Study: Immigration Doesn’t Lead to Increased Crime

Immigration does not lead to increased crime.
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The battle between the media and the administration, between fact and fiction, have made factual evidence all that much more important.

One of the questions many are asking is this: Does immigration lead to higher crime rates? According to a new study from the University at Buffalo, “immigration does not increase assaults and, in fact, robberies, burglaries, larceny, and murder are lower in places where immigration levels are higher.” The study looked at “uniform crime reporting data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a 40-year period from 1970 to 2010” for 200 cities across the country with changing demographics.

In short, the study found that immigration does not increase crime. In fact, numerous studies have shown that the implied relationship between crime and immigration, especially popular among the “alt-right” community, are patently false.

Unfortunately, the latest trend of listening to the people who yell the loudest continues to circulate what amounts to no more than rumor: that immigrants are bad and should be deported, kept out of the country, or otherwise discriminated against. But evidence points to the contrary, so it is more important than ever for scholars continue to do research like this. Policy should be based on facts, and not rumor. Anti-immigration rhetoric with no basis in fact has no place in the law.

In fact, these studies actually show us that, “based on arrest and offense data…foreign-born individuals are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.” These actual facts, and not “alternative facts,” are what we must be looking at when we develop policy and determine the constitutionality of that policy.