Criminal Immigrants: Their Numbers, Demographics, and Countries of Origin

This paper uses the U.S. Census's 2014 American Community Survey data to determine incarceration rates of immigrants aged 18 to 54 compared to the native-born. The researchers use common statistical methods to estimate the number incarcerated foreign-born individuals who are undocumented immigrants. They find that legal immigrants, with an incarceration rate of 0.47 percent, are 69 percent less likely to be incarcerated than the native-born, with an incarceration rate of 1.53 percent. Undocumented immigrants, with an incarceration rate of 0.85 percent, are 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than the native-born. But subtracting undocumented immigrants incarcerated for immigration violations brings their incarceration rate to 0.5 percent. The paper includes tables with demographic characteristics. This paper reaches similar conclusions to other research conducted over the past 100 years on immigrants and crime: immigrants are less prone to criminal activity than the native born. (Maurice Belanger, Maurice Belanger Associates) 

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