Objectives. The idea that immigration increases crime rates has
historically occupied an important role in criminological theory
and has been central to the public and political discourses and
debates on immigration policy. In contrast to the common
sentiment, some scholars have recently questioned whether the
increase in immigration between 1990 and 2000 may have actually
been responsible for part of the national decrease in crime
during the 1990s. The current work evaluates the influence of
immigration on crime in urban areas across the United States
between 1990 and 2000.  Methods. Drawing on U.S. Census and
Uniform Crime Report data, I first use ordinary least squares
regression models to assess the cross-sectional relationship
between immigration patterns and rates of homicide and robbery
among U.S. cities with populations of at least 50,000. Second, I
employ pooled cross-sectional time-series models to determine
how changes in immigration influenced changes in homicide and
robbery rates between 1990 and