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Author: Melchor-Ayala, Omar
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Melchor-Ayala, Omar |
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The Influence of Age at Migration on Criminal Offending among Foreign-Born Immigrants Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Portland State University, 2019 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Crime; Drug Use; Immigrants Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Using data from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the current dissertation [explores] the influence of age at migration on criminal offending among foreign-born immigrants who migrated prior to adulthood. Using binary logistic regression, the analysis compares the effect of age at migration (i.e. early childhood, middle childhood, or adolescence) on "any crime," after controlling for theoretically important criminological covariates. Supplemental analyses also consider this effect on specific types of self-reported offending (property, violent, and drug offenses), and among Hispanic foreign-born immigrants--the largest and fastest growing immigrant group in the United States. Given previous research findings pointing to influential nature of age at migration (e.g., those who arrive at young age are more likely to do well in terms of educational and occupational outcomes) and theoretical notions pointing to the salience of age at migration, I hypothesized that statistically significant differences would exist in offending among the age at migration groups. The overall results of the analysis did not provide support for my hypothesis. More specifically, migrating during early childhood or middle childhood did not differentially affect the odds of offending, relative to migrating in adolescence (the group reporting the lowest level of offending). However, supplemental analyses revealed that age at migration was significant in predicting drug offending (but not property or violent offenses). Compared to those who migrate during adolescence, migrating during early childhood or middle childhood was negatively associated with the odds of drug offending, all other variables constant. In addition to a full discussion of the results, implications of the findings, study limitations, and suggestions for future research are also provided. Lastly, a note is offered on the value of incorporating null results in our understanding of the immigration-crime nexus, and our overall sociological knowledge. |
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Bibliography Citation
Melchor-Ayala, Omar. The Influence of Age at Migration on Criminal Offending among Foreign-Born Immigrants. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Portland State University, 2019. |