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Abstract
To have a more complete understanding of ethnoracial disparities in violent crime, I examine the conversation between the Racial Invariance Thesis, the Latino Paradox, and the Immigrant Paradox using a Du Boisian framework. A Du Boisian framework calls to center race and racism and examine the political, historical, and economic conditions of the city. The Immigrant Paradox proposes that immigrant communities benefit from social and economic factors that shield them from higher crime rates compared to their native-born counterparts. The Racial Invariance Thesis argues that structural disadvantage has a common effect on crime across ethnoracial neighborhoods, meaning the causes of crime are racially invariant. However, the Latino Paradox observes that Latinx neighborhoods with high levels of concentrated disadvantage have lower crime rates than Black neighborhoods with similar structural disadvantages. Using data from the second wave of the National Neighborhood Crime Study, I examine neighborhood- and city-level effects on violent crime. Specifically, I examine how city-level immigration concentration and racial segregation operate differently in Black, Latinx, white, minority, and integrated neighborhoods. I hypothesized that immigration will have a less pronounced effect and segregation to have a more pronounced effect on violence in communities of color compared to white neighborhoods. I find that immigration concentration moderated the effects of ethnoracial neighborhoods on violent crime but only for Latinx and integrated neighborhoods. Moreover, I find that segregation has a more pronounced effects on violence in Black, Latinx, minority, and integrated neighborhoods. Controlling for the moderating role of segregation renders the disparities in violent crime between white and ethnoracial neighborhoods insignificant. Furthermore, I examine whether the effects of concentrated disadvantage on violence vary with levels of immigrant concentration and ethnoracial residential segregation. I find that the effects of concentrated disadvantage on violent crime are made less pronounced by city-level immigration concentration. Segregation moderates the effect of disadvantage on violent crime particularly in fully specified models. My analysis provides evidence that supports the applicability of the Racial Invariance Thesis to Latinx communities. I discuss how my findings inform the literature on segregation, immigration, and crime, study limitations, future directions, and policy implications.