Assimilation and Marginalization: Do Changes in Subjective Procedural Justice Influence Assimilation Among Mexican American Adolescents?

• In Event: Immigration Policy

Abstract

Immigration enforcement and criminal justice apparatuses have fused together over the last several decades. In the process, the role of the police in many departments has gradually expanded to include immigration enforcement through federal initiatives such as “Secure Communities.”. Such law enforcement surveillance and monitoring of immigrants may engender a distrust of law enforcement officers and their intentions within their interactions with Hispanic residents. This process, and the lack of perceived police procedural justice and legitimacy, may encourage Mexican Americans to identify less with America and more with Mexican Americans. Using a fixed effects panel design with a subsample of Mexican Americans from the Pathways to Desistance Study, we examine whether changes in subjective procedural justice of the police are related to assimilation. Preliminary findings along with implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

Authors

• Andrew J. Thompson, University at Albany, SUNY

• Theodore Wilson, University at Albany, SUNY