DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39107.v1
title: Assessing the Relationship Between Immigration Status, Crime, Gang Affiliation, and Victimization, Arizona, 2007-2023
title: Version 1

description: Over the last several years, the topic of immigration has gained increased attention from politicians, policymakers, and the media. This attention has centered on the prevalence of undocumented immigrants entering and residing within the United States, concern over increasing crime rates involving undocumented immigrants, and the appropriateness of the various policies aimed at controlling the influx of undocumented immigrants into the country. The recent wave of immigration from Latin America has led to a renewed public outcry and overall concerns regarding the relationship between immigration, crime and gang involvement, and the safety of the American public.
Thus, the goal of this project was to conduct a multi-methodological study to examine immigrants' involvement in crime, gang membership, and experiences with violent victimization. In addition, this project examined alcohol and drug use among immigrants. This project relied on data collected in Maricopa County, Arizona. Specifically, this project relied on
 analyses of previously collected quantitative self-report data from a sample of recently booked arrestees, analyses of quantitative self-report data collected from a community sample of immigrants (of different immigration statuses) and US-born citizens, and
analysis of qualitative data collected from a community sample of immigrants (of different immigration statuses) and US-born citizens. 
The results provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between immigration status and crime, gang involvement, and victimization as well as an understanding of immigrants' alcohol and drug use, relative to US-born citizens.
description: <strong>Jail Data</strong>

Quantitative official and self-report data from the Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network (AARIN) Project was analyzed as part of the first stage of this project. The AARIN project was established in Maricopa County, Arizona in January of 2007. The project was funded by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and was modeled after the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Project, a National Institute of Justice-sponsored project. The purpose of the ADAM project was to monitor drug use trends and other at-risk behaviors among recently booked arrestees and was carried out in 35 sites across the United States. The AARIN project models the methodology used by ADAM and focuses on collecting data to examine drug trends, participation in criminal involvement, and self-report victimizations, among other at-risk behaviors of recently booked arrestees.
The AARIN project used a systematic sampling protocol and collected data from multiple facilities. The systematic sampling plan called for the random selection of arrestees from two groups: stock and flow. Stock included individuals who were arrested overnight during non-data collection hours. Flow included arrestees who were booked during data collection hours. This selection process ensured a representative sample of arrestees over a 24-hour period. Data were collected for two continuous weeks at Maricopa County Central Intake (4th Avenue Jail) and for a continuous one-week period at Mesa and Glendale jails. This sampling method ensured the representativeness of those arrested and booked in the county. Data were collected on a quarterly basis. During data collection periods, face-to-face interviews with arrestees were conducted daily for an eight-hour shift.

<strong>Community Data</strong>

Researchers carried out structured interviews with 208 community members from different immigrant statuses, and relied on a snowball sample of three subsets of participants: undocumented immigrants, legal residents, and US citizens. Using these subsamples was necessary for two reasons:
 it allows for comparisons between the different stages of immigration status between community residents, and it allows for researchers to compare and contrast this population to the arrestee population.


The snowball sampling began with contacts the principal investigator previously established. Structured survey interviews lasted approximately 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the responses. The interview protocol was based on prior instruments used for the arrestee sample with the allowance for qualitative open-ended responses to structured questions.
To get a more nuanced understanding of the different forms of criminal involvement and violent victimization experienced by the community sample, researchers relied on participant responses that stemmed from questions in the quantitative survey as well as narratives from in-depth qualitative interviews. First, qualitative responses were collected from participants responding to quantitative survey questions. Interviewers were trained to take detailed notes when participants provided unprompted, spontaneous narratives in response to survey questions. Narrative responses detailing criminal involvement or experiences of victimization were retained from 42 participants. 
Subsequently, a subsample of participants who completed the quantitative survey was invited to take part in a qualitative study. Individuals were identified for participation based on positive responses to survey questions about their criminal involvement or experience of victimization. The team used a semi-structured interview protocol with open-ended questions to obtain qualitative data from respondents. Interviews were conducted in-person or over Zoom between May 2022 and March 2023 and were audio recorded with the respondents' permission for transcription and coding purposes. Interviews typically lasted between 1 to 1.5 hours. All respondents were informed at the beginning of the interview that participation was voluntary and that they could choose not to answer any question or withdraw at any time. At least two research team members were present for each interview, with one member taking notes in addition to the audio recordings. Trained research assistants transcribed the audio recordings. For each interview, one research assistant took the lead in transcribing the interview, and a second research assistant verified the transcription against the audio recording. Any possibly personally identifying information was removed prior to analysis. The final sample included 14 participants.
description: The study includes two datasets and a total of 114 variables, which can be linked together with the unique id, <strong>SURVEY_ID</strong>. The Jail Data and Community Data topic areas include Sex, Race, Age, Employment, Immigration Status, Educational Status, Drug, and Criminal History of the participants.
description: Response Rates: A total of 56 participants provided qualitative data: 14 participants completed an in-depth qualitative interview, and 42 participants provided narrative responses to questions on
the quantitative survey.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Maricopa County Community Data
DS2: Maricopa County Jail Data
description: A sample of jail arrestees and a sample of immigrants of varying status (undocumented, DACA, permanent residents) living in Maricopa County, AZ. Smallest Geographic Unit: County
description: face-to-face interview; mixed modeThe qualitative data for the study are not available at this time.