United We Stand? Role of Ethnic Heterogeneity in the Immigration and Neighborhood Crime Relationship.

• In Event: Immigration, Communities, and Crime

Abstract

The main goal of the currents study is to expand the theoretical and empirical understanding of the role of different types of ethnic heterogeneity in the immigration and crime relationship at the neighborhood level. I begin by revisiting the classic works which inspired both the current immigration studies and the neighborhood effects scholarship in criminology. These works suggest that ethnic heterogeneity should be theorized and modeled as a moderating variable when examining the immigration and crime relationship. In the empirical portion of my study I examine ethnic heterogeneity as a moderating variable using both conventional and novel measures of this construct. Specifically, I examine measures that are based on racial, ethnic, origins, language and year of arrival characteristics of the neighborhood populations. I also examine a novel ethnic heterogeneity measure that is based on the number of spatial clusters of ethnic group concentration to which an area belongs. These clusters are identified using the Local Indicator of Spatial Association (LISA) and so ethnic heterogeneity is measured as the number of statistically significant high-high ethnic group cluster overlaps in each area. I use census tract-level data included in the National Neighborhood Crime Study.

Author

• Feodor A. Gostjev, University of Miami