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In 2015, Donald Trump suggested in a speech that Mexican immigrants to the US were bringing crime.

In response, several reporters denied it, such as the Washington Post

data show that new immigrants — including illegal immigrants — are actually less likely to commit crime, not more.

To wit:

—"Foreign-born individuals exhibit remarkably low levels of involvement in crime across their life course." (Bianca Bersani, University of Massachusetts, 2014. Published in Justice Quarterly.)

In response, American conservative social and political commentator, Ann Coulter examined the original research and dismissed the "phony studies no one bothers to read", as they did not compare the immigrant crime levels to a representative sample of Americans.

Have studies shown that immigrants to the USA commit less crime?

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Jacob Blaustein
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    Please restrict this to a specific claim. Which studies? Which claims are meant to be lies? – Sklivvz Sep 13 '16 at 07:59
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    This text is a bit confusing (to me at least). Could you resume the claim in a couple of sentences? – Babika Babaka Sep 13 '16 at 11:53
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    The question shouldn't be "Is Ann Coulter correct?" It shouldn't be "Are the Immigration studies lying?" (which is a question about motivation). It should be simply "Do immigrants to American have a lower crime rate than the American average?" That's still vague (crime rates cover a broad array of crimes), but gets to the heart of the matter. – Oddthinking Sep 13 '16 at 13:50
  • The question is how are these studies she cites wrong? – Jacob Blaustein Sep 13 '16 at 15:16
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    @JacobBlaustein - I'm not saying the studies she cites are wrong. I'm saying she has a history of interpreting or making claims about studies that are not, in any way, actually what the studies themselves say. This is why my advice is to "read and assess the source material yourself." Whether it's intentional or from ignorance, I can't know without being able to read her mind. For instance, why would you compare immigrants to Norwegian populations? That's completely random. The authors explain why they compare to the populations that they do, so what makes that invalid? She never says. – PoloHoleSet Sep 13 '16 at 16:40
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    "The question is how are these studies she cites wrong?" No. That is a biased question that assumes the studies she cites are wrong. We should be open to the evidence, whichever way it points. – Oddthinking Sep 13 '16 at 18:44
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    Nor can the question be "Why should this be a big deal?" That's a request for opinions. My advice, find one specific notable claim that you doubt. Ask if it is true. – Oddthinking Sep 13 '16 at 18:46
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    @AndrewMattson She isn't suggesting to compare US immigrants to people living in Norway, but to compare them to "our norwegians", which is probably meant as a dog whistle for "white people". Anyways, I think there may be a question in here somewhere, but "Are immigration studies lying" isn't it (if we throw out peer reviewed papers as reliable sources in general, what will answers be based on?), and "Does Coulter have a point?" isn't it either. "Are immigrants more likely to be criminal" would be a possible question (the answer is "no" according to pretty much all studies) – tim Sep 13 '16 at 20:58
  • @tim - yes, I was also talking about American Norwegian populations, sorry for being ambiguous. – PoloHoleSet Sep 13 '16 at 22:02
  • I've made a major edit to avoid discussing whether the *studies* are lying which is not notable (and unanswerable motivation question) and to stop focussing on one individual's argument and to instead accept all evidence. Please confirm you are happy with it, and let's reopen. – Oddthinking Sep 14 '16 at 02:10
  • [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_crime#United_States) has a very well sourced summary about the subject in case someone needs a place to start. And while Coulter claims that all papers investigating this issue are behind a paywall, that isn't actually true, so there is quite a bit of material available even without access to paid articles. – tim Sep 14 '16 at 20:03

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