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As discussed, the murder rates for Blacks in the United States are substantially higher than those for Whites, with Latino murder rates falling in the middle. These differences have existed throughout the 20th and into the 21st century and, with few exceptions, are found in different sections of the United States. Although biological and genetic explanations for racial differences in crime rates, including murder, have been discredited and are no longer accepted by most criminologists, both cultural and structural theories are widespread in the literature on crime and violence. It is also important to remember that Latino is an ethnic rather than a racial classification. The point of this exercise is to examine differences in selected structural positions of Blacks, Whites and Latinos in the United States that may help explain long-standing differences in their murder rates.

In this module you will explore some of the impacts of this immigration by examining the characteristics of the foreign-born population, comparing these characteristics to those of the native born population. You will get a chance to explore where immigrants come from, how the composition of the immigrant population has changed, where immigrants settle, and what they do once they get here. Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to test some key hypotheses drawn from the most popular theory used to explain the incorporation of immigrants into the American social and economic mainstream.

Research has shown that marital status and employment are correlates of desistance. That is, adolescents involved with crime were more likely to discontinue offending in adulthood if they were married and had a good job. Most of what criminologists know about the process of desistance from crime is based on a sample of adult males in the 1950's. There is no question that life in America has changed drastically in the past fifty years. Given the importance of examining historical change inherent in the life course perspective, it is important to determine how changes in the social structure over time impact individuals. Therefore, the goals of this data analysis exercise are to examine changes in marriage and employment over the last fifty years. The purposes are to identify the changes that have taken place, and to hypothesize how these changes may affect the process of desistance from crime today.