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Fear of Crime Among Arab Americans in a Culture of Fear

NCJ Number
255272
Journal
Ethnic and Racial Studies Volume: 40 Issue: 14 Dated: 2017 Pages: 2481-2500
Date Published
2017
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study investigated Arab Americans' fear of crime, using five empirically validated fear-of-crime theoretical models.
Abstract

Although they are the minority group frequently at the center of public fear in the post-9/11 era, Arab Americans' own sentiment toward and concerns with crime has eluded scholarly attention. The current study conducted face-to-face interviews with a random sample of Arab and non-Arab households in Metro-Detroit, Michigan. Findings indicated that net of all controls, Arab Americans experienced significantly higher levels of fear concerning both general and bias crimes than non-Arab Americans. The greater fear among Arab Americans calls for policy and practice change and moving from perceiving Arab Americans as a major "source" of fear to "carriers" of fear, who need more attention, care, and assistance. (publisher abstract modified)

Date Published: January 1, 2017