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Much of the recent empirical research on immigration and crime has found immigration to have no association or a negative association with crime, despite theoretical and popular expectations to the contrary. This has been discussed as part of a broader "Latino paradox," as immigrants have also been observed to fare better than natives on other outcomes (e.g., health), despite higher levels of disadvantage. Largely missing from this literature, however, is the distinction between undocumented and documented immigration. In one recent study that was able to make this distinction (Landale et al. 2015), the children of undocumented Mexican immigrants were found to have more behavior problems than children of documented immigrants and U.S. born parents. The current study draws on this work to investigate the link between immigration legal status and substance use, an outcome that is typically positively associated with behavior problems. Analyses of a representative survey of neighborhoods and households in Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (n=861) found evidence that the adolescent children of undocumented immigrants have lower odds of substance use than the children of U.S. born parents, consistent with the Latino paradox. This relationship was not explained by, nor did it vary across levels of, behavioral problems or neighborhood characteristics. Implications for future research and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the connection of immigration and diversity to homicide by advancing a recently developed approach to modeling spatial dynamics—geographically weighted regression. In contrast to traditional global averaging, we argue on substantive grounds that neighborhood characteristics vary in their effects across neighborhood space, a process of "spatial heterogeneity." Much like treatment-effect heterogeneity and distinct from spatial spillover, our analysis finds considerable evidence that neighborhood characteristics in Chicago vary significantly in predicting homicide, in some cases showing countervailing effects depending on spatial location. In general, however, immigrant concentration is either unrelated or inversely related to homicide, whereas language diversity is consistently linked to lower homicide. The results shed new light on the immigration-homicide nexus and suggest the pitfalls of global averaging models that hide the reality of a highly diversified and spatially stratified metropolis. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the inner city poor, moving to a high-poverty neighborhood or a low-poverty neighborhood can set off trajectories of inequality and blocked opportunities that challenge fundamental assumptions of social justice and freedom. In this paper, I examine residential history data for participants in the Moving to Opportunity Experiment to examine racial and ethnic differences in the pathways of spatial mobility as they unfold over time and particularly focus on their role in reproducing inequality in neighborhood attainment. As expected, considering the nature and levels of residential segregation that structure the U.S. urban landscape, results indicate that mobility regimes are highly differentiated by racial and ethnic status. I argue that before we can understand the effects of neighborhoods we have to pay attention to differences in the racially and ethnically structured processes governing path-dependent residential trajectories along with the spatially embedded mechanisms of integration and exclusion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Florida's (2002) creative class theory has ignited controversy on the role of diversity in promoting social differentiation across US cities and metropolitan areas. This paper extends this theory to the neighborhood level and empirically examines the role that population diversity plays in the social and economic growth of Chicago neighborhoods by attracting new creative and talented residents. It draws on Fischer's (1975) subcultural theory of urbanism and recent scholarship on immigration to explain the social processes through which the diversity can generate new creative energies. Moreover, this paper adds to Florida's controversial conceptualization of diversity a new, more rigorous definition that integrates multi-ethnic, linguistic, immigrant, and regional components. Consistent with predictions, the findings show that diversity attracts increasing concentrations of creative class and highly skilled individuals, even after accounting for spatial spillovers. However, unlike bohemians, scientists or educators, the professionals' group tends to wither away from diverse neighborhoods, indicating the need to significantly reconsider Florida's definition of the creative class. Finally, the results also underscore the importance of accounting for the dynamic social processes in which, by impacting neighborhood growth, diversity potentially undermines itself. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosecutorial misconduct involves the intentional use of illegal or improper methods toward attaining convictions against defendants in criminal trials. Drawing on previous research, we propose that misconduct to attain convictions will be more likely when crimes are more severe than when crimes are less severe and that perceptions of a suspect?s guilt will increase as severity of crime increases. To test these predictions, we created an experimental situation in which participants acted as prosecuting attorneys in mock criminal trials. Participants were randomly assigned to act as prosecutors in a trial involving either a murder or an assault. Aside from this difference, the manipulated experiences of participants in the two conditions were identical. We found that participants assigned to prosecute murders were more likely to believe that the defendant was guilty than were participants assigned to prosecute assaults. Further, participants in the murder condition viewed conviction as more important than did participants in the assault condition. Most important, participants in the murder condition were more likely to withhold exculpatory information from defense attorneys (an action defined in the study as misconduct) than were participants in the assault condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosecutorial misconduct involves the intentional use of illegal methods to attain convictions against defendants in criminal trials. We theoretically develop the prediction that misconduct to attain a conviction will be more likely when crimes are more severe than when crimes are less severe and that perceptions of a suspect's guilt will increase as the severity of a crime increases. To test these predictions, we created an experimental situation in which participants acted as prosecuting attorneys in criminal trials. Participants were randomly assigned to act as prosecutors in a mock criminal trial involving either a murder (Condition 1) or an assault (Condition 2). Aside from this difference, the manipulated experiences of participants in our two conditions were identical. We found that participants assigned to prosecute a murder were more likely to believe that the defendant was guilty than were participants assigned to prosecute an assault. Further, participants in the murder condition were more likely to withhold relevant information from defense attorneys (an action defined in the study as misconduct) than were participants in the assault condition. These findings support our predictions that misconduct and perceptions of guilt will increase as severity of crime increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]