The Neighborhood Context of Perceived and Reported Anti-White Hate Crimes

Abstract

Hate crimes have received substantial scholarly attention, largely focusing on victims from marginal groups. Large numbers of White Americans also report being the victim of racial hate crime, though very little research has sought to examine the etiology or meaning of anti-White hate crimes. The present work explores the neighborhood context of hate crimes against non-Hispanic Whites in a majority-White city—comparing police reports with self-reported victimizations. Police reports of anti-White hate crimes are most common in areas that have high rates of nonhate crimes and residential instability. Perceptions of bias incidents, by contrast, appear largely driven by the racial composition. Hate crimes against members of dominant groups appear fundamentally distinct from hate crimes against members of subordinate groups and require separate theoretical models of their substantive meaning and etiology. In general, White residents appear to interpret the motivations for victimizations through a racial lens—attributing anti-White motivations most often when they live near larger numbers of Black neighbors—and reporting them most frequently in disorganized and higher crime places. Implications for theory and research on hate crimes, racial threat, anti-White racism, and the effect of the racial composition on perceptions of crime are discussed.