Criminology Colloquium Series: Charis Kubrin

New Directions in Research on Immigration and Crime
Do immigrants commit more crime than non-immigrants? Do increases in immigration cause crime rates to rise in communities? These questions are at the forefront of discussions about crime and public safety in the United States. Public opinion data suggest many residents believe the answer to these questions is an unqualified “yes” but does scientific research agree? In this talk, I review what we know about the immigration-crime link—highlighting opportunities and pitfalls from my own research journey—as well as discuss new directions in research.
 
Charis E. Kubrin is Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and (by courtesy) Sociology. Her research focuses on neighborhood correlates of crime, with an emphasis on race and violent crime. Recent work examines the immigration-crime nexus, as well as assesses the impact of criminal justice reform on crime rates. In addition to her work in peer-reviewed journals, Professor Kubrin is co-author of Researching Theories of Crime and Deviance (Oxford University Press 2008) and Privileged Places: Race, Residence, and the Structure of Opportunity (Lynne Rienner 2006) and co-editor of Introduction to Criminal Justice: A Sociological Perspective (Stanford University Press 2013) and Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics, and Injustice (New York University Press 2012). Professor Kubrin has received national awards for her scholarly contributions to the field including the Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology (for outstanding scholarly contributions to the discipline of criminology) and the W.E.B. DuBois Award from the Western Society of Criminology (for significant contributions to racial and ethnic issues in the field of criminology). In 2019, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.