A Shot of Morality? Hispanic Immigration, Religious Contextual Characteristics, and Violence

摘要: Extant research often finds that the relative size of Hispanic immigrant population is inversely associated with rates crime at macro level. Yet, few studies have empirically examined indirect pathways through which immigration might impact crime, especially sociocultural characteristics such as religious context. Utilizing data on known violent crimes from over 600 U.S. counties in 2010 paired contextual Religious Congregation and Membership Survey (RCMS), we observe presence immigrants positively community-level Catholic adherence, civically engaged homogeneity that, turn, are negatively crime. Overall, appear to significantly mediate link between violence Implications for immigration-crime literature broader macro-structural discussed.