This paper focuses on empirical connections between crime and immigration, studying two large waves of recent UK immigration (the late 1990s/early 2000s asylum seekers and the post-2004 inflow from EU accession countries). The first wave led to a modest but significant rise in property crime, while the second wave had a small negative impact. There was no effect on violent crime; arrest rates were not different, and changes in crime cannot be ascribed to crimes against immigrants. The findings are consistent with the notion that differences in labor market opportunities of different migrant groups shape their potential impact on crime.

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Brian Bell, Francesco Fasani and Stephen Machin

1 October 2013

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Review of Economics and Statistics 95(4) , pp.1278-1290, 2013

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DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00337

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/REST_a_00337

This Journal article is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Causes of crime