Clinching is a mechanical press joining method, which has become of growing interest in recent time since it has the potential to replace other conventional joining methods like e.g. spot welding. However, there still exists a lack of knowledge in terms of the mechanical behavior of clinched joints under quasistatic or cyclic loading. For that reason clinching is usually used for applications in structures which are not subjected to external loads. In particular the residual stress distribution in the vicinity of clinched joints and its influence on the mechanical behavior of the joints is unknown. Here diffraction methods are used for the determination of characteristic residual stress distributions in undismantled clinched samples. A combined residual stress determination by X-ray and neutron diffraction has been used to get a well-founded assessment of the residual stress distributions in the immediate vicinity of clinched joints. The residual stress analysis is supplemented by characterizations of the microstructures and the mechanical properties of single clinched joints. Two materials with different strain hardening behavior were used for clinching, a micro alloyed steel (ZStE340) and a non age hardenable aluminum base alloy (AlMg5). In addition two different common clinching techniques were applied - the TOX- [5] and the Eckold-technique [6]. Characteristic residual stress distributions were found for the combinations of clinching techniques and joined sheet materials investigated here. It has been determined that the clinching process induces predominantly compressive residual stresses inside the clinch and in the immediate vicinity of the clinch. The near surface residual stress distributions determined by X-ray diffraction measurements tend to reveal somewhat different residual stresses than measured by neutron diffraction, indicating a possible stress gradient through the sheet thickness. Further evaluation of the FWHM-values of the respective interference profiles shows that for both clinching techniques the largest amount of plastic deformation occurs in the clinch lock region.