Community multiculturalism and self-reported immigrant crime: Testing three theoretical mechanisms
Arjen Leerkes, Tineke Fokkema & Jonathan Bening
#2020-055
There is considerable contextual variation in crime among immigrants and
their native-born descendants, and this study aims to understand that
variation better. It examines whether municipal variation in
self-reported crimes among Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch men living in 35
representative Dutch cities (N=911), including the four largest cities,
is associated with municipal variation in multicultural attitudes, or
'community multiculturalism', among the native-Dutch (N=2,556). We
propose, and test, a mechanism-based theoretical model that links
Berry's acculturation theory to general strain theory, social bonding
theory, and collective efficacy theory. Evidence is found for a
protective effect of community multiculturalism for immigrant crime,
which is mostly explained by collective efficacy theory with somewhat
weaker evidence for general strain theory and social bonding theory. We
discuss implications for the discussion on the (dis)advantages of
multiculturalism, and suggest various avenues for further inquiry into
immigrants' 'context of reception', and how the acculturation attitudes
among established groups affect social cohesion outcomes in multi-ethnic
societies.
Keywords: acculturation theory, immigrant crime, context of reception,
local-level variation
JEL Classification: K13, I30, Y80