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Immigrants more likely to be victims of homicide

By Daily Bruin Staff

Feb. 15, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Immigrants more likely to be victims of homicide

Study finds increased risk for foreign-born living in
California

By Jennifer K. Morita

Daily Bruin Staff

California is not a safe haven for immigrants, who are more
likely to be victims of homicide than people born in the United
States, a UCLA School of Public Health study revealed.

Looking at 65,000 death certificates for the years 1970 through
1992, Susan Sorenson, an epidemiologist for the School of Public
Health, and her team of researchers analyzed information for people
aged 15 to 34 for California.

"These people are our current, up-and-coming workforce. We rely
on them to get the work done here in California as well as develop
families," Sorenson said. "There are a lot of implications in
this."

Their study revealed that the foreign born have a higher risk of
becoming victims of homicide than those born in the United States,
particularly for non-Hispanic whites, who were twice as likely to
be victims compared to their U.S.-born counterparts.

"Hispanic immigrants are at a high risk, but their risk is still
lower than whites," said Sorenson, who explained that gun control
laws may be a factor in immigrant homicides.

"Homicide in the United States is substantially higher than most
other developing nations," Sorenson said. "Most European nations
strictly regulate access to firearms and most white immigrants to
the United States come from those countries."

Asian immigrants face about the same risk of homicide as United
States-born Asians, the study showed.

According to recent studies, the number of immigrants in the
United States have doubled between 1979 and 1990 to an estimated 20
million. The greatest concentration of immigrants are in
California, New York, Texas and Florida. Sorenson found that
although immigrants make up about 17 percent of California’s
population, they account for 23 percent of the homicides.

"The bottom line is that California and the United States in
general, is not the seemingly safe haven for immigrants," she said.
"There’s a debate going on that immigrants come to the United
States and use a lot of our money for health care and education,
but they’re also at a higher risk of homicide."

But UCLA sociology Professor Ivan Light said that most people
coming to the United States are aware of this country’s
dangers.

"They come here despite it not being safe," Light said. "The
United States does not have a reputation for being safe. It’s
possible that it’s safe relative to the slums of Rio de Janeiro,
but people know that it’s pretty violent here."

According to Sorenson, one out of every three people in the
United States were either born in another country or has parents
who were immigrants.

The study’s findings showed an urgent need to establish violence
prevention programs that target immigrant groups to prevent them
from becoming homicide victims, Sorenson said.

"Better education for immigrants and policies that severely
limit firearms availability and accessibility are needed," Sorenson
said. "We need to have fewer firearms deaths."

Tony Borbon, associate director for the Violence Prevention
Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, agreed, adding that West
Hollywood and Compton recently passed measures to ban the sale of
hand guns in their communities.

"They’re on the cutting edge of local ordinances to reduce gun
availability," Borbon said.

But other measures need to be taken, Borbon added.

"Agencies working with the immigrant populations need to reach
out into the communities," Borbon said. "There needs to be a public
awareness approach to different immigrant populations that are
linguistically applicable and that needs to be done
(immediately)."

Borbon offered general personal safety tips such as being aware
of neighborhoods and where "safezones" are, knowing where well-lit
areas are and using the buddy system of going out with a
friend.

"There needs to be a proactive campaign that will continue the
welcome-mat atmosphere towards immigration," Borbon said.

For more information about education for immigrants on violence
or for personal safety tips, call the Violence Prevention Coalition
of Greater Los Angeles at (213) 240-7785.Comments to
[email protected]

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