Bicultural Competence: A Means to Crime Reduction among the
Children of Immigrants?
Caitlin Killian, Emory University
3200
J.B.
Introduction
1.
Public sentiment against immigrants and immigration ebbs and flows. During certain
periods of time over the past century, immigrants have been blamed for corrupting morals,
stealing jobs, and raising the crime rate; at other times, they have been largely forgotten and
invisible. In the
1980s and 1990s immigration is once again a popular topic, and one of the
perennial questions that have resurfaced is: what is the relationship between immigrants and
crime? While much research reveals that most immigrant groups actually commit less crime
than the native population, the more worrisome finding is that their children are more criminal. I
will discuss this finding and examine solutions for preventing crime among the children of
immigrants. Specifically, I propose that cultural socialization and bicultural competence may
insulate the second generation from engaging in illegal acts. Finally, I will suggest future
directions for work on immigration and crime.
Findings on immigrant crime
2. Overall, with some clear exceptions, the findings suggest that immigrants commit less crime
than do members of the native population, but that the second generation commits more crime
than natives. Canadian studies from the 1950s to the I990s reveal that immigrants are half as
likely to be criminals as are natives (Yaeger 1997). The statistics are similar in Australia where
immigrants from New Zealand, Germany, and Yugoslavia are only slightly more likely to commit
crime than natives, and Asians are much less likely to engage in crime (Yaeger 1997). In the
United States the pattern holds, although there is little research that is not more than 25 years
old (Yaeger 1997). Most modem British studies conclude that neither Asians nor blacks of
foreign origin are more crime-prone than natives (Yaeger 1997), although the findings for black
immigrants are contradicted by other studies (Smith 1997). In Switzerland, Italians are less likely
to commit crimes than native Swiss, and in Germany, although immigrant crime is on the rise, it
is still less than the rate for native German males (Yaeger 1997). Terlouw and Bruinsma (1994)
found that Dutch natives are the most frequent drug offenders overall in the Netherlands,
committing more crime than even illegal North African and Eastern European immigrants.
3. Those immigrant groups that do commit more crime than the native population may include
West Indians in Great Britain, and do include Moroccans and Antilleans in the Netherlands, and
Hispanics in the United States (Tonry 1997). Another study found that in 1991, Latin Americans
and Caribbean immigrants had higher crime rates, 14 and 18 per 10,000 population,
respectively, than the general population in Canada where the rate for native-born Canadians
was 10.6 and for the foreign born in general 5.5 per 10,000 population (Thomas 1993). The
New York State Department of Correctional Services reported that in 1994, 13 percent of their
prison population was foreign-born, but that 80 percent of the incarcerated immigrant population
was comprised of Caribbeans and South Americans (New York State Dept. of Correctional
Services 1995). Other groups, such as Asians, commit substantially less crime (Batta, Mawby
and McCulloch 1981), although those Asians that migrated as ‘boat people’ engage in more
crime than earlier waves pointing to structural rather than cultural reasons for illegal activity.
4.
Not surprisingly, the data on different rates of offending by immigrant group carries over
into the rate of offending for the second generation, such that some groups reach parity with
natives, some surpass them, and others never reach native levels (Yaeger 1997). But the
second generation is clearly more criminal than the first, especially in terms of property crimes
(Yaeger 1997; Tonry 1997). In Tonry’s (1997) cross-national comparison of nine ~~stern
countries, only in Sweden, where immigrants are more criminal than the general population,
were immigrants found to be more crime-prone than their children (Martens 1997). Thus the
findings on immigration and crimepoint to two consistent factors: children of immigrants commit
more crime than their parents and different immigrant groups engage in crime at different rates.
Why are the children of immigrants more criminal than their parents, and how can this be
prevented?
Prevention of crime among members of the second generation
Crime theories
5. Various crime theories can help us understand why children of immigrants are more criminal
than their parents. Cultural theories would argue that members of the second generation
assimilate and in the process both lose the cultural values that prevented crime among their
parents and gain values that predispose members of the new culture to crime. The specific
values would depend on the group of origin and the country of destination, and thus could
explain the different findings for various groups in different countries. At the micro level, social
learning theorists would argue that children learn deviance from deviant peers who model and
reinforce deviant behavior. Strain and anomie theorists would predict that members of the
second generation caught between different value systems may experience conflicting values.
They may feel alienated from their parents whom they view as backward and ignorant, yet they
may not yet be fully accepted by peers in the new country. Hence, unlike their parents who feel
comfortably tied to the ethnic community, they may experience a general state of anomie
leading to higher crime rates. In a similar vein, social control theorists would argue that children
of immigrants may be breaking away from their co-ethnic groups and thus becoming
unattached, while at the same time experiencing the discrimination that makes it difficult to
integrate into the larger culture. Unable to become invested in conventional activities they lose
control and turn to crime.
6. On the structural side, social disorganization theorists would argue that while their parents
grew up under different circumstances, many children of immigrants are growing up in socially
disorganized neighborhoods where economic deprivation, heterogeneity of the population,
continual resident turnover, and size and density of the community are all problems. These
factors make supervision of youth, surveillance of activities and property, and neighborhood
organization and involvement difficult. While the parents may wish to move to a better
neighborhood as soon as is economically feasible, the poorly monitored children maybe
establishing ties to peer groups that are unsupervised and possibly delinquent.
7. Although there are many reasons to believe that immigrants should be strained, there are
also reasons to believe that their children should be as strained in certain areas and more so in
others. The second generation, at least while growing up, will suffer from the same economic
situation as their parents. However, their parents may compare their present situation to that in
the country of origin and thus feel better off, while the children will compare to peers in the new
country instead. Children of non-white immigrants will experience the same discrimination as
their parents, perhaps more so as they move beyond the ethnic enclaves that might help
insulate their parents. Finally, while the immigrants are adjusting to life in the new country, their
children are trying to forge an identity and reconcile ancestral traditions with new values. All of
these examples highlight the strain that might overburden members of the second generation
who then release their frustration through crime.
8. Finally, theorists from diverse perspectives argue that both cultural and the structural
dynamics of the United States make it an especially violent society (Hill et al., 1994; Messner
and Rosenfeld 1994). Since most immigrants move to countries where they both hope to do
better economically and encounter cultural conflicts, it is no wonder that as immigrant children
assimilate into mainstream culture in most popular countries for immigration they become
increasingly crime-prone.
Ties to ethnic communities
9. Given this, how can we prevent crime in the second generation? The answer I propose
combines elements of social control and cultural theories with findings in other domains of
research on the children of immigrants. As early as the I 960s, researchers found that the
delinquency of children of immigrants is much lower in communities where there is a good deal
of inner cohesion, strong primary-group control of members, and strong home control over
youth (reported in Shoham 1962). Fujimoto (1975) explains the lack of crime among second
generation Japanese immigrants by arguing that children are expected to work for the family,
and the family’s dependency on them not only limits the time they have for delinquent acts, but
more generally causes them to mature quickly and be responsible. A recent set of studies of
Vietnamese youth in Louisiana (Bankston and Caldas 1996; Zhou and Bankston 1994) reveals
that those adolescents who have weak social control and replace adult Vietnamese social
networks with peer culture are more likely to drop out of school and to get in trouble with the
law. They become attached to a minority fringe rather than the immigrant community as a
whole, and thus have trouble connecting to the larger society. These youth are labeled as
outsiders in their own communities and their subsequent social learning comes from delinquent
peers instead of families and community leaders. All of these studies deal with social control,
yet since they involve immigrants, social control also implies attachment to ethnic values.
10. Strong ties to the ethnic community may also help children succeed despite disadvantaged
backgrounds (Harrison et al., 1990; Zhou and Bankston 1994). Participation in strong ethnic
communities may indeed foster traditional ethnic values and behaviors, and these networks of
relations with similar others are a valuable social capital asset. In Zhou and Bankston’s (1994)
study they focus specifically on ties to the community as social capital. They found that those
Vietnamese children in an immigrant community who have a strong commitment to traditional
Vietnamese values and are highly involved in the ethnic community do better in school and
have higher academic goals than peers without these characteristics. Because these children
are living in an economically depressed area, and their success in school may translate into
higher human capital, this study points to the ability of high social capital to overcome the
effects of a poor family background (Zhou and Bankston 1994). The study by Bankston and
Caldas reported above showed that the converse is also true: unintegrated Vietnamese youth
are at risk for delinquency and crime. The findings from both these studies support Harrison et
al’s (1990) assertion that traditional ethnic world views and biculturalism may be a beneficial
adaptive strategy for minority youth.
Proactive socialization and bicultural competence
11. Recent research is beginning to show the benefits of bicultural competence. Studies since
the l960s have consistently shown that bilingual children score higher on a variety of intelligence
tests (see Portes and Schauffler 1994). In addition, while it was once believed that immigrant
and minority children, due to acculturative strain and discrimination, experienced childhood and
adolescence uniformly negatively recent works have argued that there is a positive side as well.
Harrison et al (1990) argue that when minority families practice adaptive strategies, such as
teaching their children world views that foster communal attachment and interdependence
rather than an individualist perspective, fostering ethnic pride, and exposing them to extended
family systems, children benefit from biculturalism through enhanced cognitive flexibility and
general coping mechanisms. The term proactive socialization (Boykin and Ellison reported in
Hill et al. 1994) refers to the conscious socialization of minority youth to understand the varied
expectations of the multiple cultural systems in which they live. Like Harrison et al., Hill et al.
argue that cultural values can strengthen children and help protect them from racism. It can also
help them bond with appropriate role models within their communities (Hill et a!. 1994). Bowman
and Howard (1985, reported in Hill et al. 1994) found that pro-actively socialized black children
were more motivated and achievement-oriented than their peers. Hill et al. (1994) also state that
bicultural competence should improve not only cognitive functioning, but also general mental
health.
12. Applied in the context of crime theories, these behaviors should help mitigate second
generational deviance. When ancestral norms discourage deviance and crime, ethnic
socialization should help children avoid illegal behavior. The strain that comes from being a
minority member in a majority culture is also reduced when children feel proud of their ethnicity
and are competent in both cultures so that they can move back and forth with less stress. They
may be able to brush off ethnic or racial slurs, instead of taking them personally and feeling the
need for retribution (Hill et al. 1994). The reliance on extended family can ensure social control
even when parents are at work, or close family members have remained in the home country.
Hill et al. (1994) specifically state that the absence of proactive socialization may put minority
children at an increased risk of violence. Thus, because of increased flexibility, reduced strain,
heightened social control, and better achievement in school, children of immigrants who are
actively ethnically socialized, yet biculturally competent should be less likely to commit crime
than those who are disengaged from their ethnic communities or conversely so isolated within
them that they are unable to function in the wider social context. The key is to find a balance
between cultures and not to assimilate completely.
13. A quote from the United States in the l950s concerning the first generation is revealing and
can be applied to the second generation as well:
‘Some immigrants...have established fairly effective institutions and primary relations.
..Immigrants who only gradually give over their old world patterns of behavior are in general
seldom seen in our criminal courts. [The immigrant thus it becomes assimilated more slowly
possibly, but much more effectively. Not nonassimilation but overrapid Americanization spells
crime’ (Taft 1956 cited by Shoham 1962).
14. Yet, a half century ago the goal was still straight-line assimilation where immigrants and
especially their children quickly lost the language, cultural traditions, values, and even
identification with the country they left. Today this model is being challenged by researchers,
particularly in the case of racial minorities who are unable to assimilate through identification
because of discrimination in the host society. The recommendation for all immigrants should no
longer be assimilation, but rather biculturalism, where children are well versed in the cultural
values of their parents yet perfectly capable of coping in the new society in which they live.
The role of others
15. How can non-ethnic community members help the children of immigrants stay attached to
their families and ethnic groups? First, it is important to promote an atmosphere that is
accepting of diverse cultures. The mental health of immigrants in general tends to be belier in
multicultural societies (Murphy 1973). Second, those who are frequently in contact with
immigrant youth can work to avoid making matters worse between immigrants and their
children. Hopkins et al. (1994) highlight two reasons that contribute to Southeast Asian refugee
youth becoming delinquents: acculturation problems and role-reversal with parents. When
parents have poor language skills (Hopkins et al., 1994) or parents are missing (Bankston and
Caldas 1996), immigrant youth are often forced to take on responsibilities beyond their years.
This not only increases strain, but also cuts children off from their parents or relatives even
further. Hopkins et al. recommend that professional translators be used in interactions between
officials (courts, schools, etc.) instead of allowing children to translate for their parents, thus
upsetting the balance of authority in the parent-child relationship. Additionally, they recommend
that those involved with immigrant youth should not openly agree with their assertions that their
parents are backward, do not understand life in the United States, cannot relate to their lives,
etc. Interestingly, in 1962 Shoham noted some of the same problems with North African Jews in
Israel ‘The process of integration may also injure and sometimes shatter the social and
economic status of the head of the family. This. ..may weaken the cohesion of the family unit
and thus hamper the family control over the young ... . All these factors presumably increase the
susceptibility of the children of immigrant parents to absorb the so-called “street-culture” and to
become juvenile delinquents’.
Critiques of the cultural socialization approach
16. Arguably, there are some weaknesses with the cultural socialization approach to curbing the
second generation’s crime rate. First of all, elements of the parents’ culture may be
maladaptive. Sexism, physical punishment, lack of children’s rights, and the like, may all make it
hard for children of certain immigrant groups to find a middle ground between their parents’
culture and that of the host country. However, the findings on cognitive flexibility point to
bicultural children’s increased ability to migrate back and forth and pick and choose between
cultural value systems. Having more options in and of itself should help children find ways to
cope with strain in difficult situations. It would also be difficult to argue that any society is truly
pro-crime, and thus even if particular cultures encourage certain forms of deviant behavior,
strong ties to parents and community members should still prevent most crime. It is important to
remember that competing values exist within cultures, and researchers sometimes disagree
about whether a particular cultural value should lead to or hinder crime. Sanchez Jankowski
(1995) notes the example of respect in Hispanic cultures. Can it simultaneously lead to violence
because of the need to maintain respect and, on the other hand, counter crime because of
respect for authority?
17. The other problem is that bicultural competence may have less effect than hypothesized,
and prevention of crime may be more influenced by purely structural factors. Martens (1997)
suggests that the children of immigrants in Sweden commit less crime than their parents
because of the successful social welfare policy. However, immigrants in Sweden commit more
crime than the native population, and it may be that Sweden is a particularly law-abiding society.
Martens acknowledges that groups with a high brime rate in the first generation have a high rate
in the second generation and vice versa, which points to cultural factors. Thus more research
needs to be done to understand the relative importance of each of these factors.
Conclusion: suggestions for further research
18. The few current studies on immigration and crime are a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, much work continues to rely heavily on crime statistics ranging from the turn of
the century to the 1970s. Current research needs to focus on crimes committed by immigrants
in the 1990s. New studies should systematically examine different immigrant groups in order to
understand their differential rates of crime commission and any connection to ethnic
socialization.
19. Most importantly, future research should incorporate the theoretical work on proactive
cultural socialization and bicultural competence to see if these factors do indeed hinder crime.
Studies need to explore structural factors to determine whether they work in conjunction with
cultural factors, or in fact outweigh them in preventing crime. While the pressure of becoming
bicultural may indeed produce strain, all immigrant children are facing strain in their options for
adapting, and biculturalism may be the healthiest option, healthier than assimilation.
Biculturalism is reported to improve academic achievement and to help discourage the negative
effects on self-esteem caused by discrimination. If successful biculturalism can also impede
deviant and criminal behavior, as we have reason to suspect, it would further lend credence to
the argument that the benefits of biculturalism outweigh its stresses.
References (partial listing)
Agnew, Robert. (1992). ‘Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency’. Criminology
30:47-88.
Bankston, Carl L. III and Stephen J. Caldas. (1996). ‘Adolescents and deviance in a Vietnamese
American community: A theoretical synthesis’. Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal 17:159-181.