The discussion notes that members of some disadvantaged minority groups in every Western country are disproportionately likely to be arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for violent, priority, and drug crimes. In addition, important social policy dilemmas that are regarded in individual countries as uniquely their own are actually variations on common themes of social structure that characterize many countries. The discussion focuses on the difficulties involved in researching these issues; racial and ethnic differences in offending, victimization, and system processing in individual countries; research findings relating to immigration and crime; and recommendations on how future comparative research might advance understanding and policymaking. It concludes that research needs to move beyond analyses of single countries to combine findings from different countries and provide policymakers with the information they need to anticipate and work to prevent or reduce the kinds of problems that particular kinds of migrant groups are likely to experience. 54 references