Dr. Christopher Salas-Wright, assistant professor at the School of Social Work, authored the op-ed piece “Immigrants are not a crime problem,” published in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
In the piece, Salas-Wright argues that, although immigrants are often portrayed as dangerous and prone to be involved in crime, a growing body of research indicates that these depictions have little basis in reality.
Salas-Wright and his colleague Michael Vaughn, from Saint Louis University, have used nationally representative data collected by the National Institutes of Health to systematically examine the behaviors of immigrants compared to nonimmigrants in the United States.
They have found that, despite the fact that immigrants experience adversity on multiple fronts (such as being socioeconomically disadvantaged), they are less likely to be involved in violent and antisocial behaviors such as property destruction, shoplifting, theft, and use of a weapon.