1. CRIME AND THE NATIVE BORN SONS OF EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS.
- Author
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Ross, Harold
- Subjects
IMMIGRANTS ,CRIMINOLOGY ,JUVENILE offenders ,PARENT-child legal relationship ,ASSIMILATION (Sociology) ,CULTURE - Abstract
This article focuses on causes of crime of native born individuals of European immigrants. This higher crime rate of the native born of foreign stock has been generally attributed to the fact that the cultural guides of their parents' social heritage have been swept from them in their strange new turbulent environment and those of the new cultural milieu have not yet been instilled in them. The purpose of this paper is to analyze somewhat critically this general thesis. To do so, certain widely accepted remarks concerning urban and rural crime rates are presented as a basis for discussion. Many criminologists have observed the marked disparity in crime rates between urban and rural districts. The European immigrant, landing on American shores, was forced to find cheap lodgings as he was usually penniless. Anti-social behavior first becomes evident in the delinquencies of predatory boy gangs. Boys naturally tend to play with other boys. Behavior patterns organized in the former were carried over into and accentuated by the latter. Sons, both of native and foreign born stocks, made this promotion from juvenile delinquent to adult offender with equal facility.
- Published
- 1937
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