The Effect of Static, Dynamic, and Perceptual Measures of Minority Threat on Fear of Crime

Abstract

Research on the fear of crime has focused on a variety of possible causes, including prior victimization, media consumption, and racial threat. However, little research has examined the sources of crime fear for separate racial/ethnic groups. The present study addresses this limitation by assessing fear of crime among diverse racial/ethnic groups utilizing multiple indicators of minority threat. Using data from the Houston Area Survey, this study assesses the effect of static measures of threat (the size of a minority population at 1 point in time), dynamic measures of threat (the change in the size of a minority population), and perceptual measures of the size of a minority population. Results indicate that, overall, the relationship between threat and fear of crime varies based on the sample used and the type of threat assessed (racial or ethnic). Theoretical implications and prospects for future research on fear of crime and the minority threat perspective are also discussed.

KEYTERMS:

• Minority threat
• fear of crime
• public opinion

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ted Chiricos, Eric Stewart, Patricia Warren, Eric Baumer, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Notes

1. Respondents were asked “Are you Anglo, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or of some other (specify) ethnic background? If more than one: Which ethnic group do you generally identify with?” Respondents were not coded based on country of origin.

2. Although some may suggest that the Latino population has increased dramatically since the year 2000, the measure of dynamic threat was calculated based on available data. The American Community Survey, although available for 2008, most recently, does not aggregate data by zip code. Using the American Community Survey would have required a larger aggregate area, like the metropolitan area. Because all of the respondents in this data set live in the Houston area, there would have been no variation in this measure. In addition, the U.S. Census Bureau has not released zip-code-level files for the recent 2010 Census.

3. Additional measures tested in factor analysis were population size, population density, and immigrant concentration.

4. Because theories of minority threat argue that minorities are potentially threatening to the majority (Whites), the results for the White subsample are presented first.