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of the Puerto Rican and Cuban communitiesare the strongest chapters, especially in thecase of his analysis of experience of the CubanCatholics in Miami and Chicago and thedifficulties that the Cuban Church in Cubafound when confronting Castro’s secularizingpolicies. The analysis of the Puerto Rican caseis valuable to understand the plight of PuertoRican Catholics in Chicago and New York.However, the chapter dealing with the Mexi-cans in Texas has some problems, especiallywhen dealing with the history of the Church-State conflict in Mexico. First, it would beuseful to remember the role that the TexanCatholic Bishops played in collaboratingwith their Mexican peers during the mostviolent period of the Mexican revolution,right after the proclamation of the 1917constitution, and up until today. It is note-worthy how the Mexican Bishops’ first offi-cial rejection of the 1917 constitution wasissued in El Paso, Texas (June 24, 1917), notin Mexico, since the Bishops – with someexceptions – were forced out of the countrysince 1914 and were residing at the time inTexas. It was at that point when the seeds ofboth the confrontation with the Mexicanpolitical elites and the support from theTexan Catholic Bishops were planted. Badillo,however, makes little or no reference to thisfact or to the relations between the Mexicanand the Texan bishops before the

Cristiada

war (1926–1929).There are some minor factual prob-

lems in Badillo’s analysis. He states “After1931 . . . under the Obregon regime, govern-ment persecution of the Church resumed”(p. 31). In 1928, Alvaro Obregon was assassi-nated a few months before the inaugurationof his second presidential term. At that point,1931, Mexico was formally ruled by PascualOrtiz Rubio.

A major absence in Badillo’s work isthat of the Dominican Catholicism in NewYork where Badillo carries analysis of thePuerto Rican and Mexican communities,pushing the Dominican case to the marginsof his analysis. An editorial concern involvesthe inconsistent use of tildes in personal andgeographic names in Spanish.

Despite these problems, the readerinterested in an analysis centered on theimmigrant experience will be able to findvaluable insights about the experiences of thethree communities considered. Although it isclear that one needs to take into considera-tion the changes in the laws and institutionsregulating immigration to the United States,the changes within the Catholic Church itself,and the changes in the countries of origin.

Overall, Badillo contributes to layinga firm foundation for the future developmentof more specific and richer analysis of theimmigrant religious experience in the UnitesStates and elsewhere, making his book a valuableaddition to any library.

XXXBook Riview

Immigration and Crime

. Edited by RamiroMartinez and Abel Valenzuela, Jr. New York:New York University Press, 2006.

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Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Fordham University

The question whether immigrants contributeto crime in overproportion to their represen-tation in the population has been a staple ofcurrent and past debates about the benefitsand disadvantages of immigration to receiv-ing countries. Martinez and Valenzuela,editors of this useful volume, point out thatcontradictory evidence to the effect thatimmigrants are less involved in crime thantheir native counterparts somehow does notsurface to the national consciousness. In linewith this, immigration and crime research isa relatively neglected topic within the increas-ing fields of study on the effects of immigra-tion on the well-being of the receivingcountry. For these reasons, this book is awelcome contribution to the literature.

The book’s major objective was to“assemble a diverse group of scholars who canoffer innovative approaches to the study ofethnicity, immigration status, and crime, orthe impact of immigration on violent eventsand crime.” In this the book succeeds quite

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well. It begins with a theoretical piece byRobert Bursik, showing the strengths andlimitations of the classical Chicago School tounderstanding social organization in immi-grant neighborhoods today. Several contributorsapply and test Portes and colleagues’ seg-mented assimilation theory to the question ofviolence and problem behaviors. JeffreyMorenoff and Avraham Astor analyze datafrom the Project on Human Development inChicago Neighborhoods to test whethersecond generation and more acculturatedimmigrants are more likely to engage inviolence. Ruben Rumbaut, Roberto Gonzalez,Golnaz Komaie, Charlie Morgan, and RosauraTafoya-Estrada examine data from theChildren of Immigrants Longitudinal Study,finding higher rates of incarceration, aftercontrolling for other predictors, among U.S.-born children of immigrants than amongtheir foreign-born counterparts. Min Zhouand Carl Bankston focus on the effect ofacculturation on delinquency among Viet-namese Americans. In contrast to the originalexperience of Vietnamese in the U.S., a morerecent cohort shows less academic achieve-ment and greater involvement in delinquency,an outcome that they tie to the greater accul-turation among current generation youth.

A second set of contributions exam-ines aggregate relationships between aspectsof immigration and of crime. Specificallyaddressing the immigrant paradox (or revital-ization) perspective – the idea that immigrantsmoving into a socially disorganized area con-tribute to its revitalization – Mathew Lee andRamiro Martinez examine the relationshipbetween immigration and Asian homicide inSan Diego, finding that in most areas, a higherproportion of immigrants is associated withlower homicide levels. In another study, AnneNielsen and Martinez find a similar pattern ofethnic revitalization when they examine vari-ation in violence rates in Miami areas differingin the proportion of Haitian immigrants.

Other contributions examine im-migration issues not usually associated withcriminology. Sang Hea Kil and Cecilia Menjivarexamine how militarization of border polic-ing fits in with the post–September 11, 2001,

phenomenon of criminalizing immigrationviolations. Abel Valenzuela enumerates thepotential for violence by and against im-migrants in the various settings and situationsin which immigrants and employers negotiateday labor. Jennifer Lee discusses the potentialfor violence in customer-merchant relationsamong Blacks, Koreans, and Jews.

All of these studies serve to confirminsights on immigration and crime that havebeen developed over more than one hundredyears now: the relative uninvolvement ofimmigrants in crime, and the greater involve-ment of the second generation in crime andother problem behaviors through the processesof acculturation and assimilation. But they alsoadd to our knowledge by testing and refiningnew theoretical hypotheses such as immigrantrevitalization and segmented assimilation,and by extending theory and research toethnic groups previously unresearched. Othertheoretical aspects of current immigrationtheory and research, for example, the set ofhypotheses associated with transnationalism,have not found their way into this volume.Perhaps the volume’s exposure to a broadaudience of students of immigration maystimulate further thinking on how immigra-tion and assimilation theories may contributeto the study of crime and justice.

XXXBook Riview

The Legal Elements of European Identity: EUCitizenship and Migration Law

. By ElspethGuild. The Hague: Kluwer Law International,2004.

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Glendon College, York University

How does the growth of European Union(EU) immigration and citizenship law affectthe creation of a European identity? This isthe central question posed in this book byGuild, who has established herself as aneminent authority on issues of EU citizenshipand migration law. The author laments whatshe terms the substantial “divide betweenjurists and political scientists” (p. ix) concern-ing questions of European identity, and she