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The California Story: Reduced Crime, High Immigration

Originally posted in The Crime Report. 

The Crime Report highlights a recent CJCJ report which found increasing positive trends for health in safety in California as the overall population became more diverse and saw increased immigration. 

Read the report Refuting Fear: Immigration, Youth and California’s Stunning Declines in Crime and Violence” »

From the article: 

California’s dramatic decline in rates of drug overdose, gun violence and juvenile crime parallels the sharp increase in foreign immigrants to the state, says a study released yesterday.

According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, youth violent crime rates have dropped 72 percent, and homicide arrests of urban youth have plunged by 92 per cent between 1980 and 2015. Over roughly the same period America’s largest state (by population) moved from two-thirds white to over 60 percent people of color — a demographic transformation the study says was driven largely by high rates of foreign immigration.

The parallel trends refute the fear-mongering of politicians about the dangers to public safety posed by unrestricted immigration, claimed study author Mike Males, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at the San Francisco-based non-profit.

California has demonstrated substantial gains in health and safety as its demographic composition has become more diverse and immigration has increased,” Males wrote.

Related Links:

California to Trump: What American carnage’? Things are far safer here than in the rest of America

Trump’s distortions of crime, violence, drugs and youth

Why the Gigantic, Decades-Long Drop in Black Youth Crime Threatens Major Interests