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