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34 J. Quantitative Criminology 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/jquantc34 and id is 1 raw text is: J Quant Criminol (2018) 34:1 36                                         CrossMark
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-016-9320-y
Different than the Sum of Its Parts: Examining
the Unique Impacts of Immigrant Groups
on Neighborhood Crime Rates
Charis E. Kubrin' - John R. Hipp1,2 - Young-An Kim'
Published online: 21 September 2016
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract
Objectives Examining the immigration-crime nexus across neighborhoods in the South-
ern California metropolitan region, this study builds on existing literature by unpacking
immigration and accounting for the rich diversity that exists between immigrant groups.
Methods Using data from a variety of sources, we capture this diversity with three dif-
ferent approaches, operationalizing immigrant groups by similar racial/ethnic categories,
areas or regions of the world that immigrants emigrate from, and where immigrants co-
locate once they settle in the U.S. We also account for the heterogeneity of immigrant
populations by constructing measures of immigrant heterogeneity based on each of these
classifications. We compare these novel approaches with the standard approach, which
combines immigrants together through a single measure of percent foreign born.
Results The results reveal that considerable insights are gained by distinguishing between
diverse groups of immigrants. In particular, we find that all three strategies explained
neighborhood crime levels better than the traditional approach.
Conclusion The findings underscore the necessity of disaggregating immigrant groups
when exploring the immigration-crime relationship.
Keywords Immigrants - Immigration - Neighborhoods - Crime
® Charis E. Kubrin
ckubrin@uci.edu
Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine, Social Ecology II,
Irvine, CA 92697, USA
2  Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

Springer