15 years later: Post 9/11 support for increased security and criminalizing muslims

ABSTRACT

Islamophobia appears to be growing, becoming a mainstream ideology in the United States. Despite the current spike in anti-Islamic sentiment and fear of the Islamic “other,” these ideas are not new and can be traced back to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Using survey data collected only months after the attacks (N = 422), this study uses an integrated threat framework to examine predictors of public support for increased security in the United States. The results show that perceived personal threat and support for policies that criminalize Muslims predict support for security policies that compromise civil liberties. This is especially true among older individuals, conservatives, individuals less inclined towards individual freedom, and those living in the Northeast or in the South.

KEYWORDS:

• Terrorism
• integrated threat theory
• public opinion
• civil liberties
• security

Notes

1. Four respondents reporting watching the local news ten or more hours per day were regarded as outliers-–beyond 4 standard deviations above the mean—and were excluded from the analysis. Likewise, seven outliers (watching national news seven or more hours per day) were also eliminated.

2. Six cases reporting reading the newspapers five or more hours per day (z-scores > 4) were considered outliers and excluded from the analysis.

3. As we used the listwise method of deleting missing data, the analysis encompasses the respondents who provided answers to all of the questions of interest (314 in Model 1, and 306 in Models 2 and 3).

4. We also explored the possibility that the effect of support for policies that criminalize Muslims on the dependent variable might be conditioned by perceived personal threat. To test this possibility, an interaction term was created (Personal threat x Muslim Index) and added to the third model. This analysis provided no support for this argument (results available upon request).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eva Aizpurua

Eva Aizpurua works at the Center for Social & Behavioral Research, at the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA.

Alexa J. Singer

Alexa J. Singer works at the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice, located in Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA.

Leah F. Butler

Leah F. Butler works at the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice, located in Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA.

Nicole L. Collier

Nicole L. Collier works at the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice, located in Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA.

Marc G. Gertz

Marc G. Gertz works at the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice, located in Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA.