Group Threat, Racial/Ethnic Animus, and Punitiveness in Latin America: A Multilevel Analysis

• Author: Peter S. Lehmann,Cecilia Chouhy,Alexa J. Singer,Jessica N. Stevens,Marc Gertz
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/2153368720920347
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Group Threat, Racial/Ethnic

Animus, and Punitiveness

in Latin America: A

Multilevel Analysis

Peter S. Lehmann

1

, Cecilia Chouhy

2

,

Alexa J. Singer

3

, Jessica N. Stevens

2

,

and Marc Gertz

2

Abstract

The group threat perspective has been tested withregard to a variety of social control

outcomes, including public support for punitive crime control policies. However, little

work has explored possible interactive effects between macro-level racial/ethnic con-

texts, individual-level racial/ethnic animus, and race/ethnicity on punitive attitudes, and

none of this research hasbeen conducted outside the United States. The current study

is the first to examine these interrelationships in Latin America, which is characterized

by notable racial/ethnic stratification and recent movements toward authoritarian

criminal justice strategies. Analyses of data from the AmericasBarometer survey col-

lected in 633 municipalities within10 countries (N¼16,782) revealthat (1) racial/ethnic

animus is consistently predictive of support for harsher punishments, (2) the effect of

being White on punitiveness is conditioned by Indigenous population size at the

municipal level, and (3) the interactive effects of being White and holding anti-Black

animus are further moderated by municipal-level percent Black/Mulatto.

Keywords

punitive attitudes, minority group threat, social control, out-group animus, race and

ethnicity

1

Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA

2

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

3

Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Peter S. Lehmann, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State University, P.O.

Box 2296, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA.

Email: psl003@shsu.edu

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368720920347

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2022, Vol. 12(4) 669–694

Much prior criminological research has examined the relationship between racial/

ethnic context and the exercise of social control (e.g., Eitle et al., 2002; Jacobs &

Carmichael, 2001; Kent & Jacobs, 2005; Stults & Baumer, 2007). This work is largely

inspired by the group threat perspective, which argues that minority racial/ethnic

groups may be perceived as posing threats to social order that are then responded to

through the mobilization of the justice system and other control mechanisms (Blalock,

1967; Crawford et al., 1998; Liska, 1992). Beyond its salience for criminal justice

activities, scholars have emphasized that minority group threat can be an important

predictor of public support for the exercise of social control, especially among

members of the majority racial/ethnic group (e.g., Baumer et al., 2003; King &

Wheelock, 2007; Ousey & Unnever, 2012). The findings from this extensive body of

work—particularly in the United States—have shown support for the theory, and the

presence of relatively large minority populations, as well as anti-minority resentment,

is consistently associated with punitiveness particularly for Whites.

Despite the consistency of the findings from these studies, there remain several

notable gaps in this body of work. First, while some research has investigated the

importance of racial/ethnic context for punitiveness, with only one exception (i.e.,

Soss et al., 2003) scholars have not explored how macro-level threat moderates the

relationship between race-related attitudes and punitiveness. Second, few studies have

focused on the importance of racial and ethnic animus as a source of punitive senti-

ments in countries other than the United States (Cochran & Piquero, 2011; Dambrun,

2007; Lehmann et al., 2019; Stansfield & Stone, 2018; Unnever & Cullen, 2010a), and

only one cross-national study has examined the effects of both macro-level racial/

ethnic demographic composition and individual-level racial animus on punitive atti-

tudes (Ousey & Unnever, 2012). Finally, no prior study has explored the relevance of

both community-level group threat and animus against racial/ethnic out-groups for

support for punitive criminal justice measures in the context of Latin America.

Using data from theAmericasBarometer survey, thecurrent study intends to address

these gaps in theextant research by providing a cross-national examination of the group

threat perspective. Unlike many studiesof minority threat andpunitiveness, we explore

the joint influenc e of community racial/ ethnic context and i ndividual-le vel animus

against membersof minority racial/ethnic groups. Further, this research contributes to a

limited body of international work on the consequences of group threatfor punitiveness,

and it is the first to examine these relationships in the theoretically salient context of

Latin America. Before we describe our data and analytic strategy, we first review the

previous theoretical and empirical work on group threatand punitive attitudes.Next, we

discuss therelevance of Latin American countries for exploringthese issues. Finally, we

present the hypotheses that will be tested in the present research.

The Group Threat Perspective

A preeminent theoretical framework that has informed much sociological and crimin-

ological inquiryis the group threat perspective.Building largely on the work of Blumer

(1958) and Blalock (1967), this theory anticipates that large and/or growing minority

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