Beyond the Dichotomy: Understanding the Masking Effect of Binary Measures of “Status” on Foreign Nationals’ Lifetime Victimization Outcomes

Research on foreign nationals’ crime and victimization outcomes heavily relies on binary “immigration status” measures that fail to account for the legal parameters of U.S. citizenship and immigration laws. This study demonstrates the potential misclassification of foreign-born U.S. citizens, the sanitization of foreign nationals’ heterogeneity, and the masking effect the use of binary measures has on outcomes compared to legally informed proxy statuses. Using the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Surveys data, this study compares lifetime measures of witnessing violence and sexual victimization outcomes between birthright citizens and five proxy “statuses” as well as intra-group comparisons across foreign nationals. Three weighted multiple logistic regression models were estimated per outcome. The results reveal that using a dichotomized “U.S.-born/foreign-born” measure masks substantive differences in the outcomes. Subanalyses of foreign nationals also suggest that intragroup differences are concealed. The methodological, theoretical, and policy implications of this work are discussed.

针对外国国民犯罪与受害情况的研究，高度依赖二元化的"移民身份"衡量指标，但这类指标未能契合美国公民身份与移民法律的法定框架。本研究揭示了三类问题：一是对外国出生的美国公民存在潜在的分类误判，二是抹杀了外国国民群体间的异质性，三是相较于采用契合法律框架的代理身份指标而言，使用二元化指标会掩盖研究结果的真实差异。本研究依托协作精神流行病学调查（Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Surveys）数据集，对比了本土出生公民与五类代理"身份"群体的终身目睹暴力经历与性受害结局，并针对外国国民群体开展了组内对比分析。针对每类结局指标，本研究共构建了三个加权多重逻辑回归模型。研究结果显示，采用"本土出生/外国出生"的二分法指标，会掩盖研究结局中存在的实质性差异。针对外国国民的亚组分析同样表明，群体内部的差异也被此类指标掩盖了。本研究还探讨了本研究在方法论、理论与政策层面的启示意义。