Puerto Rican Victimization and Crime on the Mainland

Abstract

This study addresses criminal victimization and contact with police among older Puerto Ricans living in Northeastern United States. Framing their experiences within the context of immigration, we assess the role that acculturation and perceived stress play on Puerto Rican crime and victimization. Data from the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (BPRHS; N = 1,504) were analyzed using multiple logistic regressions. The experience of criminal victimization by Puerto Ricans is associated with higher educational attainment, increased perceived stress, and also with psychological acculturation. Contact with police is associated with linguistic, but not psychological, acculturation. Our findings give strength to the argument that exposure to crime and the criminal justice system increases with acculturation and that this argument is relevant to Puerto Ricans. Thus, the association between acculturation, criminal victimization, and police contact depends on the conceptualization of acculturation used. The relationship between stress, acculturation, and crime among Latinos is complex and warrants further assessment.

Internal Migration, Social Exclusion, and Victimization

“…That is, instead of providing instrumental and emotional help, the local ties may alter migrants’ lifestyles and increase their assimilation to the high-risk local population, resulting in a higher likelihood of victimization among this group of migrants. If so, such findings would be consonant with another group of studies asserting that more assimilated immigrants are in fact more likely to be victimized in Western societies instead of immigrants with strong traditional values (Adams, Todorova, and Falcón 2015; Morenoff and Astor 2006). However, more direct measures on the above risky activities and more detailed information on these migrants’ local contacts are needed in order to conduct a more thorough examination of this issue.…”