Immigrant Incarceration 1900-1930

Carolyn M. Moehling, Rutgers University
Anne Piehl, Rutgers University

Using a newly constructed individual-level dataset, we analyze the relative incarceration probabilities of native and foreign-born men between 1900 and 1930. We consider how differences in native and immigrant age distributions affect relative incarceration rates; how incarceration probabilities vary with country of origin; how other demographic and economic variables covary with incarceration; and whether these predictors vary by nativity. By spanning the period from 1900 to 1930, we are able to examine how the immigrant incarceration rate and patterns differed under two very different immigration regimes: a period with few restrictions on immigration and historically high rates of new arrivals, and a period in which the number of arrivals was sharply curtailed by quotas and immigrants faced deportation for criminal behavior.