RT Article
T1 Immigrants, Crime, and the American Dream: Testing a Segmented Assimilation Theory of Crime
JF International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology
VO 66
IS 5
SP 560
OP 586
A1 McCann, Wesley S.
A2 Zhang, Saijun
A2 Boateng, Francis D.
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1795543442
AB The immigrant-crime relationship is often misunderstood and highly complex. To date, criminological research has largely ignored theory testing of this relationship. This paper examines the extant literature on intergenerational offending amongst immigrant youth and subsequently tests whether the segmented assimilation theory- a theory borrowed from the interdisciplinary social sciences- adequately explains immigrant offending. The study uses data (N = 1,267) from the Pathways to Desistance Study (PTD) to examine intergenerational differences in changes to offending between immigrant youth and the native-born. The analyses largely reveal that the theory, based on its original assumptions, fails to adequately explain youth offending, and that the models provide more support for the straight-line theory of assimilation in regards to delinquency. Limitations and recommendations are discussed and proffered, respectively.
K1 Delinquency
K1 Immigrant
K1 Segmented assimilation
K1 Assimilation
K1 Crime
DO 10.1177/0306624X21994061