"They Aren't Sending Their Best": A Framework for Explaining Immigration-Related Moral Panics in Whitewater and Beyond.

Moral panics are a significant concern in the sociological study of social problems, given their effects on crime control and penal policies, racial/ethnic constructs, and other key social outcomes. Immigrants are a popular target for moral panics, commonly manifested in stories of violent crimes committed by immigrants and beliefs that they cause crime to surge. Over the last several years, the United States has seen a marked intensification of crime-related panics about immigration, often focusing on specific cases and municipalities (e.g., Aurora, Colorado). Our paper asks the question of how and why this type of moral panic occurs. We first provide background information about moral panics in general and panics about crime. We then explore three paradigms--structural, institutional, and constructivist--to explain why moral panics often focus on the supposed relationship of immigration to crime. The paper advances a structural hypothesis about why immigrants are now such a potent target of moral panics, notwithstanding the paucity of competition for jobs between immigrants and native-born residents and of actual criminogenic effects of immigration. We discuss how this hypothesis can be synthesized with considerations raised by the other paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]