Offending Trajectories Among Native-Born and Foreign-Born Hispanics to Late Middle Age

Abstract

Research on crime over the life-course has made considerable progress in the last several decades. Despite this growth, significantly less attention has been devoted to longitudinal examinations of Hispanic populations beyond one phase of the life-course, and/or examining differences between native-born and foreign-born Hispanics. Recognizing these limitations, this study offers an investigation of Hispanics in the United States focusing on offending and its relationship to immigration status. Using arrest data from a cohort of 375 Hispanic males from ages 18 to 50, trajectory analysis revealed four unique offending trajectories: very low-rate offenders, high-rate late-onset escalators, initially high-rate desisters, and high-rate chronic offenders. Multivariate regression models demonstrated that Hispanic immigrants were significantly less likely to be initially high-rate desisters or high-rate chronic offenders compared with their native-born counterparts, yet unmarried Hispanics were significantly more likely to be high-rate late-onset escalators. Study limitations and implications are also discussed.