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National Institute of Justice

National Institute of Justice

Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate

National Institute of Justice
Summary
Nutrition label

78% Informative

An NIJ-funded study examined data from the Texas Department of Public Safety .

The study found undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes.

The researchers tracked these three groups’ arrest rates across seven years .

They used these arrest rates as proxies for the rates of crime commission for the three groups.

When a Texas law enforcement agency arrests someone, they are legally required to look up that person’s place of birth and citizenship.

This status becomes part of any criminal record in Texas .

Future research should explore whether these findings are replicated in other states and localities.

The NIJ-sponsored research considered rates of offending in California as well as Texas .

California data did not allow the researchers to differentiate between documented and undocumented immigrant populations (Light, “ Unauthorized Immigration, Crime , and Recidivism ,” 34-35 ). Future research may be similarly limited by data availability.

VR Score

92

Informative language

99

Neutral language

66

Article tone

formal

Language

English

Language complexity

67

Offensive language

possibly offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

long-living

External references

no external sources

Source diversity

no sources

Affiliate links

no affiliate links