Racialization of Drug Use and Gang Involvement: Racial Crime Stereotype of Minorities, Fear of Crime and the Impact of Sex

Abstract

This study examines how racialized crime and drug stereotypes of African Americans and Hispanics affect the fear of crime. Based on racial threat theory, which argues that members of the majority racial group perceive the increasing minority group population as threatening, and labeling theory, which argues that labeling someone as "deviant" reinforces that behavior and affects how they are treated, this study examines the effect of African American and Hispanic racial crime stereotypes on fear of crime. In addition, it investigates the sex variation in the fear of crime among individuals who possess stereotypes against these minorities. Using the Seattle neighborhoods and crime survey data, we found that those who stereotyped African Americans and Hispanics with criminality tended to have higher levels of crime fears as compared to those who did not have such beliefs. In addition, we found that females who hold crime stereotypes of Hispanics do not fear crime as much as those who hold stereotypes of African Americans. Furthermore, males who hold the criminal stereotype towards African Americans and Hispanics had a similar degree of heightened fear of crime in their neighborhood.