Undocumented Immigration and Rates of Crime and Imprisonment: Popular Myths and Empirical Realities

We examine the relationship of contemporary immigration, including undocumented migration, to crime and imprisonment. First, at the national level, we analyze changes in the rates of violent crimes and property crimes during the years of the surge in immigration. Next we look at the incarceration rates of young men eighteen to thirty-nine, comparing the foreign-born versus the U.S.-born by national origin and by education, and, among the foreignborn, by length of residence in the United States.