The FBI collects crime information through systems such as the Uniform Crime Reporting Program and the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
These systems can include information about an offender’s reported race and ethnicity. They do not consistently identify whether every offender is:
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Foreign-born or native-born;
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A naturalized citizen;
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A lawful permanent resident;
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A temporary visa holder;
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An undocumented immigrant;
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A person whose immigration status is unknown.
“Non-immigrant” is also ambiguous. In everyday speech it usually means someone born in the United States. In immigration law, however, a “nonimmigrant” can mean a foreign national temporarily admitted under a visa category.
Ruffalo plainly appeared to mean native-born people, but the phrase is not a standard FBI statistical category.
Consequently, no single FBI table straightforwardly establishes that “most crimes” are committed by “white non-immigrants.”
Crimes, Arrests and Convictions Are Different
Another problem is the word “crimes.”
Many crimes are never reported to police. Some reported crimes never produce an identified suspect. An arrest does not prove guilt, and a conviction reflects decisions made throughout the legal process.
Researchers therefore use several different measures:
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Crimes reported to police;
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Incidents in which an offender was identified;
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Arrests;
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Criminal charges;
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Convictions;
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Incarceration;
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Self-reported offending;
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Victimization surveys.
Each measure answers a different question.
If data show that a particular racial group accounts for the largest number of arrests, that does not necessarily establish the same share of all crimes committed. Arrest patterns can be influenced by policing practices, reporting rates, enforcement priorities and access to legal representation.
A public figure saying “look at the statistics” should identify which statistics and which measurement are being discussed.
Ruffalo did not do that in the short rally interview.
Absolute Numbers Versus Crime Rates
Suppose one population group is much larger than another. Even if both groups offend at the same rate, the larger group will account for more crimes in absolute numbers.
Most residents of the United States are not recent immigrants. Native-born Americans make up the overwhelming majority of the population. It would therefore be unsurprising if they also committed most crimes in absolute terms.
That fact alone says little about whether immigrants are more or less likely to offend as individuals.
Crime rates adjust for population size. A comparison might ask how many convictions occur per 100,000 members of each group.
Political arguments often shift between totals and rates without acknowledging the difference.
Someone may truthfully say native-born Americans commit more total crimes because there are far more of them. Another person might ask whether the per-capita rate is higher among immigrants.
Those are separate questions.
What Research Says About Immigration and Crime
A substantial body of research finds that immigrants are not more crime-prone than native-born Americans.