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Australian immigrants and crime: A review essay

Australian immigrants and crime: A review essay AUST & NZ JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (September 1988) 21 (179-185) AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRANTS AND CRIME: A REVIEW ESSAY Gilbert Geis* and Paul Jesilowt Comparisons of the crime rates of immigrants with those of the native-born are inherently ~olitica~. Un~oubtedly, persons who favour more liberal immigration laws ar~ delighted If studies suggest that t~e n~wcomers are more law-abiding than the native-born. Those opposed to such migration, or to aspects of it, will be pleased if the numerical materials show that the more recent arrivals, or those of a derogated group, end up in prison more often than their numbers alone would predict. Few people ask of such materials a more basic question: What difference, after all, does it make how much crime various kinds of people commit - the young, the old, the native-born and the foreign-born, males, females? We consistently find that youths carry out offences such as assault and burglary to a considerably greater extent than do their elders. But there is no way that we are going to age them any more rapidly in order to alleviate that problem. Nor will we have much luck in transmuting the Australian-born into foreign-born so as to make the crime figures http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology SAGE

Australian immigrants and crime: A review essay

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References (5)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology and Authors, 1988
ISSN
0004-8658
eISSN
1837-9273
DOI
10.1177/000486588802100304
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AUST & NZ JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (September 1988) 21 (179-185) AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRANTS AND CRIME: A REVIEW ESSAY Gilbert Geis* and Paul Jesilowt Comparisons of the crime rates of immigrants with those of the native-born are inherently ~olitica~. Un~oubtedly, persons who favour more liberal immigration laws ar~ delighted If studies suggest that t~e n~wcomers are more law-abiding than the native-born. Those opposed to such migration, or to aspects of it, will be pleased if the numerical materials show that the more recent arrivals, or those of a derogated group, end up in prison more often than their numbers alone would predict. Few people ask of such materials a more basic question: What difference, after all, does it make how much crime various kinds of people commit - the young, the old, the native-born and the foreign-born, males, females? We consistently find that youths carry out offences such as assault and burglary to a considerably greater extent than do their elders. But there is no way that we are going to age them any more rapidly in order to alleviate that problem. Nor will we have much luck in transmuting the Australian-born into foreign-born so as to make the crime figures

Journal

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology – SAGE

Published: Sep 1, 1988

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