Immigrants, authorized and otherwise, are less likely to commit serious crime or be sent to prison than are native-born Americans.

That’s according to numerous studies from groups as politically diverse as the Cato Institute, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Migration Policy Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the National Bureau of Economic Research and the American Sociological Association, among others.

That simple, statistically backed fact, is making the professional life of Charis Kubrin, a criminology professor at UC Irvine, both highly rewarding and potentially dangerous.

The reward side of the deal is this: In June, Kubrin is scheduled to go to Sweden to collect the prestigious Stockholm Prize in Criminology, an award she’s getting specifically because of her long-term work on the intersection of immigration and crime.  When the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation announced its choice, late last year, it described Kubrin as a “myth buster,” saying the data she and colleagues have reported over the past few decades has generated “an abundance of evidence disproving claims that immigration generally, let alone universally, raises crime in communities.”

And the potential danger?

That would be a particularly disturbing piece of real hate mail Kubrin received late last year after she was quoted in a news story about immigration and crime. The threat was part of a broader pushback Kubrin has felt as her work has become more public, and as everybody from President Donald Trump to heads of various government agencies have made fact-challenged claims about immigrant crime as a reason for mass deportations.

“Immigrant crime has always been divisive, as a topic, and it’s even more divisive now,” Kubrin said.

“If I’m on an airplane and I’m working on my laptop to write up my next talk, and somebody looks over my shoulder, they want to talk about it. I can tell,” she added. “When I tell them what I do, it used to be, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ Now, it’s sometimes a lot of very strong opinions.”

Kubrin isn’t thrilled with the threats. She reported the recent over-the-top missive to the police, and has felt frustration and fear after receiving other, similar messages.

Still, Kubrin says it’s critical to make sure her work, and similar work by other criminologists, is publicized and discussed. In addition to writing about her findings (Kubrin is the author or co-writer of at least five books and dozens of scholarly articles), she makes a point of speaking to nearly any group that asks. She’s talked and answered questions in venues as diverse as brand-name universities and local Rotary clubs and at least one senior living home near UCI’s campus. Her audiences have been just as diverse, ranging from people who are sympathetic to immigrants and immigration, and others who believe many or all immigrants should be deported.

Critically, Kubrin says she would share the result of her work on immigration and crime even if the data showed that immigrants committed more crime than native-born people. She’s quick to note some immigrants do commit crimes, sometimes horrific ones, and that studying crime — who commits it and why — is important regardless of the criminal’s background.

But she also believes that immigration policy should be based less on anecdotes about individual immigrants committing lurid crimes, and more on research and science and data.

And the data on immigrants and crime compiled by Kubrin and many others over the past half-century shows, clearly, that immigrants, as a group, commit less crime than nonimmigrants. It’s true of immigrants with permission to live in this country, and it’s true of the 13.7 million or so who live here without the proper paperwork. It’s true in other parts of the world, where immigration has reshaped populations, and it’s been true for many decades.

The difference isn’t trivial, either. The Cato Institute study found that the 2023 incarceration rate for native-born Americans was 1,221 per 100,000, nearly twice the rate for undocumented immigrants (about 613 per 100,000) and roughly four times higher than for legal immigrants (319 per 100,000.)

Kubrin, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, recently answered some questions about immigration and crime. She also talked about perceptions, and misperceptions, of the issue, and the perils she and others are facing as a result of talking about it.

A: “The findings aren’t surprising, at least not from the perspective of social theory. First, immigrants themselves are not a random cross-section of people; they’re a self-selected group. … Most are coming here to improve their life chances, usually by getting higher-paying work. That suggests they’re goal-oriented, and that’s not a trait associated with a propensity for criminal behavior.

“There’s also another argument that there are protective effects of living in immigrant enclaves. There are strong ties among residents, extensive social networks, informal social control. … A lot of those factors play a role as well.”

A: “It’s true that a lot of the (crime) data collected often doesn’t differentiate between native-born and foreign-born offenders, or between documented and undocumented. But we can look at crime data in different communities, and compare the numbers with census data (which does include immigration status) for those communities, to determine crime rates by immigrant and nonimmigrant communities. So we use all of it, crime data, census data and regression analysis.

“Also, people have done work in jurisdictions where crime data and immigration data both collected. In Texas, for example, (crime researcher) Michael Light has looked at data that shows, unequivocally, that foreign-born people — including undocumented people — are less likely to engage in crime.

“We’re not guessing.”

A: “It’s not just Americans. Resistance to this idea seems to be consistent whenever, and wherever, immigration has been big enough to shape societies.

“As to why it’s so stubborn right now, I’d say media has a lot to do with it. Some media outlets use individual events, as horrific as they are, to tell a story about the broader group. … You never see a headline ‘Native-born American kills again.’ But you do see news coverage of crime that focuses on the perpetrator’s immigration status. That shapes people’s views.”

“Not enough traction. According to a (2024) Pew Survey, when asked about the impact of the recent migrant influx on crime in the U.S., a majority (57%) of Americans said the large number of migrants seeking to enter the country leads to more crime.”

A: “I’m always being asked, by all kinds of groups, and I welcome that. The work is not done when the science is done. You have to go out and do something with the findings. Academics have a role to play in the discussion; not the whole discussion, of course, but the results of research should be part of the conversation.

“That said, real change happens outside academia.”

A: “It’s important because the facts have been crowded out by the rhetoric.

“But, also, imagine what might be accomplished if we stopped our rabid obsession with immigrant crime? We’re starting with a ‘problem’ that isn’t actually a problem. But what would happen if we focused on a true crime problem: gender-based violence, corporate fraud, mass shootings? We’re investing resources in a way that doesn’t make sense, at least not if you’re trying to reduce crime.

“The people I talk to, ultimately, are voters. And they’re policy makers. If they have better facts, that might influence policy.”

A: “I talk with reporters all the time, and when a reporter will quote me I’ll get a rash of emails or phone calls. Many aren’t violent, but in the (messages) that are violent there’s an overlay that is very misogynistic and anti-science and anti-immigrant.”

A: “I do, and they are very refreshing. I don’t keep score but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s 70-30, hate mail versus kind words.”

A: “The one thing I try and do, been doing this my whole career, is to simply focus on the research.

“I can’t solve the immigration problem. What does the perfect immigration system look like? I don’t know.

“But what I’m trying to do is to do my research, and do what I can to make sure research on this topic is part of the answer.”

“I want to share the data-driven findings on the immigration-crime nexus and immigration policy’s impact on public safety in the U.S.; sharing personal stories of my research journey and lessons learned along the way.

“I also want to tackle the question: ‘Where do we go from here?’ ”