S.J. Quinney College of Law Professor Carissa Hessick commented on the impacts of Arizona’s SB1070, seen as a hard-line approach to immigration. The Arizona Republic story titled, “Fact Check: Did SB 1070 reduce crime in Arizona?,” addresses unsubstantiated claims of benefit.
University of Utah law professor Carissa Hessick, who has analyzed the impact of SB 1070 said it is nearly impossible to say the law’s passage had any effect on crime.
It is important to note that crime rates in Arizona were already falling before implementation of SB 1070, according to DPS statistics. The Arizona crime index had been steadily declining since 2002 because of a number of factors.
“It’s easy to make a claim about a correlation between crime rates and other factors but it’s extremely difficult to make a causative claim,” Hessick said.