Immigrants and crime

President Spanky has been repeating for over a year now that immigrants drive up crime and sanctuary cities are havens for drug dealers and rapists.

He’s convinced almost half of the American public. 

Professors from four universities, led by Robert Adelman, a sociologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo, studied crime rates for 200 metropolitan areas.

In 136 of those areas, almost 70% of those studied, the immigrant population increased between 1980 and 2016, but the crime rate stayed the same or fell.

The ten areas with the largest increases in immigrants all had lower crime rates in 2016 than in 1980.

When I told Linda that I planned to post about this, she pointed out that it wouldn’t do any good.  People who believe immigrants cause crime will continue to believe that no matter what the evidence.  This whole post will be considered either an April Fool’s joke or fake news.  That this post is neither won’t matter.

If you are a rational person who understands that careful scientific research can uncover truth and want to read the full article, see Anna Flagg, “Immigration and Crime:  What Link Is There?  New York Times, (March 31, 2018), p. A10.