Perceptions of “others,” risk, and counter terrorism-related informal social control

DOI10.1177/0004865818786763
Date01 September 2019
AuthorSuzanna Fay,Robert Crutchfield
Published date01 September 2019
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Perceptions of “others,”
risk, and counter
terrorism-related
informal social control
Suzanna Fay
The University of Queensland, Australia
Robert Crutchfield
University of Washington, USA
Abstract
Anti-terrorism messages associate immigration and minorities with terrorism even if this link
is not explicit. The consequence is the potential for racial profiling of minorities as threats to
national security. Recent experiences or threats of domestic terrorism, in Australia, the US,
and other industrialized countries, have led policy makers to encourage informal social
control in terrorism prevention efforts by appealing to citizens to report suspicious behavior
to authorities. The linking of ethnically different “others”—members of Australia’s popula-
tion who are or are perceived to be outsiders to the mainstream—and terrorism is impor-
tant because who is seen as threatening effects whether individuals engage in informal social
control; the willingness of residents to recognize, intervene, and report suspicious behavior.
However, the concept of “others” in relation to informal social control is more complicated
than just immigration status and ethnic identity alone. This study examines whether percep-
tions of “others” are related to perceptions of terrorism risk and perceptions of informal
social control in reporting national security threats.
Keywords
Immigration, informal social control, national identity, terrorism
Date received: 23 August 2017; accepted: 7 June 2018
Corresponding author:
Suzanna Fay, The University of Queensland, Level 3, Building 9, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
Email: s.ramirez@uq.edu.au
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2019, Vol. 52(3) 315–333
!The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865818786763
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Introduction
Increased attention to national security and terrorism has led to two trends important
for criminologists to consider. First, citizens are asked to engage in informal social
control by reporting behavior that might constitute a terrorist threat to authorities
(Randol, 2009). Second, the framing of national security concerns is increasingly
linked to immigration and national identity (Alden, 2008; Charteris-Black, 2006).
Links between immigrants, minorities, and terrorism are similar to the way those pop-
ulations are linked to crime (Miles-Johnson, Fay-Ramirez, & Wiedlitzka, 2016;
Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999). Evidence suggests that negative perceptions of immi-
grants as well as stereotypes about ethnic minorities are associated with increased fear of
crime victimization as well as willingness to engage in informal social control efforts
(Jenkins, 2004; Laurence, 2011), even when stereotypes about immigrants, minorities,
and crime are dispelled (Kubrin, Ousey, Reid, & Adelman, 2017). This paper examines if
perceptions of immigrants and other marginalized groups are associated with percep-
tions of informal social control of suspected national security risks and perceptions
of terrorism.
Terrorism, the threat of terrorism, and measures to counteract terrorism are prom-
inent features of contemporary social and political discourse. The events of 9/11 and
terrorist attacks around the world have brought the politics of terrorism to the forefront
of domestic policy for many western nations, especially in the US, Western Europe, and
Australia (Australian Government, 2010; Boyle, 2008). Recent national security meas-
ures in Australia, the UK and the US rely on citizens to participate in the “War on
Terror” by urging them to report suspicious behavior to authorities (Randol, 2009).
However, this assumes that citizens know how to correctly detect a potential security
threat (Randol, 2009), that citizens will report their suspicions, and that they have
suff‌icient knowledge to determine what types of behavior or individuals constitute
a threat.
Counter terrorism messages and policy have not always explicitly linked terrorists or
suspicious behavior with immigration, but in the 2016 US Presidential election, one
candidate thrust the linkage between immigrants, and in particular Muslim immigrants,
front and center into the discussion of anti-terrorism debates worldwide. Now, since his
election, Donald Trump has tied his efforts to limit Muslim immigration to terrorists’
attacks in France and the UK. In Europe too, fear of immigrants and refugees from the
Middle East has fueled increased support for right wing, nationalist, nativist, and xeno-
phobic political parties. Much of the Brexit narrative was about Britain “taking back”
control of borders. The labeling of terrorist to “others” or outsiders–immigrants and
visible minorities is not new (Alden, 2008; Charteris-Black, 2006), but previously it was
less explicit, without f‌iery rhetoric, as it has been of late. Now implicit, or even explicit,
connections between people who look or who are “different,” are frequently made by
the public. This connection has potentially disturbing consequences, from the racial
prof‌iling of people of Middle Eastern or Muslim descent at airports, to the disastrous,
for example, the mass murder of Sikhs at prayer in Wisconsin. A less direct potential
consequence of widespread misunderstanding of terrorism and people who are
denounced as “others” is that it may negatively affect communities’ capacity for the
informal social control that could be a hedge against successful terrorist attacks and
316 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 52(3)

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