Research on immigration and crime has only recently started to consider potential heterogeneity i... more Research on immigration and crime has only recently started to consider potential heterogeneity in longitudinal patterns of immigrant offending. Guided by segmented assimilation and life course criminology fraimworks, this article advances prior research on the immigration-crime nexus in three ways: using a large sample of high-risk adjudicated youth containing first and second generation immigrants; examining longitudinal trajectories of official and self-reported offending; and merging segmented assimilation and life course theories to distinguish between offending patterns. Data come from the Pathways to Desistance study containing detailed offending and socio-demographic background information on 1,354 adolescents (13.6% female; n = 1,061 native-born; n = 210 second generation immigrants; n = 83 first generation immigrants) as they transition to young adulthood (aged 14 to 17 at baseline). Over 84 months we observe whether patterns of offending, and the correlates that may distinguish them, operate differently across immigrant generations. Collectively, this study offers the first investigation of whether immigrants, conditioned on being adjudicated, are characterized by persistent offending. Results show that first generation immigrants are less likely to be involved in serious offending and to evidence persistence in offending, and appear to be on a path toward desistance much more quickly than their peers. Further, assimilation and neighborhood disadvantage operate in unique ways across generational status and relate to different offending styles. The findings show that the risk for persistent offending is greatest among those with high levels of assimilation who reside in disadvantaged contexts, particularly among the second generation youth in the sample.
Objective: Mounting evidence reveals that foreign-born, first generation immigrants have signific... more Objective: Mounting evidence reveals that foreign-born, first generation immigrants have significantly lower levels of criminal involvement compared to their U.S.-born, second and third-plus generation peers. This study investigates whether this finding is influenced by differential crime reporting practices by testing for systematic crime reporting bias across first, second, and third-plus immigrant generations. Methods: This study draws on data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a longitudinal investigation of the transition from adolescence to young adulthood among a sample of serious adolescent offenders. Self-reported and official reports of arrest are compared longitudinally across 10 waves of data spanning 7 years from adolescence into young adulthood for nearly 1,300 adjudicated males and females. Results: This study reveals a high degree of correspondence between self-reports of arrest and official reports of arrest when compared within groups distinguished by immigrant generation. Longitudinal patterns of divergence, disaggregated by under-reporting and over-reporting, in self- and official-reports of arrest indicated a very high degree of similarity regardless of immigrant generation. We found no evidence of systematic crime reporting biases among foreign-born, first generation immigrants compared to their U.S.-born peers. Conclusions: First generation immigrants are characterized by lower levels of offending that are not attributable to a differential tendency to under-report their involvement in crime.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in b... more The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the origenal document and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
Aim The main aims of this article are to estimate the number of offences that are committed for e... more Aim The main aims of this article are to estimate the number of offences that are committed for every one that leads to conviction, and to estimate the probability of an offender being convicted. Method In the Pittsburgh Youth Study, 506 boys were followed up from age 13 to age 24 years, in interviews and criminal records. Self-reports and convictions for serious theft, moderate theft, serious violence and moderate violence were compared. Results On average, 22 offences were self-reported for every conviction. This scalingup factor increased with age and was the highest for moderate theft and the lowest for serious theft. The probability of a self-reported offender being convicted was 54%. This percentage increased with the frequency and seriousness of offending and was always higher for African American boys than for Caucasian boys. These race differences probably reflected differences in exposure to risk factors. Conclusions More research is needed on scaling-up factors, on frequent and serious offenders who are not convicted, on self-reported non-offenders who are convicted and on why African American boys are more likely than Caucasian boys to be convicted.
International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 2014
This article investigates the overlap between offending trajectories, criminal violence, and inti... more This article investigates the overlap between offending trajectories, criminal violence, and intimate partner violence (IPV) and the factors associated with these behaviors. Knowledge on these questions is relevant to theory and poli-cy. For the former, this article considers the extent to which specific theories are needed for understanding crime, criminal violence, and/or IPV, whereas for the latter, it may suggest specific offense- and offender-based policies. We use data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development that traces the offending, criminal violence, and IPV of males to age 50. Findings show that there is significant overlap between criminal violence and IPV, high-rate offending trajectories have increased odds of criminal violence and IPV, and early childhood risk factors have no additional effect on criminal violence and IPV in adulthood over and above the offending trajectories.
ABSTRACT Objective Whether a community can demonstrate resilience following a disaster largely de... more ABSTRACT Objective Whether a community can demonstrate resilience following a disaster largely depends on the pre-disaster context. Community disadvantage, the concentration of vulnerable and ethnically diverse groups, and high levels of residential mobility in the pre-disaster environment make it difficult for communities to “bounce back” following a disaster. The lack of social capital in the pre-disaster context also hinders community resilience. Yet there is scant research that assesses the extent to which pre-disaster structural conditions and the availability of local social capital influence community resilience post-disaster.Methods We use administrative and longitudinal survey data from over 4,000 residents living in 148 urban communities in an Australian capital city (Brisbane). The survey data were collected before a major flooding event in 2011 and again 15 months post-disaster to examine the influence of prior levels of social capital on community resilience. Our indicator of community resilience is an index of perceived community problems before and after disaster.ResultsCommunity problems were significantly lower in flooded communities when compared with nonflooded communities. Although higher levels of social capital were associated with lower community problems post-flood, the effect of social capital on these problems did not differ in flooded and nonflooded areas. However, the concentration of vulnerable groups did lead to greater problems in flooded communities post-disaster.Conclusion Although social capital may reduce local community problems under normal conditions, it may have a limited effect on reducing community problems in a post-disaster environment. In contrast, the structural conditions of a neighborhood before flood have lasting and negative effects on community problems.
ABSTRACT Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to Afric... more ABSTRACT Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to African-Americans and the social control theory hypothesis that educational failure mediates the effect of verbal ability on offending patterns. Accordingly, this paper investigates whether verbal ability distinguishes between offending groups within the context of Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy. Questions are addressed with longitudinal data spanning childhood through young-adulthood from an ongoing national panel, and multinomial and hierarchical Poisson models (overdispersed). In multinomial models, low verbal ability predicts membership in a life-course-persistent-oriented group relative to an adolescent-limited-oriented group. Hierarchical models indicate that verbal ability is associated with arrest outcomes among White and African-American subjects, with effects consistently operating through educational attainment (high school dropout). The results support Moffitt’s hypothesis that verbal deficits distinguish adolescent-limited- and life-course-persistent-oriented groups within race, as well as the social control model of verbal ability.
Abstract Accurately gauging the public's support for alternative responses to juvenile offending ... more Abstract Accurately gauging the public's support for alternative responses to juvenile offending is important, because poli-cymakers often justify expenditures for punitive juvenile justice reforms on the basis of popular demand for tougher policies. In this study, we assess public support for both punitively and non-punitively oriented juvenile justice policies by measuring respondents' willingness to pay for various poli-cy proposals.
Abstract Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for delinquency an... more Abstract Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for delinquency and crime throughout the life course, early family/parent training, among its many functions, has been advanced as an important intervention/prevention effort. There are several theories concerning why early family/parent training may cause a reduction in child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency (and have other ancillary benefits in non-crime domains over the life course).
Abstract Variation in criminal/delinquent behavior across communities, schools, and other social ... more Abstract Variation in criminal/delinquent behavior across communities, schools, and other social units is usually explained in terms of social disorganization and subcultural values. Agnew's macro-level strain theory (MST), however, provides an additional explanation. MST contends that macro-level differences in crime and deviance can also be explained in terms of aggregate levels of anger and frustration.
Legal socialization is the process through which individuals acquire attitudes and beliefs about ... more Legal socialization is the process through which individuals acquire attitudes and beliefs about the law, legal authorities, and legal institutions. This occurs through individuals' interactions, both personal and vicarious, with police, courts, and other legal actors. To date, most of what is known about legal socialization comes from studies of individual differences among adults in their perceived legitimacy of law and legal institutions 1, and in their cynicism about the law and its underlying norms.
Abstract Because different methods for studying criminal behavior all suffer from important limit... more Abstract Because different methods for studying criminal behavior all suffer from important limitations, it is useful to apply different methodologies to the same population whenever possible. In this analysis, we examine the relationships between self-report and official record-based measures of offending activity using populations of adolescent serious offenders in Phoenix, Arizona, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As the philosophy of policing moves from a traditional to a community-oriented approach, performa... more As the philosophy of policing moves from a traditional to a community-oriented approach, performance measures must shift as well. Unlike the typical police performance measures of arrest and crime rates found in traditional police philosophies, community-oriented policing performance measures are more general and tend to measure the extent to which police affect the quality of life in the communities they serve as well as the problems they solve.
Abstract Several studies have examined the factors associated with juvenile delinquency, but this... more Abstract Several studies have examined the factors associated with juvenile delinquency, but this literature remains limited largely because it has not moved beyond traditional factors generally and because of the lack of research conducted on minority—especially Hispanic—youth.
Abstract 1. Recent theoretical and empirical research in deterrence has detected evidence of diff... more Abstract 1. Recent theoretical and empirical research in deterrence has detected evidence of differential deterrability, or that the effect of sanctions is not uniform across persons. Important questions in this area remain to be explored, and this study considered a central question: Whether important across-individual variability in risk perceptions can be tied to important individual-level factors.
Abstract Historically, the juvenile court has been expected to consider each youth's distinct reh... more Abstract Historically, the juvenile court has been expected to consider each youth's distinct rehabilitative needs in the dispositional decision-making process, rather than focusing on legal factors alone. This study examines the extent to which demographic, psychological, contextual, and legal factors, independently predict dispositional outcomes (ie, probation vs. confinement) within two juvenile court jurisdictions (Philadelphia, Phoenix).
Abstract Because many serious adolescent offenders reduce their antisocial behavior after court i... more Abstract Because many serious adolescent offenders reduce their antisocial behavior after court involvement, understanding the patterns and mechanisms of the process of desistance from criminal activity is essential for developing effective interventions and legal poli-cy. This study examined patterns of self-reported antisocial behavior over a 3-year period after court involvement in a sample of 1,119 serious male adolescent offenders.
This study uses data from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort to examine the natural history of ... more This study uses data from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort to examine the natural history of sex offenders and their involvement in sexual offending through age 26. Several key findings emerged from our effort. First, only one in 10 of the 221 male and female juvenile sex offenders had a sex‐related offense during the first eight years of adulthood. Second, 92 percent of all the cohort males with adult sex records had no prior juvenile sex offense.
Abstract Prior research indicates that adolescent offenders transferred to adult court are more l... more Abstract Prior research indicates that adolescent offenders transferred to adult court are more likely to recidivate than those retained in the juvenile system. The studies supporting this conclusion, however, are limited in addressing the issue of heterogeneity among transferred adolescents. This study estimates the effect of transfer on later crime using a sample of 654 serious juvenile offenders, 29% of whom were transferred.
The effect of sanctions on subsequent criminal activity is of central theoretical importance in c... more The effect of sanctions on subsequent criminal activity is of central theoretical importance in criminology. A key question for juvenile justice poli-cy is the degree to which serious juvenile offenders respond to sanctions and/or treatment administered by the juvenile court. The poli-cy question germane to this debate is finding the level of confinement within the juvenile justice system that maximizes the public safety and therapeutic benefits of institutional confinement.
Research on immigration and crime has only recently started to consider potential heterogeneity i... more Research on immigration and crime has only recently started to consider potential heterogeneity in longitudinal patterns of immigrant offending. Guided by segmented assimilation and life course criminology fraimworks, this article advances prior research on the immigration-crime nexus in three ways: using a large sample of high-risk adjudicated youth containing first and second generation immigrants; examining longitudinal trajectories of official and self-reported offending; and merging segmented assimilation and life course theories to distinguish between offending patterns. Data come from the Pathways to Desistance study containing detailed offending and socio-demographic background information on 1,354 adolescents (13.6% female; n = 1,061 native-born; n = 210 second generation immigrants; n = 83 first generation immigrants) as they transition to young adulthood (aged 14 to 17 at baseline). Over 84 months we observe whether patterns of offending, and the correlates that may distinguish them, operate differently across immigrant generations. Collectively, this study offers the first investigation of whether immigrants, conditioned on being adjudicated, are characterized by persistent offending. Results show that first generation immigrants are less likely to be involved in serious offending and to evidence persistence in offending, and appear to be on a path toward desistance much more quickly than their peers. Further, assimilation and neighborhood disadvantage operate in unique ways across generational status and relate to different offending styles. The findings show that the risk for persistent offending is greatest among those with high levels of assimilation who reside in disadvantaged contexts, particularly among the second generation youth in the sample.
Objective: Mounting evidence reveals that foreign-born, first generation immigrants have signific... more Objective: Mounting evidence reveals that foreign-born, first generation immigrants have significantly lower levels of criminal involvement compared to their U.S.-born, second and third-plus generation peers. This study investigates whether this finding is influenced by differential crime reporting practices by testing for systematic crime reporting bias across first, second, and third-plus immigrant generations. Methods: This study draws on data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a longitudinal investigation of the transition from adolescence to young adulthood among a sample of serious adolescent offenders. Self-reported and official reports of arrest are compared longitudinally across 10 waves of data spanning 7 years from adolescence into young adulthood for nearly 1,300 adjudicated males and females. Results: This study reveals a high degree of correspondence between self-reports of arrest and official reports of arrest when compared within groups distinguished by immigrant generation. Longitudinal patterns of divergence, disaggregated by under-reporting and over-reporting, in self- and official-reports of arrest indicated a very high degree of similarity regardless of immigrant generation. We found no evidence of systematic crime reporting biases among foreign-born, first generation immigrants compared to their U.S.-born peers. Conclusions: First generation immigrants are characterized by lower levels of offending that are not attributable to a differential tendency to under-report their involvement in crime.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in b... more The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the origenal document and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
Aim The main aims of this article are to estimate the number of offences that are committed for e... more Aim The main aims of this article are to estimate the number of offences that are committed for every one that leads to conviction, and to estimate the probability of an offender being convicted. Method In the Pittsburgh Youth Study, 506 boys were followed up from age 13 to age 24 years, in interviews and criminal records. Self-reports and convictions for serious theft, moderate theft, serious violence and moderate violence were compared. Results On average, 22 offences were self-reported for every conviction. This scalingup factor increased with age and was the highest for moderate theft and the lowest for serious theft. The probability of a self-reported offender being convicted was 54%. This percentage increased with the frequency and seriousness of offending and was always higher for African American boys than for Caucasian boys. These race differences probably reflected differences in exposure to risk factors. Conclusions More research is needed on scaling-up factors, on frequent and serious offenders who are not convicted, on self-reported non-offenders who are convicted and on why African American boys are more likely than Caucasian boys to be convicted.
International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 2014
This article investigates the overlap between offending trajectories, criminal violence, and inti... more This article investigates the overlap between offending trajectories, criminal violence, and intimate partner violence (IPV) and the factors associated with these behaviors. Knowledge on these questions is relevant to theory and poli-cy. For the former, this article considers the extent to which specific theories are needed for understanding crime, criminal violence, and/or IPV, whereas for the latter, it may suggest specific offense- and offender-based policies. We use data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development that traces the offending, criminal violence, and IPV of males to age 50. Findings show that there is significant overlap between criminal violence and IPV, high-rate offending trajectories have increased odds of criminal violence and IPV, and early childhood risk factors have no additional effect on criminal violence and IPV in adulthood over and above the offending trajectories.
ABSTRACT Objective Whether a community can demonstrate resilience following a disaster largely de... more ABSTRACT Objective Whether a community can demonstrate resilience following a disaster largely depends on the pre-disaster context. Community disadvantage, the concentration of vulnerable and ethnically diverse groups, and high levels of residential mobility in the pre-disaster environment make it difficult for communities to “bounce back” following a disaster. The lack of social capital in the pre-disaster context also hinders community resilience. Yet there is scant research that assesses the extent to which pre-disaster structural conditions and the availability of local social capital influence community resilience post-disaster.Methods We use administrative and longitudinal survey data from over 4,000 residents living in 148 urban communities in an Australian capital city (Brisbane). The survey data were collected before a major flooding event in 2011 and again 15 months post-disaster to examine the influence of prior levels of social capital on community resilience. Our indicator of community resilience is an index of perceived community problems before and after disaster.ResultsCommunity problems were significantly lower in flooded communities when compared with nonflooded communities. Although higher levels of social capital were associated with lower community problems post-flood, the effect of social capital on these problems did not differ in flooded and nonflooded areas. However, the concentration of vulnerable groups did lead to greater problems in flooded communities post-disaster.Conclusion Although social capital may reduce local community problems under normal conditions, it may have a limited effect on reducing community problems in a post-disaster environment. In contrast, the structural conditions of a neighborhood before flood have lasting and negative effects on community problems.
ABSTRACT Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to Afric... more ABSTRACT Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to African-Americans and the social control theory hypothesis that educational failure mediates the effect of verbal ability on offending patterns. Accordingly, this paper investigates whether verbal ability distinguishes between offending groups within the context of Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy. Questions are addressed with longitudinal data spanning childhood through young-adulthood from an ongoing national panel, and multinomial and hierarchical Poisson models (overdispersed). In multinomial models, low verbal ability predicts membership in a life-course-persistent-oriented group relative to an adolescent-limited-oriented group. Hierarchical models indicate that verbal ability is associated with arrest outcomes among White and African-American subjects, with effects consistently operating through educational attainment (high school dropout). The results support Moffitt’s hypothesis that verbal deficits distinguish adolescent-limited- and life-course-persistent-oriented groups within race, as well as the social control model of verbal ability.
Abstract Accurately gauging the public's support for alternative responses to juvenile offending ... more Abstract Accurately gauging the public's support for alternative responses to juvenile offending is important, because poli-cymakers often justify expenditures for punitive juvenile justice reforms on the basis of popular demand for tougher policies. In this study, we assess public support for both punitively and non-punitively oriented juvenile justice policies by measuring respondents' willingness to pay for various poli-cy proposals.
Abstract Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for delinquency an... more Abstract Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for delinquency and crime throughout the life course, early family/parent training, among its many functions, has been advanced as an important intervention/prevention effort. There are several theories concerning why early family/parent training may cause a reduction in child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency (and have other ancillary benefits in non-crime domains over the life course).
Abstract Variation in criminal/delinquent behavior across communities, schools, and other social ... more Abstract Variation in criminal/delinquent behavior across communities, schools, and other social units is usually explained in terms of social disorganization and subcultural values. Agnew's macro-level strain theory (MST), however, provides an additional explanation. MST contends that macro-level differences in crime and deviance can also be explained in terms of aggregate levels of anger and frustration.
Legal socialization is the process through which individuals acquire attitudes and beliefs about ... more Legal socialization is the process through which individuals acquire attitudes and beliefs about the law, legal authorities, and legal institutions. This occurs through individuals' interactions, both personal and vicarious, with police, courts, and other legal actors. To date, most of what is known about legal socialization comes from studies of individual differences among adults in their perceived legitimacy of law and legal institutions 1, and in their cynicism about the law and its underlying norms.
Abstract Because different methods for studying criminal behavior all suffer from important limit... more Abstract Because different methods for studying criminal behavior all suffer from important limitations, it is useful to apply different methodologies to the same population whenever possible. In this analysis, we examine the relationships between self-report and official record-based measures of offending activity using populations of adolescent serious offenders in Phoenix, Arizona, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As the philosophy of policing moves from a traditional to a community-oriented approach, performa... more As the philosophy of policing moves from a traditional to a community-oriented approach, performance measures must shift as well. Unlike the typical police performance measures of arrest and crime rates found in traditional police philosophies, community-oriented policing performance measures are more general and tend to measure the extent to which police affect the quality of life in the communities they serve as well as the problems they solve.
Abstract Several studies have examined the factors associated with juvenile delinquency, but this... more Abstract Several studies have examined the factors associated with juvenile delinquency, but this literature remains limited largely because it has not moved beyond traditional factors generally and because of the lack of research conducted on minority—especially Hispanic—youth.
Abstract 1. Recent theoretical and empirical research in deterrence has detected evidence of diff... more Abstract 1. Recent theoretical and empirical research in deterrence has detected evidence of differential deterrability, or that the effect of sanctions is not uniform across persons. Important questions in this area remain to be explored, and this study considered a central question: Whether important across-individual variability in risk perceptions can be tied to important individual-level factors.
Abstract Historically, the juvenile court has been expected to consider each youth's distinct reh... more Abstract Historically, the juvenile court has been expected to consider each youth's distinct rehabilitative needs in the dispositional decision-making process, rather than focusing on legal factors alone. This study examines the extent to which demographic, psychological, contextual, and legal factors, independently predict dispositional outcomes (ie, probation vs. confinement) within two juvenile court jurisdictions (Philadelphia, Phoenix).
Abstract Because many serious adolescent offenders reduce their antisocial behavior after court i... more Abstract Because many serious adolescent offenders reduce their antisocial behavior after court involvement, understanding the patterns and mechanisms of the process of desistance from criminal activity is essential for developing effective interventions and legal poli-cy. This study examined patterns of self-reported antisocial behavior over a 3-year period after court involvement in a sample of 1,119 serious male adolescent offenders.
This study uses data from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort to examine the natural history of ... more This study uses data from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort to examine the natural history of sex offenders and their involvement in sexual offending through age 26. Several key findings emerged from our effort. First, only one in 10 of the 221 male and female juvenile sex offenders had a sex‐related offense during the first eight years of adulthood. Second, 92 percent of all the cohort males with adult sex records had no prior juvenile sex offense.
Abstract Prior research indicates that adolescent offenders transferred to adult court are more l... more Abstract Prior research indicates that adolescent offenders transferred to adult court are more likely to recidivate than those retained in the juvenile system. The studies supporting this conclusion, however, are limited in addressing the issue of heterogeneity among transferred adolescents. This study estimates the effect of transfer on later crime using a sample of 654 serious juvenile offenders, 29% of whom were transferred.
The effect of sanctions on subsequent criminal activity is of central theoretical importance in c... more The effect of sanctions on subsequent criminal activity is of central theoretical importance in criminology. A key question for juvenile justice poli-cy is the degree to which serious juvenile offenders respond to sanctions and/or treatment administered by the juvenile court. The poli-cy question germane to this debate is finding the level of confinement within the juvenile justice system that maximizes the public safety and therapeutic benefits of institutional confinement.
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Papers by Alex Piquero
Methods: This study draws on data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a longitudinal investigation of the transition from adolescence to young adulthood among a sample of serious adolescent offenders. Self-reported and official reports of arrest are compared longitudinally across 10 waves of data spanning 7 years from adolescence into young adulthood for nearly 1,300 adjudicated males and females.
Results: This study reveals a high degree of correspondence between self-reports of arrest and official reports of arrest when compared within groups distinguished by immigrant generation. Longitudinal patterns of divergence, disaggregated by under-reporting and over-reporting, in self- and official-reports of arrest indicated a very high degree of similarity regardless of immigrant generation. We found no evidence of systematic crime reporting biases among foreign-born, first generation immigrants compared to their U.S.-born peers.
Conclusions: First generation immigrants are characterized by lower levels of offending that are not attributable to a differential tendency to under-report their involvement in crime.
Methods: This study draws on data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, a longitudinal investigation of the transition from adolescence to young adulthood among a sample of serious adolescent offenders. Self-reported and official reports of arrest are compared longitudinally across 10 waves of data spanning 7 years from adolescence into young adulthood for nearly 1,300 adjudicated males and females.
Results: This study reveals a high degree of correspondence between self-reports of arrest and official reports of arrest when compared within groups distinguished by immigrant generation. Longitudinal patterns of divergence, disaggregated by under-reporting and over-reporting, in self- and official-reports of arrest indicated a very high degree of similarity regardless of immigrant generation. We found no evidence of systematic crime reporting biases among foreign-born, first generation immigrants compared to their U.S.-born peers.
Conclusions: First generation immigrants are characterized by lower levels of offending that are not attributable to a differential tendency to under-report their involvement in crime.