New paper - Immigration and Crime: An International Perspective

Happy to announce that the paper "Immigration and Crime: An International Perspective", written by Olivier Marie and Paolo Pinotti, has been published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives (vol. 38, no. 1). 

The paper discusses the association between immigration and crime, a long-standing subject of debate for which systematic empirical evidence has only recently started becoming available. Data shows that immigrants, often younger, male, and less educated compared to natives, are disproportionately represented among offenders in numerous host countries. However, existing research, inclusive of our analysis of new international data, consistently indicates that immigration does not significantly impact local crime rates in these countries. Furthermore, recent studies underscore that obtaining legal status diminishes immigrants' involvement in criminal activities. Finally, potential explanations are discussed for the apparent incongruity between immigrants' overrepresentation among offenders and the null effect of immigration on crime rates.