NCJ Number
186964
Journal
Canadian Journal of Sociology Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 1999 Pages: 87-108
Date Published
1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
A time-series analysis examined the policing of foreign immigrants and the long-term relationship between immigration and trends in crime rates in Canada during 1896-1940.
Abstract
Moral reformers in the late 19th and early 20th century argued that immigrants contributed disproportionately to crime. The police in North America and Great Britain prosecuted public order offenses as a way of regulating the oral and criminal conduct of the lower classes. The police used public order law in the same way to assimilate the foreigners from southern and eastern Europe, who were considered to be dangerous. The study data came from the Canadian government’s annual survey of criminal convictions and from records compiled by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. The analysis used cointegration and error correction models. Results suggested the existence of a significant long-term relationship between public-order offenses of drunkenness and vagrancy and non-British immigration. However, no long-term relationship existed between immigration and serious crimes. Findings suggested that the blame that moral reformers attached to foreign immigrants for trends in crime, including public order offenses and serious crime, in the earlier part of the 20th century was largely unfounded. Findings supported a cultural conflict perspective regarding the policing of foreign immigrants. Tables and 51 references (Author abstract modified)