Immigrant assimilation into US prisons, 1900–1930

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Population Economics
Year: 2014
Volume: 27
Issue: 1
Pages: 173-200

Authors (2)

Carolyn Moehling (not in RePEc) Anne Piehl (National Bureau of Economic Re...)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

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 USA. 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. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:spr:jopoec:v:27:y:2014:i:1:p:173-200
Journal Field
Growth
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29