Drawing on racial threat hypothesis and in-depth interviews with first- and second-generation Arab immigrants, this study explores Arab immigrants’ perceptions of risk and fear of crime in an ethnic enclave community. We find that Arab immigrants’ fear of crime is shaped by the unique context in which they live, with this particular population perceiving members of other minority groups as the greatest threat to their culture, community, and safety. This study extends the minority threat perspective, which typically highlights the majority group’s fear of immigrants and other minorities, by examining the inverse of this relationship. Specifically, what and who do immigrants fear at a time when they are perceived as one of the most threatening populations in the U.S.?
AtkinsonR.FlintJ. (2001). Accessing hidden and hard-to-reach populations: Snowball research strategies. Social Research Update, 33. https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU33.PDF
4.
BlalockH. M. (1967). Toward a theory of minority-group relations. Capricorn Books.
5.
BoeijeH. (2002). A purposeful approach to the constant comparative method in the analysis of qualitative interviews. Quality & Quantity, 36(4), 391–409.
6.
Brunton-SmithI.JacksonJ.SutherlandA. (2014). Bridging structure and perception: On the neighbourhood ecology of beliefs and worries about violent crime. The British Journal of Criminology, 54(4), 503–526.
7.
BurgessR. G. (2002). In the field: An introduction to field research. Routledge.
8.
BursikR. J.GrasmickH. G. (1993). Neighborhoods and crime: The dimensions of effective community control. Lexington Books.
9.
CainkarL. A. (2009). Homeland insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American experience after 9/11. Russell SAGE Foundation.
10.
CharmazK. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
11.
ChiricosT.McEntireR.GertzM. (2001). Perceived racial and ethnic composition of neighborhood and perceived risk of crime. Social Problems, 48(3), 322–340.
12.
ChiricosT.StupiE. K.StultsB. J.GertzM. (2014). Undocumented immigrant threat and support for social controls. Social Problems, 61(4), 673–692.
13.
ColemanJ. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.
14.
CovingtonJ.TaylorR. B. (1991). Fear of crime in urban residential neighborhoods: Implications of between- and within-neighborhood sources for current models. Sociological Quarterly, 32(2), 231–249.
15.
DrakulichK. M. (2012). Strangers, neighbors, and race: A contact model of stereotypes and racial anxieties about crime. Race and Justice, 2(4), 322–355.
16.
DrakulichK. M. (2013). Perceptions of the local danger posed by crime: Race, disorder, informal control, and the police. Social Science Research, 42(3), 611–632.
17.
DrakulichK. M. (2015). Strangers, acquaintances, and victims: Victimization and concern about crime among women. Sociological Forum, 30(1), 103–126.
18.
EitleD.TaylorJ. (2008). Are Hispanics the new ‘threat’? Minority group threat and fear of crime in Miami-Dade County. Social Science Research, 37(4), 1102–1115.
19.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2014). Crime in the United States 2013. U.S. Department of Justice.
20.
FerraroK. F. (1995). Fear of crime: Interpreting victimization risk. State University of New York Press.
21.
GaineyR.AlperM.ChappellA. T. (2011). Fear of crime revisited: Examining the direct and indirect effects of disorder, risk perception, and social capital. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 36, 120–137.
22.
GlaserB. G.StraussA. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine Transaction.
23.
GrubbJ. A.BouffardL. (2014). The interrelationships between victimization, fear, and acculturation among Asian immigrants. Victims & Offenders, 9(4), 353–385.
24.
HanerM.SloanM. M.PickettJ. T.CullenF. T. (2020). Safe haven or dangerous place? Stereotype amplification and Americans’ perceived risk of terrorism, violent street crime, and mass shootings. The British Journal of Criminology, 60(6), 1606–1626.
25.
HinkleJ. C. (2015). Emotional fear of crime vs. perceived safety and risk: Implications for measuring “fear” and testing the broken windows thesis. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 40(1), 147–168.
26.
HwangE.YunI.McGarrellE. F. (2016). A comparative study of fear of crime among Korean immigrants in the United States and native Koreans in South Korea. African and Asian Studies, 15(1), 53–76.
27.
KaufmanS. B. (2019). The criminalization of Muslims in the United States, 2016. Qualitative Sociology, 42, 521–542.
28.
KingR. D.WheelockD. (2007). Group threat and social control: Race, perceptions of minorities and the desire to punish. Social Forces, 85(3), 1255–1280.
29.
LaneJ.FisherB. S. (2009). Unpacking the relationship between gender and fear of crime: Explaining why there are similarities and differences. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25(3), 260–263.
30.
LaneJ.RaderN. E.HensonB.FisherB. S.MayD. C. (2014). Fear of crime in the United States: Causes, consequences, and contradictions. Carolina Academic Press.
31.
LeeM. S.UlmerJ. T. (2000). Fear of crime among Korean Americans in Chicago communities. Criminology, 38, 1173–1206.
32.
LeverentzA. (2012). Narratives of crime and criminals: How places socially construct the crime problem. Sociological Forum, 27(2), 348–371.
33.
LevinB. (2016). Special status report: Hate crime in the United States—20 state compilation of official data. Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism.
ManevskaK.AchterbergP. (2013). Immigration and perceived ethnic threat: Cultural capital and economic explanations. European Sociological Review, 29(3), 437–449.
36.
MartinezR.StowellJ. I.LeeM. T. (2010). Immigration and crime in an era of transformation: A longitudinal analysis of homicides in San Diego neighborhoods, 1980-2000. Criminology, 48(3), 797–829.
37.
MenjívarC.BejaranoC. L. (2004). Latino immigrants’ perceptions of crime and police authorities in the United States: A case study from the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(1), 120–148.
38.
NaberN. (2006). The rules of forced engagement: Race, gender, and the culture of fear among Arab immigrants in San Francisco post-9/11. Cultural Dynamics, 18(3), 235–267.
39.
PickettJ. T.ChiricosT.GoldenK. M.GertzM. (2012). Reconsidering the relationship between perceived neighborhood racial composition and whites’ perceptions of victimization risk: Do racial stereotypes matter?Criminology, 50(1), 145–186.
40.
PortesA.RumbautR. G. (2005). Introduction: The second generation and the children of immigrants longitudinal study. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28(6), 983–999.
41.
PortesA.RumbautR. G. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. University of California Press.
42.
PortesA.ZhouM. (1993). The new second generation: Segmented assimilation and its variants. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 530(1), 74–96.
43.
QuillianL.PagerD. (2001). Black neighbors, higher crime? The role of racial stereotypes in evaluations of neighborhood crime. American Journal of Sociology, 107(3), 717–767.
44.
QuillianL.PagerD. (2010). Estimating risk: Stereotype amplification and the perceived risk of criminal victimization. Social Psychology Quarterly, 73(1), 79–104.
45.
RadfordJ. (2019). Key findings about U.S. immigrants. Pew Research Center.
46.
RobinsonJ. B.LawtonB. A.TaylorR. B.PerkinsD. D. (2003). Multilevel longitudinal impacts of incivilities: Fear of crime, expected safety, and block satisfaction. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 19(3), 237–274.
47.
SampsonR. J. (2011). Great American city: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect. University of Chicago Press.
48.
ShawC. R.McKayH. D. (1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas: A study of rates of delinquents in relation to differential characteristics of local communities in American cities. University of Chicago Press.
49.
SkoganW. (2015). Disorder and decline: The state of research. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 52(4), 464–485.
50.
SkoganW. G. (1987). The impact of victimization on fear. Crime and Delinquency, 33(1), 135–154.
51.
SkoganW. G. (1990). Disorder and decline: Crime and the spiral of decay in American neighborhoods. University of California Press.
52.
StupiE. K.ChiricosT.GertzM. (2016). Perceived criminal threat from undocumented immigrants: Antecedents and consequences for policy preferences. Justice Quarterly, 33(2), 239–266.
VélezM. B. (2009). Contextualizing the immigration and crime effect: An analysis of homicide in Chicago neighborhoods. Homicide Studies, 13(3), 325–335.
55.
WangX. (2012). Undocumented immigrants as perceived criminal threat: A test of the minority threat perspective. Criminology, 50(3), 743–776.
56.
WarrM. (2000). Measurement and analysis of crime and justice (Vol. 4, pp. 451–489). National Institute of Justice.
57.
WarrM.StaffordM. (1983). Fear of victimization: A look at the proximate causes. Social Forces, 61, 1033–1043.
58.
WilsonW. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. University of Chicago Press.
59.
WuY.KlahmC. F.AtouiN. (2017). Fear of crime among Arab Americans in a culture of fear. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(14), 2481–2500.
60.
WuY.WarehamJ. (2017). Perceived risk of crime: A tale of two immigrant groups in Metro Detroit. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 15(2), 117–137.
61.
WuY.WenJ. (2014). Fear of crime among Chinese immigrants in Metro-Detroit. Crime Law and Social Change, 61(5), 495–515.
62.
YuanY.McNeeleyS. (2017). Social ties, collective efficacy, and crime-specific fear in Seattle neighborhoods. Victims & Offenders, 12(1), 90–112.
63.
YunI.KercherG.SwindellS. (2010). Fear of crime among Chinese immigrants. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 8(2), 71–90.
64.
ZhouM.BankstonC. L. (1998). Growing up American: How Vietnamese children adapt to life in the United States. Russell SAGE Foundation.
