Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the US-born, 1870–2020

Ran Abramitzky, Leah Boustan, Elisa Jácome, Santiago Perez and Juan David Torres

No 31440, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We provide the first nationally representative long-run series (1870–2020) of incarceration rates for immigrants and the US-born. As a group, immigrants have had lower incarceration rates than the US-born for 150 years. Moreover, relative to the US-born, immigrants’ incarceration rates have declined since 1960: immigrants today are 60% less likely to be incarcerated (30% relative to US-born whites). This relative decline occurred among immigrants from all regions and cannot be explained by changes in immigrants’ observable characteristics or immigration policy. Instead, the decline is part of a broader divergence of outcomes between less-educated immigrants and their US-born counterparts.

JEL-codes: K4 N31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-int, nep-lab, nep-law, nep-mig and nep-ure
Note: DAE LS
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Journal Article: Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap between Immigrants and the US-Born, 1870–2020 (2024)
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