Allport held that violence escalates gradually from prejudgment and animosity

Evidence

Allport argued that discrimination in turn provided for the outgrowth of physical violence, the rarest and most vitriolic expression of intergroup animosity. Intergroup violence erupted from the gradual build-up of animosity, the first key step of which was the categorical prejudgment of a group. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 644

Categorization

• XREF: This staged escalation model connects to the moral-panic literature the reader has studied (Cohen) — both posit gradual build-up from milder forms. — connects to: Practiced violence systematically widens to ever-larger victim circles. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 132