Dangerous Strangers: Minority Newcomers and Criminal Violence in the Urban West, 1850-2000

Analyzing the 7,000 cases of homicide in San Francisco between 1850 and 2000, particularly those involving minority newcomer groups, Mullen (a retired deputy chief of the San Francisco Police Department) attempts to analyze how much criminal violence by different ethnic groups can be attributed to their treatment by the host society and how much can be traced to traits found within their own communities, with his answer generally leaning towards the latter. He includes chapters looking at criminal violence amongst Australians, Latinos, Irish, Chinese, Italian, and African American newcomer populations to San Francisco. His study also addresses the impact of different kinds of police responses on levels of violence. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR