Perceived Criminal Threat from Undocumented Immigrants: Antecedents and Consequences for Policy Preferences

The Global Refugee Crisis: Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications for Improving Public Attitudes and Facilitating Refugee Resettlement

“…These feelings may stem from real or imagined factors such as: the size of the refugee group, perceived competition for scarce resources such as jobs and health care, zero-sum beliefs about cultural values, perceived threat of disease and violence, perceived threat to the status quo, and perceived threat from terrorists. In addition to predicting negative attitudes and prejudice toward refugees, threat may lead to reduced support for policies that aim to provide assistance and empower refugees (Hartley & Pedersen, 2015; see also Jackson & Esses, 2000) and increased support for restrictive refugee policies (see Chiricos, Stupi, Stults, & Gertz, 2014;Esses et al, 2003;Stupi et al, 2016). These findings may be more pronounced for individuals who identify with the political right (Canetti et al, 2016;Hawley, 2011) and for those with low feelings of control (Greenaway et al, 2014).…”

Neighborhood immigrant concentration and violent crime reporting to the police: A multilevel analysis of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey*

“…Scholars have long drawn general links between perceived social threats and the use of formal social control efforts, including the reporting of crimes to the police (Blalock, 1967;King & Wheelock, 2007;Stults & Baumer, 2007;Warner, 1992). In drawing on these ideas, scholars have recently suggested that punitive sentiment and the mobilization of law may be especially prominent in communities in which immigrants compose a larger and growing share (Johnson, Stewart, Pickett, & Gertz, 2011;Stewart, Martinez, Baumer, & Gertz, 2015;Stupi, Chiricos, & Gertz, 2016).…”

Race, Xenophobia, and Punitiveness Among the American Public

“…Accordingly, changes to unemployment rates and the size of minority populations can trigger the desire to punish among whites who perceive minorities as strains on material resources (Stewart et al 2015). Another important dimension of the link between perceived threat and punitiveness is when outgroups are stereotyped as more criminal, as such views have been shown to be a strong and consistent predictor of punitive attitudes (Barkan and Cohn 2005;Chiricos et al 2004;Pickett et al 2014;Stewart et al 2015;Stupi, Chiricos, and Gertz 2016;Welch et al 2011;Welch 2016). Similar to studies of perceived threat, empirical research has shown consistent, crosscultural evidence linking animus against specific minority groups to support for harsh criminal justice policies (Barkan and Cohn 2005;Unnever and Cullen 2007;Cullen 2010a, 2010b).…”