Violent victimization among immigrants: Using the National Violent Death Reporting System to examine foreign-born homicide victimization in the United States

Kayla R Freemon; Melissa A Gutierrez; Jessica Huff; Hyunjung Cheon; David Choate; Taylor Cox; Charles M Katz

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101714

Violent victimization among immigrants: Using the National Violent Death Reporting System to examine foreign-born homicide victimization in the United States

Prev Med Rep. 2022 Jan 29:26:101714. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101714. eCollection 2022 Apr.

Authors

Kayla R Freemon¹, Melissa A Gutierrez¹, Jessica Huff², Hyunjung Cheon³, David Choate¹, Taylor Cox¹, Charles M Katz¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
² School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA.
³ Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA.

Abstract

Limited research attention has focused on homicides involving foreign-born victims. Using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System, we examined 9428 homicides that occurred in 2017 in the United States across 32 states and D.C. Approximately 8% of homicide victims were foreign-born. Homicide victimization rates were substantially lower for foreign-born persons, compared to U.S.-born persons. However, foreign-born persons from Honduras, El Salvador, and Jamaica had a substantially higher risk of homicide victimization. Notably, few homicides involving foreign-born victims were gang- or drug-trade-related. With the growing number of immigrants in the United States, policy and prevention efforts should be guided by research.

Keywords: Foreign-born; Homicide; Immigration; NVDRS.