Group Threat and Social Control

• In Event: Criminal Justice Theory: Explanation and Effects

Abstract

The intellectual roots and theoretical evolution of the group threat perspective in the study of social control are described. What began as an aggregate contextual focus on racial composition of place in relation to formal and informal mechanisms of control has expanded to include ethnic and immigrant threats at the aggregate and individual level as well as perceptions of threat and the conditioning effects of threatening context on individual criminal justice outcomes. Research evidence in relation to these various domains of inquiry is described and an overall assessment of the perspective’s empirical merit is offered. Suggestions for future lines of inquiry engaging group threat and social control are considered.

Authors

• Ted Chiricos, Florida State University

• Justin Tyler Pickett, University at Albany, SUNY

• Peter S. Lehmann, Florida State University