Migrant Death: Border Safety and Situational Crime Prevention on the U.S.--Mexico Divide

• NCJ Number: 221396
• Author(s): Rob T. Guerette
• Date Published: 2007
• Length: 193 pages
• Sale Source: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: From the LFB Scholarly Series: Criminal Justice Recent Scholarship

Annotation

After an overview of the nature of illegal immigration and border patrol in the United States, this book focuses on reducing migrant casualty within the current policy and enforcement environment and through the application of a problem-oriented, evidence-based prevention strategy.

Abstract

This book has extended methods of situational crime prevention to the problem of migrant death offering a better understanding of the situational nature and process of migrant deaths. An application of situational crime prevention offers a more expedient way to save migrant lives than channeling efforts to reverse close to a century of progressively restrictive United States immigration policy. The greatest implication of this research is for those migrants who everyday cross international borders clandestinely in search of a better way of life. Situational crime prevention exemplifies developments in the field of crime prevention, which has moved firmly toward proactive and evidence-based strategies for addressing problematic behavior. Chapters 6 and 7 assess the impact of current life saving practices and identify the circumstances and situational nature of migrant fatality along the United States-Mexico border. The product of this examination is a better understanding of the circumstances of border deaths, which is directed to assist in the formulation of intervention strategy. More specifically, the accumulation of these findings serves to inform recommendations in three areas: (1) to enhance the Border Safety Initiative (BSI) life saving policy, (2) to improve operational practice of BSI activity, and (3) to identify topics for future research. The book is directed toward answering several general questions intended to inform the policy and practice concerning the reduction of migrant deaths. These include: how large a problem is migrant death, what is the impact of BSI on the rate of migrant death, who is dying, what are the circumstances involved in migrant death, and what should be done to address migrant death, by policy, in practices and in future research? Tables, figures, appendixes, and references