HOMICIDE AMONG THE 1980 MARIEL REFUGEES IN MIAMI - VICTIMS AND OFFENDERS

The current study analyzes violence by and against the Mariel immigran ts. Using homicide as a proxy for violence, the following analysis com pares and contrasts the experiences of the Mariel Cubans to pre-1980 C ubans already in the United States. Overall, the results in this study demonstrate that the Mariels were rarely the high-rate killers portra yed by the media. Indeed, relative to their group size, the Mariels we re victimized at a proportion greater than their population size. This simple but unnoticed figure suggests that the Mariels were in far gre ater danger in Miami than Cubans who had been residing in the area for a longer period of time.