'). The rapid growth of the Russian mafia, Chinese Triads, Mexican drug gangs and the hard-working Salvadoran immigrants of MS-13, none of which were a serious problem in the US 25 years ago, makes this argument very dubious indeed. If illegal immigration were stopped, and legal immigrants were properly screened for criminal records in their home countries, it is likely that immigration would reduce crime, in the long-term. But don't hold your breath.
(8 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
