Have newcomers to American cities been responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime?
Dangerous Strangers takes up this question by examining the incidence of criminal violence among several waves of immigrant and ethnic groups in San Francisco over 150 years. A significant amount of data supports that mid-nineteenth century Irish and turn-of-the-century Italians did have an increased proclivity toward violence. German immigrants, who arrived in large numbers about the same time as the famine Irish, and Jewish immigrants, whose arrival coincided with the large Italian influx, did not. Nineteenth-century Chinese newcomers to San Francisco posted the highest homicide rates of any group in the city's history. More recently, other newcomers to urban America, African Americans--and to some extent Latinos—have been charged with contributing disproportionately to rates of criminal violence.
By looking at a variety of groups—primarily Irish, German, Italian, and Chinese—and their different experiences at varying times in the city's history, this book addresses the issue of how much of the violence can be attributed to new groups' treatment by the host society and how much can be traced to traits found in their own community. Dangerous Strangers fills an acknowledged gap in the literature of homicide studies and broadens our understanding of newcomer violence.
"Kevin Mullen brings a unique, ex-cop's perspective to the historical study of crime. He not only restores the police to an important place in determining why homicide rates go up and down, but brings the painstaking thoroughness of the best detective work to his analysis of hard-to-interpret statistics from the past."--Roger Lane, Research Professor of Social Science, Haverford College.
Kevin Mullen uses his meticulous reconstruction of San Francisco homicides and his broad knowledge of the history of American violence to tackle two big questions: Why were some eras and communities more deadly than others? And what did the cultures of urban immigrants have to do with the fluctuating levels of violence? In Dangerous Strangers, Mullen delivers forceful and insightful answers to both questions."--David Courtwright, author of Violent Land
"Ex-cop Kevin J. Mullen investigates 150 years of lethal mayhem in San Francisco, and what he uncovers in the history of the city's successive newcomers--Australian, Latino, Irish, Asian, Italian, African American--will no doubt prove as controversial as it is illuminating. Rigorously grounded and thoughtfully nuanced, Dangerous Strangers elevates the issue of urban homicide rates among America's immigrant subcultures to a new level of discourse."--Robert R. Dykstra, Emeritus Professor of History and Public Policy, SUNY Albany