Immigration, ethnicity and crimes

Luca Dr. Pieroni, University of Perugia

This paper investigates the relationship between labour market, immigration and crime in Italy. We extend the Ehrlich-Becker model concerning the link between unemployment and crime by including the effects of immigration. For this purpose, we specify a dynamic model with inertial effects of crime in which the interaction effects between unemployment rate and the migrants’ country of origin are empirically derived. We estimate this relationship by provincial panel data for the period 2001-2006, documenting the impact on crime activities of the youngest population as well (i.e. between 15-24 years). The results show that youth unemployment rate is positively correlated to the crime rate. Furthermore, it emerges that specific groups of immigrates increase the probability to commit crimes. This dangerous complementarity may lead the public policies for labour market (or immigration) to jointly address people (specifically the youngest) away from crime.