Immigrant Status and Attitudes toward Violence: Associations across Race/ethnicity and Neighborhood Contexts

The goal of this study is to examine whether immigrants differ from native-borns in terms of adherence to deviant attitudes. To be more specific, we test whether first- and second-generation immigrants (i.e., foreign-born individuals and native-born individuals born to foreign-born parents, respectively) differ from third-or-greater-generation immigrants (i.e., native-born individuals born to native-born parents) in the extent to which they endorse attitudes favorable toward violence . Due to the multilevel nature of the immigrant-crime relationship, we also examine whether the neighborhood-level concentration of first-generation immigrants is associated with residents’ attitudes toward violence, above and beyond their own immigration status. We use data from a representative cross-sectional survey from San Jose, CA. The study will discuss key implications derived from the methods and findings, along with providing suggestions for future research directions.

(Publisher abstract provided.)