APRe Ongoing Research
Listed below are selected projects that are currently in progress grouped into the APRe-Lab’s three interrelated areas of research.
Social Policy Heading link
Research in this area considers the impact of policies intended to meet human needs for education, work, health, and wellbeing.
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Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Homeownership and Gaps in Student Achievement
Funder(s): Russell Sage and William T. Grant Foundations
Research team: Agustina Laurito (DPA-UIC) and Sarah Cordes (Temple University)
Description: This project uses national-level data form the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) to investigate whether and to what extent larger ethnic and racial disparities in homeownership increase test score achievement gaps between White and Black students and White and Hispanic students. Results from this paper shed light on the potential positive spillovers on education from policies that seek to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in homeownership. -
Se Habla Español? The effect of Medicaid Expansions on Substance Use Treatment Services for Spanish Speakers
Funder(s): Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, UIC
Research team: Agustina Laurito (DPA-UIC) and Jonathan Cantor (RAND Corporation)
Description: This project estimates the effect of Medicaid expansions on the availability of substance use treatment services for Spanish speakers. It uses national-level data on treatment facilities and estimates event study models for areas with higher shares of Spanish speakers and those with lower shares of Spanish speakers. Results from this paper will provide insights into whether expanding access to public health insurance helps increase linguistically competent services in the area of substance use.
Immigration Heading link
APRe-Lab research in this area primarily focuses on the causes and consequences of crime and criminal justice contact.
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Priming an Immigrant Threat: Variation in Local Media Coverage, 2003–2019
Funder(s): Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
Research team: Ashley Muchow (CLJ-UIC) and Hannan Latif (CLJ-UIC)
Description: This project uses a novel dataset of television broadcasts from every U.S. media market between 2003 and 2019 to assess the geographic patterning of local news coverage of immigration and crime over this period. By examining the relationship between local news coverage and varied policy responses to immigration enforcement, this study will elucidate the relationship between local television news coverage and important contexts of immigrant reception.
Secondary research area: Crime and criminal justice -
Assessing the Spillover Effect of Local Immigrant Detention on Police Arrests
Funder(s): Russell Sage Foundation
Research team: Ashley Muchow (CLJ-UIC)
Description: Using county-level arrest data from California between 1980 and 2004, this project examines whether intergovernmental service agreements (IGSAs) leasing local jail space for immigrant detention increased rates of Latinx arrest. Findings from this paper will help to contextualize disproportionate Latinx representation in the U.S. criminal justice system.
Secondary research area: Crime and criminal justice -
Can Community Policing Reduce the Chilling Effect of Immigration Enforcement on Latinx Crime Reporting? Evidence from Los Angeles
Funder(s): Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
Research team: Ashley Muchow (CLJ-UIC)
Description: This study assesses whether LAPD’s Community Safety Partnership (CSP) program offset declines in Latinx crime reporting during Trump-era enforcement intensifications. Using data on crimes reported to the LAPD between 2014 and 2019, this study finds that while domestic violence reports declined in areas not exposed to CSP after Trump assumed office, they increased in CSP areas. This study contributes to nascent research on the measures local law enforcement agencies can take to ensure the service and protection of communities targeted by immigration enforcement.
Secondary research area: Crime and criminal justice
Crime and Criminal Justice Heading link
This area of research considers how law and policy influences immigrant integration.
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Public Mental Health Facility Closures and Criminal Justice Contact in Chicago
Funder(s): UIC OVCR Award for Creative Activity and Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
Research team: Ashley Muchow (CLJ-UIC) and Agustina Laurito (DPA-UIC)
Description: In this project we examine the consequences of the 2012 closure of six publicly funded mental health clinics in Chicago on arrests, mental health transports, as well as calls for service. This project uses a variety of publicly available data and as well as data obtained through FOIA requests. This study will provide relevant evidence about whether reducing the mental health safety net increases criminal justice contact among vulnerable populations. -
Framing an Immigrant Threat: The Consequences of Local Media Coverage for Latinx Arrest
Research team: Ashley Muchow (CLJ-UIC) and Taisiia Stanishevska (Econ-UIC)
Description: In this project, we hypothesize that media coverage linking immigration with crime may bias police decision-making, potentially leading officers to use ethnicity as a factor in generating reasonable suspicion or calculating risk during routine police encounters. Using television news broadcasts from every U.S. media market and county-level arrest data from 2009 to 2016, we examine whether exposure to stories associating immigration with crime increases rates of Latinx arrest.
Secondary research area: Immigration -
Depolicing in Chicago? Assessing the Quality and Quantity of Policing after Laquan McDonald
Research team: Ashley Muchow, William McCarty, Patrick Burke, and Rafael Moreno (CLJ-UIC)
Description: Using administrative data on arrests as well as traffic stops and searches, we assess whether the quantity and quality of policing in the city changed after Laquan McDonald’s murder at the hands of a Chicago police officer. Employing an interrupted time series design and controlling for an extensive set of potentially confounding factors, we assess whether arrests, stops, and hit rates changed following the video release of Laquan’s murder. Findings shed light on the impact of this salient incident of police violence on policing in Chicago. -
Community Violence and Early Childhood Language Development: The Moderating Role of Maternal Efficacy and Satisfaction
Research team: Agustina Laurito (DPA-UIC) and Alejandra Abufhele (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile)
Description: This project uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ELPI) conducted in Chile to estimate the acute effect of community-level violence on the language development of young children. It also examines whether and to what extent maternal efficacy and satisfaction help moderate the negative effect of community violence shedding light on how the interactions between families and communities shape development in early childhood. Using one year of survey data the study exploits the random timing of homicides relative to the EPLI data collection dates and compares children for whom one or more homicides happened in the month before data collection to those in the same municipality but for whom homicides happened in the month after the survey stratifying by mother’s level of efficacy and satisfaction.
Secondary research area: Social Policy