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This thesis explores the socialization process of threats through comparative historical analysis of state-sponsored mass killings. The research uses an identity approach formulating the hypothesis that marginalization of victims and radicalization of perpetrators lead to socialization of threats. It focuses on communist mass murder in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia to analyze the association of threats and identity of both perpetrators and victims. The cases will be analyzed through process tracing to further understand a threat as a theoretical and analytical concept in a broad spectrum of violence including genocide and mass killing. To deepen our understanding of where the threat come from, how it manifests itself, and how it is shared is vital for future prevention of mass killing.