The New Juan Crow? Unpacking the Links between Discrimination and Crime for Latinos

• In Event: Theorizing Race, Crime and Justice

Abstract

Latinos are projected to account for 25% of the U.S. population by 2050, making them the emerging majority minority in America. Furthermore, with the recent rhetoric around immigration, particularly from South American countries, a moral panic has reemerged around the relationship between immigration and crime. Similar to African Americans, Latinos are disproportionately represented in crime statistics accounting for nearly 25% of violent arrests and 40% of federal inmates, while only constituting 16% of the population. Though some criminological literature has investigated the immigration-crime myth, most race-centered work still focuses on differences between African Americans and Whites, neglecting other races and ethnicities. Using the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods and employing a general strain theory model, I investigate the impact of various forms of discrimination, including injustices from the police, on the likelihood of offending for Latinos. This work adds considerable knowledge on a unique and vital proportion of the American population and their offending behaviors.

Author

• Deena Isom, University of South Carolina