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Crime And Crime

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To find a correlation between immigration and crime we must look at cultural differences. Thorsten Sellin, a sociologist from the University of Pennsylvania, argues that conflicting conduct norms between the old and new societies is the principal cause of crime among youth. Sellin points to immigrant’s values in that they often deviate from receiving societies (Sellin, 1938). To summarize, in the absence of clear cut rules, individuals are likely to deviate from norms that are not self-evident. Sellin’s argument points to an increase in crime and delinquency because migrant populations are unable or unsuccessful to cultural adaption to the hosting society. Edwin Sutherland, a criminologist in Pennsylvania, also points to acculturation as a connection to crime regarding immigrants (Sutherland, 1978). Sutherland argues that the blame should not be on immigrant’s cultural origins but instead the acculturation into American Society, which would naturally affect the second-generation immigrants. Sutherlands view has led some to believe that second generation immigrants may be more crime prone. Sutherland states that “..this acculturation perspective addresses the problem of cultural assimilation and its effect on delinquency and risky behavior” (Sutherland, 1978). Sutherland brings up a valid point in that the reason we statistically see later generations of immigrants committing crime is that they are “naturalizing” to American society. However, even

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