Citation

Haner M, Sloan MM, Pickett JT, Cullen FT. Br. J. Criminol. 2020; 60(6): 1606-1626.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjc/azaa045

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

People overestimate the risk of some events, such as terrorist attacks and immigrant crimes, but not of others. Stereotype amplification theory indicates that politicized, out-group stereotypes may be to blame. We examine Americans' perceptions of the risk that different forms of violence--out-group, in-group and non-racialized--will occur in their local communities. We hypothesize that negative stereotypes of immigrants and Muslims will increase the perceived risk of out-group violence but not of other forms of violence. Analyses of original survey data from a sample of 1,068 Americans reveal four findings: (1) most Americans accurately perceive home-grown violence to be more likely than violence by foreigners, (2) political identification and ideology strongly predict out-group stereotypes, (3) out-group stereotypes strongly predict the perceived risk of out-group violence but are not significantly associated with risk perceptions for other forms of violence and (4) vulnerability factors predict risk perceptions for all forms of violence.

Language: en