Assimilating into Crime? Explaining the Generational Disparity in Immigrant Offending

The generational disparity in immigrant offending reflects two trends: low rates of offending among first-generation immigrants, and the rise in offending among the second generation. Though research identifies several predictors of offending across generations, there is less evidence for which mechanisms drive the rise among the second generation. Hypotheses are drawn from prominent theories of the generational disparity that highlight either the unique features of the first generation (i.e. immigrant selection), or experiences of the second generation (i.e. differential assimilation). Leveraging the broad scope of data in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Citation(1997), we adapt a decomposition strategy to test theoretically-informed hypotheses. We find that the size and quantity of the gap explained is dependent on how offending is measured and is largely attributed to assimilation processes linked to family, school, and contextual factors. Notably, models explain much less of the disparity in arrests implicating potential system-generated disparities.