Working Paper: NBER ID: w19083
Authors: Carolyn M. Moehling; Anne Morrison Piehl
Abstract: The analysis of a new dataset on state prisoners in the 1900 to 1930 censuses reveals that immigrants rapidly assimilated to native incarceration patterns. One feature of these data is that the second generation can be identified, allowing direct analysis of this group and allowing their exclusion from calculations of comparison rates for the "native" population. Although adult new arrivals were less likely than natives to be incarcerated, this likelihood was increasing with their years in the U.S. The foreign born who arrived as children and second generation immigrants had slightly higher rates of incarceration than natives of native parentage, but these differences disappear after controlling for nativity differences in urbanicity and occupational status. Finally, while the incarceration rates of new arrivals differ significantly by source country, patterns of assimilation are very similar.
Keywords: Immigration; Crime; Incarceration; Assimilation; Second Generation
JEL Codes: J15; K42; N32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| time in the US (N92) | likelihood of incarceration (K14) |
| immigrant status (K37) | incarceration rates (K14) |
| urbanicity and occupational status (R29) | differences in incarceration rates (K14) |
| years in the US (N32) | incarceration rates of second generation (K14) |
| second generation (Y60) | incarceration patterns of native-born population (K14) |