麻豆淫院

(麻豆淫院) -- Xia Wang wanted to find out why so many Americans believe undocumented immigrants commit more crime. 

鈥淭he weight of evidence suggests that immigration is not related to more crime,鈥� said Wang, an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. 鈥淏ut this body of scholarship doesn鈥檛 seem to affect the public鈥檚 perception. The public consistently perceives immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, as criminal.鈥�

To better understand why that perception exists, Wang used data from a poll of more than 1,000 people in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas. She applied the minority threat perspective, a theory that seeks to explain why minorities are treated differently by law enforcement. The results were published last month in an article that appeared online in the journal Criminology.

Wang found the belief that undocumented immigrants cause crime was due in part to the perceived population size of the immigrant community overall. 

鈥淚f somebody is perceiving undocumented immigrants as a larger proportion in the population, they are going to perceive undocumented immigrants at a higher level of criminal threat,鈥� Wang said. 鈥淎nd what鈥檚 interesting is a lot of people have very distorted and exaggerated views of the population size of undocumented immigrants.鈥�

The data show a large proportion of respondents estimated the undocumented population to be more than half of the overall foreign born population, far greater than recognized statistics. In 2011, the Census Bureau鈥檚 Current Population Survey listed the U.S. immigrant population at 39.6 million, while the Pew Hispanic Center estimated 28%, or 11.2 million, were unauthorized immigrants.

鈥淎s for why people have very distorted, exaggerated views, what I found is that individual factors such as your level of education and your victimization experience shape your views,鈥� said Wang. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit surprising to me because I would think that people would form their perceptions of undocumented immigrant population size based on the conditions their neighborhood is in, such as the actual size of the immigrant population.鈥�

Wang tested to see if the economic condition, or unemployment rate of respondents鈥� communities played a role in believing undocumented immigrants were more involved in crime.  It didn鈥檛 for the general population, but it did for the native born.

鈥淭hose neighborhood conditions don鈥檛 matter as much,鈥� Wang said. 鈥淚t is  largely the individual characteristics that shape people鈥檚 perceptions of undocumented immigrants population size and perceptions of undocumented immigrants as more criminal.鈥�

Wang said that for criminologists her analysis shows the minority threat perspective could be applied to undocumented immigrants. For members of the public, she hoped it may lead them to ask why undocumented immigrants are perceived as causing more crime.

鈥淭hey actually commit less crime than the native born. But why do we consistently believe they are more criminal?鈥� asked Wang.  鈥淲e can ask ourselves and be more critical of our views.  Are we being reasonable?  Are we being rational?鈥�