ABSTRACT
The concept of group threat—also known as social threat, racial threat, or minority threat—that motivates substantial criminological inquiry, both theoretical and empirical, have its origins outside of the discipline. H. M. Blalock hypothesized that the White majority would be threatened if either the size or mobilization of the Black minority increased. Whites would respond with racial discrimination, he predicted, but the type of discriminatory response would vary depending on whether the threat was to their economic well-being or political power. One of the most important theoretical enhancements in the evolution of group threat as a criminological perspective was the specification of criminal threat as a consequence of minority presence. Scholars also have examined punitive attitudes—support for “get tough” crime or immigration policies—in relation to racial and ethnic threat, as measured both by actual demographic context and by threat perceptions. The evidence in relation to racial and ethnic context, albeit somewhat mixed, is generally supportive of group threat theory.
