Abstract
Purpose
A growing number of studies have examined the immigrant paradox with respect to antisocial behavior and crime in the United States. However, there remains a need for a comprehensive examination of the intergenerational nature of violence and antisocial behavior among immigrants using population-based samples.
Methods
The present study, employing data from Wave I and II data of the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), sought to address these gaps by examining the prevalence of nonviolent criminal and violent antisocial behavior among first, second, and third-generation immigrants and compare these to the prevalence found among non-immigrants and each other in the United States
Introduction
Although there is continuity in prosocial and antisocial behaviors across generations—one exception may occur among immigrants to the United States. Several recent studies have examined the relationship between immigrant status and various forms of maladaptive behaviors including deviance by contrasting the prevalence of nonviolent criminal and violent antisocial acts among native-born and first-generation immigrants in the United States (cf., Allen and Cancino, 2012, Bersani et al., 2013, Chen and Zhong, 2013, DiPietro and Cwick, 2014, DiPietro and McGloin, 2012, Jennings et al., 2013, MacDonald and Saunders, 2012, Peguero and Jiang, 2014, Piquero et al., 2014 and Vaughn et al., 2014). Thus far, findings indicate that immigrants are significantly less likely to be antisocial than native-born Americans. This is known as the immigrant paradox, whereby first-generation immigrants display better behavioral outcomes than native-born Americans and more highly acculturated immigrants despite the relative socioeconomic disadvantages and risk factors that immigrants face. Several constructs have been examined to explain the immigrant paradox including cultural factors ( Sampson, 2008 and Wirth, 1931), changes to family and peer dynamics ( Bacio, Mays, & Lau, 2013), various lifestyle and routine activities ( Peguero, 2013), and school factors ( Jiang and Peterson, 2012, Peguero and Jiang, 2014 and Watkins and Melde, 2009). As such, these studies suggest that non-USA nativity serves to protect against involvement in a wide range of antisocial behaviors across various developmental periods and among immigrants from various regions of the world. 1
Despite the advances made by recent studies; however, several important questions related to the dynamics of the immigrant-crime link have yet to be fully explored. For instance, in light of evidence highlighting the multigenerational effects of the immigrant paradox for social development and health-risk behaviors (Bacio et al., 2013, Bui, 2013, Guarini et al., 2011 and Marks et al., 2014), does immigrant status protect against crime across multiple generations or is their stable intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior in population-based samples? Second, given the importance of gender in terms of predicting criminal behavior (Bontrager, 2013 and Kruttschnitt, 2013), does the protective effect of immigration status function similarly among men and women?2 A careful examination of these multigenerational and gender-related factors can serve to provide important information about the robustness and nature of the relationship between immigrant status and crime.
Conclusion
While previous research has examined the links between immigration and crime and antisocial behavior, the present study is among the first to do so across multiple generations employing a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States. Results provide robust evidence in support of intergenerational discontinuity in antisocial behavior among immigrants. By the third generation, the prevalence of non-violent and violent acts is substantially greater than that of first-generation immigrants and closely resembles that of non-immigrants. We also found that the pattern of findings was stable across gender. Findings from this study suggest that the benefits of reduced antisocial behavior and crime among immigrants do not hold across generations and that the familial concentration of crime can either be disrupted by migration to a new nation or, on the flip side, ignited by acculturation. However, further research is necessary to disentangle the mechanisms involved with these effects.
