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103 Marq. L. Rev. 939 (2019-2020)
Immigration and Violent Crime: Triangulating Findings across Diverse Studies

handle is hein.journals/marqlr103 and id is 959 raw text is: IMMIGRATION AND VIOLENT CRIME: TRIANGULATING FINDINGS ACROSS DIVERSE STUDIES MICHAEL T. LIGHT* & ISABEL ANADON** The dramatic increase in both lawful and unauthorized immigration in recent decades produced a groundswell of research on two questions: (1) Does immigration increase violent crime? and (2) What policy responses are most effective at addressing unauthorized immigration (e.g., sanctuary policies, deportations, etc.)? For the most part, these bodies of work have developed independently, and thus we know little as to whether the insights from one inform the other. This Article fills this gap by first reviewing both areas of research and then triangulating sharedfindings between them. In doing so, we focus on three contemporary immigration policies: (1) increased deportation; (2) sanctuary policies, and (3) amnesty laws. Our review provides little evidence to suggest that immigration increases the prevalence of violence. For this reason, policies aimed to enhance public safety by reducing immigration are unlikely to deliver on their crime reduction promises. I. IN TRODU CTION .......................................................................................... 940 II. THEORETICAL LINKS BETWEEN IMMIGRATION AND VIOLENCE .............. 940 III. EXISTING RESEARCH ON IMMIGRATION AND CRIME .............................. 943 A. Cross-sectional versus Longitudinal Research ............................. 945 B. Reciprocity in the Immigration-Violence Relationship ................ 946 C. Undocum ented Imm igration ......................................................... 948 D . Sum m ary ....................................................................................... 950 IV. THE CRIMINOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF IMMIGRATION POLICY ....... 950 A. Does Immigration Enforcement Decrease Crime? ....................... 950 B. Do Sanctuary Policies Increase Crime? .................................... 953 C. Do Amnesty Laws Impact Crime? ............................................ 958 V . C ON CLU SION ............................................................................................ 960 * Associate Professor of Sociology and Chicano/Latino Studies, University of Wisconsin- Madison. ** Ph.D. student in Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.