This volume shines a much needed light on the complexity of connections
between crime, race, ethnicity, and immigration in the United States.
Drawing on a distinguished group of experts on crime and immigration,
Martinez and Valenzuela pull together a stimulating blend of
perspectives and methods to address a topic that has been sadly
neglected by researchers. -Gary LaFree, author of Losing Legitimacy:
Street Crime and the Decline of Social Institutions in America
Immigration and Crime is a terrific collection that debunks the
stereotype of the Latino 'criminal immigrant.' The systematic and
thorough quantitative and qualitative data in the book should provide
pause and help shape a new policy agenda on immigration and crime.
-Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind
Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States
Essential. -Choice The original essays in this much-needed collection
broadly assess the contemporary patterns of crime as related to
immigration, race, and ethnicity. Immigration and Crime covers both a
variety of immigrant groups--mainly from Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin
America--and a variety of topics including: victimization, racial
conflict, juvenile delinquency, exposure to violence, homicide, drugs,
gangs, and border violence. The volume provides important insights about
past understandings of immigration and crime, many based on theories
that have proven to be untrue or racially biased, as well as offering
new scholarship on salient topics. Overall, the contributors argue that
fears of immigrant crime are largely unfounded, as immigrants are
themselves often more likely to be the victims of discrimination,
stigmatization, and crime rather than the perpetrators. Contributors:
Avraham Astor, Carl L. Bankston III, Robert J. Bursik, Jr., Roberto G.
Gonzales, Sang Hea Kil, Golnaz Komaie, Jennifer Lee, Matthew T. Lee,
Ramiro Martnez, Jr., Cecilia Menjvar, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Charlie V.
Morgan, Amie L. Nielsen, Rubn G. Rumbaut, Rosaura Tafoya-Estrada, Abel
Valenzuela, Jr., Min Zhou. Ramiro Martinez, Jr., is associate professor
of criminal justice and public health at Florida International
University and the author of Latino Homicide: Immigration, Violence and
Community. Abel Valenzuela, Jr. is associate professor of urban planning
and Chicana/o studies and at the University of California, Los Angeles
and is co-editor of Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angeles.
