Policing immigrants: Fear of deportations and perceptions of law enforcement and criminal justice

Becerra, David; Wagaman, M. Alex; Androff, David; Messing, Jill T.; Castillo, Jason

doi:10.1177/1468017316651995

Cited by 54 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…For example, over 400 reported sex crimes were not investigated by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona because that office instead focused on immigration and enforcement strategies that included community and workplace raids (Lacey 2011). Previous studies have found that Latinos perceive discrimination by the police (Becerra, Wagaman, Androff, Messing, and Castillo 2016). State, county, and local law enforcement being involved in the enforcement of immigration policies may exacerbate the often strained relationship between the police and Latino communities and lead to further mistrust of the police.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Anti-immigration Policies and Fear of Deportation: A Human Rights Issue

Becerra

2016

J. Hum. Rights Soc. Work

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This paper examines how recent immigration policies and immigration enforcement strategies have impacted Latino immigrants in Arizona. Data were drawn from a sample of adult Latino immigrants (n = 213) living in Arizona. Analyses examined the relationship between fear of deportation and the impact of immigration policies on various aspects of daily life of Latino immigrants as a result of US immigration policies. Results indicate that participants who reported a greater fear of deportation were also significantly more likely to report: (1) trouble keeping a job; (2) trouble finding a job; (3) having been asked for immigration documents; (3) that friends have suffered; (4) that their family has suffered; (5) lower confidence that police will treat Latino immigrants fairly; (6) lower confidence that the courts will treat Latino immigrants fairly; and (7) lower confidence that they will have a better future. Implications for social work practice, advocacy, and research are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Anti-immigration Policies and Fear of Deportation: A Human Rights Issue

Becerra

2016

J. Hum. Rights Soc. Work

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“…A good deal of research has found similar correlations between various of these variables and Latinos, Hispanics, and Mexican-Americans (Barboza, 2012;Barrick, 2014;Becerra, et al, 2017).…”

Section: Figure 2 the Benefits Of Civilian Trust/confidence In Localmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…However, race may be an imperfect variable here inasmuch as race can be correlated with (or a confounding variable with respect to) other relevant variables including negative contacts with police (Gau, 2010;Reisig & Parks, 2000;Reisig & Parks, 2002;Shelley, Hogan, Unnithan, & Stretesky, 2013;Wu, Sun, & Triplett, 2009); fear of crime in the respondent's own neighborhood (Perkins, 2016); lack of feelings of personal safety or social cohesion in respondents' own communities (Auter, 2016;Bradford & Myhill, 2015;Perkins, 2016); quality of life, generally (Reisig & Parks, 2000; lack of mirror image of race on the local police force (Forster-Towne, 2012); perceptions of decay, disorder, or disadvantage in one's own community (Boateng, Lee, & Abess, 2016;Perkins, 2016;Reisig & Parks, 2000Wu, Sun, & Triplett, 2009); felt obligations to obey the law and police (Baker, et al, 2015); history or perceptions of procedural justice/injustice and fair/unfair treatment (Baker, et al, 2015;Bowling & Phillips, 2003;Bradford & Myhill, 2015;Lee, 2017;Nix, Wolfe, Rojek, & Kaminski, 2015;Schulenberg, Chenier, Buffone, & Wojciechowski, 2017;Tyler & Huo, 2002, pp. 49, 57;Wolfe, Nix, Kaminski, & Rojek, 2016); civilian impressions of police accountability (DeAngelis & Wolf, 2016); exposure to media reporting on police misconduct (Wu, 2010, p. 778); and enhanced fear of deportation in relevant sub-groups (Becerra, Wagaman, Androff, Messing, & Castillo, 2017;Wu, Sun, & Smith, 2011, pp. 768-769).…”

Section: Figure 2 the Benefits Of Civilian Trust/confidence In Localmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confidence in Law Enforcement When African-Americans are Underrepresented on the Force: An Exploratory Study

MacLean

2019

SSRN Journal

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This dissertation explores the prediction that when African-Americans are underrepresented among sworn officers in a community's local law enforcement agencies compared to the African-American proportions in that community's overall population, African-American civilians' confidence in their local law enforcement agencies may suffer, leading to impaired respect for law, reduced civilian cooperation with law enforcement, and civilian impressions of weakened procedural justice and fairness. With low civilian confidence, the argument goes, one could expect an enhanced sense of disenfranchisement among the underrepresented sub-populations. The purpose of this study is to consider the impact of underrepresentation of African-Americans among sworn officers serving a local community, explore the key correlates of civilian confidence viewed through the lens of African-American perceptions and attitudes, and confront the superordinate roles that procedural justice and police effectiveness play in forming African-American civilian attitudes of confidence, trust, and satisfaction in local law enforcement. To quantify representativeness, this study expresses relative racial compositions of the police and the policed as a Racial Mirror Index ("RMI"). If the percent of a community's police, who are African-American, exactly matches the percent of the policed in that community, who are African-American, the RMI-AA ("Racial Mirror Index-African-American") would equal 100. RMI-AAs over 100 indicate African-Americans are overrepresented on the local law enforcement agency compared to the African-American share of the general population; RMI-AAs under 100 indicate African-Americans are underrepresented among sworn officers on the force. Despite expectations, as this study makes clear, RMI-AA is not a significant predictor of African-American civilian confidence, trust, and satisfaction in local law enforcement. Instead, African-American attitudes about local law enforcement are overwhelmingly driven by African-American perceptions of procedural justice and police effectiveness. African-American confidence, trust, and satisfaction in law enforcement remains far lower than for Whites regardless of RMI-AA and the degree of underrepresentation on the force. Thus, law enforcement agencies cannot hire their way out of this confidence gap through minority recruitment. Instead, improving African-American confidence in local law enforcement will require the agencies to engage with the far more substantive work of ensuring their officers deliver both procedural justice and effective policing.

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“…We control for gender in the analysis below, and consider how this factor varies across the four settings that we investigate. Fear of deportation has been identified as a significant predictor of Latinos' perceptions of the fairness of the criminal justice system (Becerra et al, 2016;Messing et al, 2015). Becerra and colleagues (2016) found that individuals with greater fear of deportation were significantly more likely to report: 1) less confidence that police would not use excessive force; 2) less confidence that police would treat Latinos fairly; 3) a lower likelihood of reporting violent crimes to police; and 4) less confidence that the courts would treat Latinos fairly.…”

Section: Immigrants' Views Of the Police And Crime Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigration Enforcement, the Racialization of Legal Status, and Perceptions of the Police

et al. 2018

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The immigration enforcement system today affects different subgroups of Latinos; it reaches beyond the undocumented to immigrants who hold legal statuses and even to the U.S.-born. States have enacted their own enforcement collaboration agreements with federal authorities and thus Latinos may have dissimilar experiences based on where they live. This article examines the effects of enforcement schemes on Latinos’ likelihood of reporting crimes to police and views of law enforcement. It includes documented and U.S-born Latinos to capture the spillover beyond the undocumented, and it is based on four metropolitan areas—Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, and Chicago—to comparatively assess the effects of various enforcement contexts. Empirically, it relies on data from a random sample survey of over 2000 Latinos conducted in 2012 in these four cities. Results show that spillover effects vary by context and legal/citizenship status: Latino immigrants with legal status are less inclined to report to the police as compared to U.S.-born Latinos in Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix but not in Chicago. At the other end, the spillover effect in Phoenix is so strong that it almost reaches to U.S.-born Latinos. The spillover effect identified is possible due to the close association between being Latino or Mexican and being undocumented, underscoring the racialization of legal status and of immigration enforcement today.

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Policing immigrants: Fear of deportations and perceptions of law enforcement and criminal justice

Cited by 54 publications

References 24 publications

Anti-immigration Policies and Fear of Deportation: A Human Rights Issue

Anti-immigration Policies and Fear of Deportation: A Human Rights Issue

Confidence in Law Enforcement When African-Americans are Underrepresented on the Force: An Exploratory Study

Immigration Enforcement, the Racialization of Legal Status, and Perceptions of the Police

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