Delinquency and Crime among Immigrant Youth—An Integrative Review of Theoretical Explanations

Xi Chen and Hua Zhong
Additional contact information
Xi Chen: Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 4F Sino Building, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong
Hua Zhong: Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 4F Sino Building, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

Laws, 2013, vol. 2, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: Although classical theorists tend to believe that immigrant youth are more delinquent than native-born adolescents, the existing empirical studies have shown the opposite. The current paper first gives a comprehensive overview of major theoretical explanations for the relatively lower level of delinquency among immigrant youth, including cultural perspectives, strain theories, social control theory, social learning theory, and social disorganization theory. The main argument is that immigrant youth who have not yet acculturated to the youth subculture of the host society are more law-abiding due to protections from their traditional traits ( i.e ., being more realistic, stronger ties with family/schools, less access to delinquent friends, and higher level of collective efficacy in homogeneous neighborhoods). All these theories are also applied to explain the generational differences in terms of delinquency: compared to earlier generations, later generations of immigrant youth are often more delinquent because they are more acculturated and the protective factors from their origins wear off over time. The continuing public and political bias toward immigrant youth has been explained by social constructionists. We further discuss the necessity of a synthesis of these theoretical approaches and the importance to examine both internal and international migration under similar theoretical frameworks in the modern era.

Keywords: migration/immigration; delinquency; acculturation; strain; social control; social learning; social disorganization; social constructionist (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/2/3/210/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/2/3/210/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:2:y:2013:i:3:p:210-232:d:27969

Access Statistics for this article

Laws is currently edited by Ms. Heather Liang

More articles in Laws from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().