The Risk of Arrest Among Two Generations of Cuban Immigrants in the United States

• In Event: Immigrants and Crime

Abstract

The present study is based on a secondary-data analysis of a subsample (N = 811) of first and second-generation Cuban immigrants residing in United States, who participated in a ten-year panel study (The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study/CILS). Using self-reported arrest information, the analysis aims to identify the extent of problem behavior within a culturally homogeneous immigrant group and the role played by socializing institutions such as the family and the school, in predicting one’s propensity to criminal behavior. While no significant differences in arrest rates are found when US natives of Cuban descent are compared to their foreign-born counterparts, results indicate that adolescence experiences, educational achievements, the family environment, and early-adulthood turning-point events have a differential impact on behavioral outcomes when young men and women of Cuban ancestry are compared.

Author

• Viviana Andreescu, University of Louisville