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Volume 72, Issue 76,
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
News Scholar sheds light on Hispanic crime Research shows increased levels of criminal activity can't be blamed on immigrant populations by JOHNNY PEÑA
Low-income urban areas in Houston may be notorious for high crime rates, but a UH visiting scholar said immigrants shouldn't be blamed for a rise in crime. Criminologist Ramiro Martinez said he hopes his research at the University's Center for Mexican American Studies will help shed some light on crime statistics for Hispanics. "The research suggests that it's not the case that crime is high in these places with higher levels of immigrants. It's the other way around," Martinez said. "When (researchers) examine the percentage of the population that is foreign born, or that's a recent immigrant, they have discovered places that have higher levels of immigrants are also places where crime is lower or immigration has no effect, which is counterintuitive to what people in the media or politicians are saying," he said. Crime statistics in other urban areas led to the impression that low-income communities with high concentrations of minority groups, including Hispanics, tended to have high levels of violent crimes, including homicides, Martinez said. Little research on crime in low-income Hispanic neighborhoods has been conducted, he said. "This is an under-examined and under-researched group. It's important to study why it is that these societal issues aren't influencing Latinos, in respect to crime, as much as we would expect," Martinez said. Martinez's interest in the subject was sparked in the late 1980s during his graduate studies at Ohio State University. "At the time, there was a lot of concern about violence among young African-Americans, and in urban areas, the economy of the United States was changing. The loss of good-paying jobs in many urban areas was having an impact on unemployment and crime," Martinez said. "I was interested in seeing what sort of impact that had on Latinos or (immigrants), especially about crime. And I discovered that there was very little research done on Latino crime. I was interested in finding out why there wasn't work being done in (the Latino) population." As a visiting scholar, Martinez will spend a year researching and teaching Crime and Deviance in the Latino Community, a sociology course. "Professionally, it's great because it gives me opportunity to work with other faculty here in (CMAS) and (the Graduate College of Social Work)," he said. Martinez said crime statistics are controversial and can stir up public debate once the findings are presented. "I get hate mail from people calling me a lying Mexican. So when I hear from the lunatics, then I know the information is being disseminated to the public," he said. "That makes me feel better about (the reactions) that I'm getting." Not all the feedback for Martinez' work is negative, however. "On one hand, I get hate mail, but on the other hand, I do hear from people that are surprised by our findings. They heard about it in an interview on (National Public Radio) or they read about the findings in the New York Times Magazine," Martinez said. "For every hate mail that I get, there are 10 people that are seriously inquiring about the research." Martinez, a native of San Antonio, said he was drawn to UH because of Tatcho Mindiola, the director of the CMAS, and Avelardo "Lalo" Valdez, a social work professor. He said both are well-known scholars and leading figures in their respective fields. "Knowing them made (UH) even more attractive. I was able to come here and engage in the center's activities, live here and get to know them better," Martinez said. Another draw was UH's close proximity to his hometown and family. "I get to be close to home. My mother and her husband live three hours away, which is close but not too close. That makes it even better," he said. For more information, visit www.uh.edu/CMAS. Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu |
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