Hate Crime Research Articles

LGBTQ+ Hate Crimes: Understanding Victim Reasons for Non-Reporting

LGBTQ+ Hate Crimes: Understanding Victim Reasons for Non-Reporting

Religious coping and delinquent behaviors: Moderated mediation roles of religion affiliation and prosocial moral reasoning.

Religion has been shown to have a positive impact for developing adolescents; however, the processes underlying this relation are not well known. In his almighty prosocial theory, Anazonwu (Conceptualizing and testing almighty prosociality theory for a more peaceful world, SCOA Heritage Nigeria, 2017) proposed that the activation of learnt prosocial moral reasoning through religion enabled performance of prosocial peace behavior that will benefit society. Thus, religion coping enhances the development of prosocial reasoning which in turn propagate prosocial acts while reducing delinquent behaviors. Similarly, developmental system theory (Lerner, Developmental science, developmental systems, and contemporary theories of human development, John Wiley & Sons, 2006) assumed that in every individual three mechanisms: plasticity (potential to change), context (environment), and developmental regulation (learnable principles) interact to describe the direction of the transactions between individuals and their various embedded sociocultural context of development which will also determine other developmental outcomes. Based on these two theoretical assumptions, the present study examined whether prosocial moral reasoning (developmental regulation) was the mechanism in the negative correlation between religious coping (plasticity) and delinquent behaviors (outcome), and if religious affiliation(context) (Christianity and Islam) moderated these paths. We hypothesized that the link from prosocial moral reasoning to lower delinquent behaviors would be stronger for Muslim compared with Christian youth. These questions were tested among Nigerian adolescence, an important sample because of high interreligious and interethnic tension among youth in the country. 298 adolescents (Mean age = 15.03 years, SD = 1.76; male = 176, female = 122; 46.3% Muslim, 53.7% Christian) were sampled using questionnaires in senior secondary schools in Nigeria. Moderated mediation result shows that greater religious coping was linked with higher prosocial moral reasoning, which in turn predicted fewer delinquent behaviors. Religious coping interacted with religion affiliation to influence delinquent behavior; there was a stronger link between these two constructs for Muslim compared to Christian youth. Thus, interventions aiming to reduce youth delinquent behaviors should consider promoting prosocial moral reasoning, particularly among the various religions (i.e., Christian/Muslim) communities.

Our Fight Has Just Begun: Hate Crimes and Justice in Native America

Book review

Us, them and we: How national and human identifications influence adolescents' ethnic prejudice.

Although there have been numerous studies on the relations between group identification and ethnic prejudice, it is less clear whether their associations reflect stable individual tendencies or rather situational or temporal fluctuations. This longitudinal multilevel study aimed to fill this gap by examining the between- and within-person associations of identification with the national and superordinate human groups and levels of prejudice against multiple ethnic minorities. A total of 883 Italian majority adolescents (Mage = 15.66, SD = 1.15 at T1, 49.7% females) completed questionnaires at four time points over the course of 1 year. Results showed that national identification was related to more prejudice at the between-person level but to decreases in prejudice at the within-person level. Additionally, human identification contributed to lower levels of and steeper decreases in prejudice at both the between- and within-person levels. Common and unique associations also emerged across different ethnic minority targets, but only for between-person effects. Overall, this study highlights the importance of distinguishing stable individual levels and momentary fluctuations of both ingroup identifications and ethnic prejudice in order to orient future interventions aimed at improving the quality of intergroup relationships.

DUAL SANCTIONING OF HATE CRIMES AND HATE SPEECH AS PART OF EXTREMISM IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC: CONCEPTUAL, LEGISLATIVE AND PRACTICAL ISSUES

Background: Extremism poses a cross-border social problem, lacking a universally accepted definition. In principle, so-called hate crimes are specific types of criminal offences that cut across all types of extremism. We can even talk about their conceptual overlap. A special category of hate crimes is represented by so-called verbal attacks, known as hate speech, which are considered an abuse of freedom of expression from an international perspective as well as in jurisprudence of the European Court on Human Rights. As a result of such a perception, their criminal sanction comes into consideration. In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity of criminal law repression, another method of sanctioning hate crimes and hate speech is also possible, namely by administrative law. The existence of “multiple legal regulations” on extremism as delict caused a dual sanctioning system of extremism. It leads to application problems in legal practice, for example, an unclear understanding of offences from criminal and administrative perspectives or even the weak possibility of investigating such acts by State power. The main objective of the contribution is to point out the dual legal regulation (criminal and administrative) of the sanctioning of extremism, in particular its special category – hate crimes and hate speech. Moreover, the objective of the contribution is to assess its unclear issues in legal understanding and to identify specific application problems caused by its dual system (criminal and administrative). Special attention is focused on applicable sanctions in both the criminal law area and administrative law areas. At the end, suggestions on how to solve indicated problems are introduced. Methods: The primary sources used for the elaboration of the contribution are scholarly sources (books, studies, scientific papers, etc.), legislative instruments (national and international legislation) and case law (of Slovak national courts and the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union). The authors use traditional methods of legal scientific (jurisprudential) research – general scientific methods and special methods of legal science (jurisprudence). The general scientific methods used in the paper are predominantly logical methods, namely, the method of analysis, the method of synthesis, the method of analogy, and the descriptive method. The descriptive method has been used to familiarise the reader with the current legal regulation of extremism. The method of analysis has been used regarding relevant legal provisions and case-laws of courts. The method of synthesis has also been used. The special methods of legal science used here predominantly include methods belonging to a group of interpretative methods, namely, the teleological method, the systematic method and the comparative method. The teleological method has been used to explain the purpose of legislative instruments. The systematic method has been used to classify the relevant applicable law. The comparative method has been used to examine the relationship between legislative perspectives – criminal and administrative. Results and Conclusions: Regarding extremism offences committed in the Slovak Republic, in specific cases, the decision making whether the committed offence is criminal or of an administrative nature depends on the attitude of the person who committed it. In the Slovak Republic, legislative amendments are intended to address the area of extremism offences, but they have not been introduced as final. A new legal regulation of the administrative offences of extremism is envisaged in terms of their definition. A new sanctioning policy of extremism administrative offences by juvenile offenders is also expected. Moreover, the application of probation in case of offences committed by juvenile delinquents in the area of extremism is recommended and preferred. It would highlight the importance of restorative justice, including its strengthening. Probation would allow the court, when sanctioning extremism in the criminal law area, to create a so-called tailor-made sanction, which would strengthen the individualisation of the sanction, the educational purpose of the sanction and the achievement of both the purpose of the sanction and the purpose of the Criminal Code, which is to protect society from criminal offences and their perpetrators. Even the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic partially examined the modification of the elements of criminal offences of extremism.

Mapping the scientific knowledge and approaches to defining and measuring hate crime, hate speech, and hate incidents: A systematic review.

The difficulties in defining hate crime, hate incidents and hate speech, and in finding a common conceptual basis constitute a key barrier toward operationalisation in research, policy and programming. Definitions disagree about issues such as the identities that should be protected, the types of behaviours that should be referred to as hateful, and how the 'hate element' should be assessed. The lack of solid conceptual foundations is reflected in the absence of sound data. These issues have been raised since the early 1990s (Berk, 1990; Byers & Venturelli, 1994) but they proved to be an intractable problem that continues to affect this research and policy domain. Our systematic review has two objectives that are fundamentally connected: mapping (1) original definitions and (2) original measurement tools of hate crime, hate speech, hate incidents and surrogate terms, that is, alternative terms used for these concepts (e.g., prejudice-motivated crime, bias crime, among many others). We systematically searched over 19 databases to retrieve academic and grey literature, as well as legislation. In addition, we contacted 26 country experts and searched 211 websites, as well as bibliographies of published reviews of related literature, and scrutiny of annotated bibliographies of related literature. This review included documents published after 1990 found in academic literature, grey literature and legislation. We included academic empirical articles with any study design, as well as theoretical articles that focused specifically on defining hate crime, hate speech, hate incidents or surrogate terms. We also reviewed current criminal or civil legislation that is intended to regulate forms of hate speech, hate incidents and hate crimes. Eligible countries included Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. For documents to be included in relation to research objective (1), they had to contain at least one original definition of hate speech, hate incidents or hate crimes, or any surrogate term. For documents to be included in relation to research objective (2), they had to contain at least one original measurement tool of hate speech, hate incidents or hate crimes, or any surrogate term. Documents could be included in relation to both research objectives. The systematic search covered 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2021, with searches of academic databases conducted between 8th March and 12th April 2022 yielding 35,191 references. We carried out country-specific searches for grey literature published in the same time period between 27th August and 2nd December 2021. These searches yielded a total of 2748 results. We coded characteristics of the definitions and measurement tools, including the protected characteristics, the approaches to categorise the 'hate element' and other variables. We used univariate and bivariate statistical methods for data analysis. We also carried out a social network analysis. We provide as annex complete lists of the original definitions and measurement tools that met our inclusion criteria, for the use of researchers and policy makers worldwide. We included 423 definitions and 168 measurement tools in academic and grey literature, and 83 definitions found in legislation. To support future research and policy work in this area, we included a synthetic assessment of the (1) the operationalisability of each definition and (2) the theoretical robustness and transparency of each measurement tool. Our mapping of the definitions and measurement tools revealed numerous significant trends, clusters and differences between and within definitions and measurement tools focusing on hate crime, hate speech and hate incidents. For example, definitions and measurement tools tend to focus more on ethnic and religious identities (e.g., racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia) compared to sexual, gender and disability-related identities. This gap is greater in the definitions and measurement tools of hate speech than hate crime. Our analysis showed geographical patterns: hate crime definitions and measurement tools are more likely to originate from Anglophonic countries, especially the USA, but hate speech definitions and measurement tools are more likely to originate from continental Europe. In terms of disciplinary fragmentation, our social network analysis revealed that the collaboration and exchange of conceptual frameworks and methodological tools between social sciences and computer science is limited, with most definitions and measurement tools clustering along disciplinary lines. More detailed findings are presented in the results section of the report. There is an urgent need to close the research and policy gap between the protections of 'ethnic and religious identities' and other (less) protected characteristics such as gender and sexual identities, age and disability. There is also an urgent need to improve the quality of methodological and reporting standards in research examining hate behaviours, including transparency in methodology and data reporting, and discussion of limitations (e.g., bias in data). Many of the measurement tools found in the academic literature were excluded because they did not report transparently how they collected and analysed the data. Further, 41% of documents presenting research on hate behaviours did not provide a definition of what they were looking at. Given the importance of this policy domain, it is vital to raise the quality and trustworthiness of research in this area. This review found that researchers in different disciplinary areas (e.g., social sciences and computer science) rarely collaborate. Future research should attempt to build on existing definitions and measurement tools (instead of duplicating efforts), and engage in more interdisciplinary collaborations. It is our hope that that this review can provide a solid foundation for researchers, government, and other bodies to build cumulative knowledge and collaboration in this important field.

Becoming again a war machine: Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of state violence applied to hate crime and domestic violence

Becoming again a war machine: Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of state violence applied to hate crime and domestic violence

Testing the Moderating Effect of Anti-Prejudice Motivation and Peer Attitudes on the Effectiveness of a School-Based Vicarious Contact Intervention.

Vicarious contact has often been used for studying prejudice-reduction in school contexts due to its relatively accessible application through written or audiovisual portrayals of positive intergroup contact. However, these interventions may sometimes prove ineffective, thus restricting their ecological validity and independent use in education. To contribute to the understanding of factors that might facilitate or mitigate the efficacy of vicarious contact in reducing ethnic prejudice among adolescents, the present study tested for the moderating effect of anti-prejudice motivation and friends' outgroup attitudes. Participants were Finnish secondary school students (N = 334; M = 13.38 years, SD = 0.53; 48% female; 19% ethnic minority) allocated into cluster-randomized intervention (N = 149) and control (N = 185) groups. Participants in the intervention group took part in 4 × 45-min teacher-led intervention sessions. A pretest-posttest design was employed to assess the outgroup attitudes three weeks before the intervention and the follow-up two weeks after. The results showed that adolescents' intrinsic, but not extrinsic, anti-prejudice motivation and the pre-intervention attitudes of their reciprocal classroom friends positively predicted post-intervention attitudes towards people from different ethnic and cultural groups. However, only extrinsic motivation moderated the intervention effect as the results indicated the intervention to have a detrimental effect on outgroup attitudes among adolescents with less motivation to be non-prejudiced in order to gain social acceptance. This attitudinal backlash among adolescents less susceptible to the social influence of others implies that motivational aspects should not be overlooked when developing school-based intervention programs, especially when social norms are used as a mechanism of attitude change.

What exactly is a hate crime in the United States (US)? A review of hate crime in five US cities

Purpose The paper aims to provide a critical review of how variations in the conceptualization and contextualization of hate crime across US cities might impact how their individual law enforcement agencies collect hate crime data. Media reports and political discourses present hate crime as a prevalent problem in the USA. However, this representation of hate crime in the public sphere is not reflected in the relatively low national numbers of hate crimes published annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Design/methodology/approach Drawing primarily on the national hate crime data for the period 2008–2018, this author conducted a secondary research study of the concept, context, extent and law enforcement collection of hate crime data in five cities in the USA. Findings This paper is a product of some of the findings of the study, which include the definition of hate crime at the federal, state and city levels and the contextualization of hate crimes at these levels. The findings show inconsistencies in how the five cities and associated law enforcement agencies conceptualize hate crime and in how they collect and report hate crime data at local and national levels. Originality/value Through its analysis of how five US cities and the associated law enforcement agencies interpret and respond to hate crime data collection, with recommendations of best practices for hate crime data collection by law enforcement agencies, the paper contributes to the academic and nonacademic debate on hate crime.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Determinants of Health Issues of Marginalized Black and Asian Communities: A Social Media Analysis Empowered by Natural Language Processing.

This study aims to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social determinants of health (SDOH) of marginalized racial/ethnic US population groups, specifically African Americans and Asians, by leveraging natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) techniques on race-related spatiotemporal social media text data. Specifically, this study establishes the extent to which Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Gibbs Sampling Dirichlet Multinomial Mixture (GSDMM)-based topic modeling determines social determinants of health (SDOH) categories, and how adequately custom named-entity recognition (NER) detects key SDOH factors from a race/ethnicity-related Reddit data corpus. In this study, we collected race/ethnicity-specific data from 5 location subreddits including New York City, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Philadelphia, PA; and Houston, TX from March to December 2019 (before COVID-19 pandemic) and from March to December 2020 (during COVID-19 pandemic). Next, we applied methods from natural language processing and machine learning to analyze SDOH issues from extracted Reddit comments and conversation threads using feature engineering, topic modeling, and custom named-entity recognition (NER). Topic modeling identified 35 SDOH-related topics. The SDOH-based custom NER analyses revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted SDOH issues of marginalized Black and Asian communities. On average, the Social and Community Context (SCC) category of SDOH had the highest percent increase (366%) from the pre-pandemic period to the pandemic period across all locations and population groups. Some of the detected SCC issues were racism, protests, arrests, immigration, police brutality, hate crime, white supremacy, and discrimination. Reddit social media platform can be an alternative source to assess the SDOH issues of marginalized Black and Asian communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. By employing NLP/ML techniques such as LDA/GSDMM-based topic modeling and custom NER on a race/ethnicity-specific Reddit corpus, we uncovered various SDOH issues affecting marginalized Black and Asian communities that were significantly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of conducting this research, we recommend that researchers, healthcare providers, and governments utilize social media and collaboratively formulate responses and policies that will address SDOH issues during public health crises.

“South Asians don't count as Asian”: Using Reddit to Explore Discussions of Anti‐Asian Racism within the South Asian Diaspora

In 2019, the COVID‐19 pandemic impacted people across the world like no other disease of its kind. The origins of the virus were identified to be from Wuhan, China, which led to East Asians becoming the targets of racist attacks and discrimination. “Other” Asian subgroups such as South Asians and Southeast Asians have also experienced hate crimes targeted toward them (CCNCTO, “Another Year: Anti‐Asian Racism Across Canada Two Years Into the COVID‐19 Pandemic.” 2022). Yet, their voices have largely been missing from conversations on anti‐Asian racism. Using thematic analysis, I explore how South Asians construct their positionality within conversations of anti‐Asian racism. I examine the use of terms such as “anti‐Asian,” “Asian racism,” “racism,” “hate crime,” and “discrimination” in 209 posts and 20, 388 comments between 2020 and 2022 within r/ABCDesis, a Reddit community formed by and for the South Asian diaspora, primarily residing in the United States, and Canada. Findings suggest that while most members have personally not been impacted by anti‐Asian racism, they are wary of being the next target. Redditors expressed the need for greater solidarity with East Asians and POC's, and yet demonstrate how ethnic ambiguity and complex intergroup relations can pose difficulties when expressing positionality within discussions of anti‐Asian racism.

Climate, food (in)security and conflict in the Bangladesh delta: Myths and puzzles

Bangladesh is customarily presented as a poster child for climate change and conflict given its dense population and susceptibility to climate variability. This vulnerability exacerbates existing challenges such as food insecurity and conflict potential. Crises like pandemics and conflicts are external drivers stressing already compromised domestic governance, such as violent politics, poor rule of law, and corruption, further compounding the challenges of land and water resource management and affecting food (in)security in Bangladesh. While we will argue that Bangladesh’s all-out (‘securitised’) efforts to achieve food security are largely successful and there is no evidence of climate conflict related to food, this does not obviate very real food security challenges in remote areas. However, these have not built up to the sense of frustration associated with food riots or community violence. Navigating the possible linkages between climate, food (in)security, and conflict requires debunking common myths and identifying unresolved research puzzles in Bangladesh’s context. These myths promote the oversimplification of complex issues and may lead to misinformed policies and actions. Future research needs to be focused on understanding how climate factors interact with local economic, political, and social dynamics, including governance mechanisms, religious and ethnic tensions, economic inequality, grievances, and political exclusion.

The Quest for Peace: Examining the Impact of Ethnic Federalism on Conflict Management in Ethiopia

The main objective of the study is to critically examine the impact of conflict management on conflict management in Ethiopia. The diverse policies that Ethiopia's previous administrations implemented have left both positive and negative legacies. In an attempt to promote national peace by addressing ethnic diversity and reducing conflict, the current regime has experimented with ethnic Federalism in a way never seen before since 1995. However, in Ethiopia, ethnic Federalism has not been able to resolve interethnic disputes. Ethnic group conflicts are become extremely widespread. People have died as a result of these wars, and other people have also been displaced and property destroyed. In addition, ethnic minorities are being driven out of different regions as a result of ethnic strife. Despite this, differing opinions persist regarding the purpose of Ethiopia's ethnic Federalism. Ethnic Federalism is seen favorably by some and is seen as a valuable instrument for resolving interethnic conflicts. However, several elites argue against ethnic Federalism as a policy and practice because they fear violence and the dissolution of the country. The study uses a qualitative content analysis design to address the paper's objective. Sociological and instrumentalist theories are also employed to address the issue. Consequently, this study has clarified how ethnic Federalism affects conflict resolution. The study implies that even if ethnic Federalism was implemented more than thirty years ago, it has not been able to resolve ethnic tensions throughout the nation.

News media coverage of LGBT identities over 10 years in a 400-million-word corpus.

This study is the first to analyze LGBT portrayals in a news media dataset over a decade (2010-2020). We selected Singapore as a country of interest, emblematic of a nation grappling with state-encouraged heteronormativity and a remnant colonial law against homosexuality (377A), fraught with calls for its repeal that was only enacted in 2022. Our study is interested in this period bookended by challenge and change, particularly in newspaper portrayals of LGBT narratives. Newspapers are an important source of current information and have the power to shape societal perceptions. We lay the groundwork and provide a framework to analyze news media narratives of other Commonwealth nations with colonial pasts and inherited laws criminalizing LGBT communities. This study analyzes LGBT portrayals in a 400-million-word news media dataset over a decade (2010-2020). First, we aimed to track the volume of LGBT media coverage over time and elucidate differences in coverage of different identity markers. Second, we aimed to track sentiments on LGBT portrayals. Third, we aimed to track salient narratives circulated about LGBT stories. The study leveraged a 400-million-word corpus from news media in Singapore, identifying the following target keywords: LGBT, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Pink Dot (a local Pride event), 377A. First, coverage volume was tracked using annual changes in keyword mentions per million, elucidating differences in coverage of different sub-groups. Second, sentiment analysis on a valence scale was conducted on LGBT collocates. Third, we distilled salient narratives about LGBT identities using thematic labelling of top-frequency collocates. First, overall coverage of LGBT steadily increased over the decade, though Gay identities evidenced asymmetrical coverage-outstripping 'Bisexual' keywords by seven times, 'Lesbian' by four, 'Transgender' by two. Second, sentiment scores for Pink Dot (a local pride event) were most positive; Lesbian, Gay, LGBT, Transgender were neutral; Bisexual and 377A dipped slightly negative. Third, topics differed across the four identities: uniquely, 'Lesbian' collocates related to sensationalized cinema; 'Gay' about hate crimes; 'Bisexual' about population surveys; 'Transgender' about challenges (transitioning, alienation, suicide). Practically, we presented a decade-long barometer of LGBT sentiments and themes on a national level, providing a framework to analyze media for more effective communication strategies-applicable to Commonwealth countries with similar inherited colonial laws. Salient repetition through media association may unwittingly frame certain issues negatively; caution is prudent in representing each sub-group adequately, rather than portraying the LGBT identity as monolithic.

Does Greater Visibility Benefit Minority Businesses? Evidence from an Online Review Platform

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, numerous companies took action to advance racial equality. Several online platforms added a feature that identified “minority-owned” businesses to help users locate and, thus, support them. In this study, we investigate how reviews and ratings of restaurants in New York City change after being identified as Black-owned on an online platform. We find that the number of reviews increases, but the average rating decreases after restaurants are identified as Black-owned. We investigate how various contextual factors, such as the number of hate crimes where the restaurant is located and restaurant popularity, as well as reviewer characteristics, such as reviewer race and gender, impact this relationship. We also examine mechanisms that could be contributing to our findings. Collectively, and in contrast to the positive findings in other studies, our results reveal a possible unintended consequence of identity disclosure for minority-owned businesses. Findings from our study offer important implications for society, business owners, and online platforms.

The Karzai Administration: Challenges, Achievements, and Controversies

In October 2004, Karzai assumed the presidency through a constitutional mandate, raising hopes for political stability, ethnic reconciliation, and effective governance. However, his tenure was marred by entrenched political rivalries, ethnic tensions, governance challenges, military escalations, and rampant corruption, which overshadowed his ability to fulfill the promises of his presidency. This article aims to analyze the political legacy of Hamid Karzai's thirteen-year rule, shedding light on his governance approach and unmet commitments. Despite initial expectations of strong leadership, Karzai's tenure was marked by persistent political discord, ethnic fragmentation, and governance deficiencies. While his presidency achieved significant milestones, such as constitutional reforms and electoral processes, it fell short in addressing systemic issues, including corruption and security concerns. Through an examination of Karzai's political trajectory, this article seeks to illuminate the complexities of governing Afghanistan amidst formidable challenges, ultimately evaluating the effectiveness of his leadership during a tumultuous era of transition and turmoil.

The Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment and the Baloch National Question in Pakistan

The passage of the eighteenth amendment bill in 2010 represented a critical milestone in Pakistan’s constitutional history. It sought to better manage the perennial federal-provincial tensions by restructuring the country’s constitutional framework to assuage the grievances of the ethno-regional movements opposed to the centralised state system, especially in Balochistan, where Pakistan’s territorial integrity faces its toughest challenge. Islamabad’s inflexibility in accommodating ethnic dissidence through various institutional measures has exacerbated ethnic tensions and hardened nationalist sentiments. The eighteenth amendment aimed to reverse deformations introduced during dictatorships and promote a more federal polity. More than a decade has passed since the introduction of the bill, yet the question lingers: Did the amendment achieve its intended goal of mitigating the ethnic conflict in Balochistan? This article scrutinises the current situation in Balochistan and offers a critically oriented analysis of the amendment’s impact on the province’s security scenario. It contends that the amendment fell short of its objectives because it remained silent on issues of critical import to the Baloch and failed to address the underlying issues fuelling the conflict.

Why Destroy a Synagogue? A Reflection on Hitler’s Metaphysical Antisemitism

Abstract This article explores the possible metaphysical aspects of Hitler’s antisemitism by asking a basic question: Why did the Nazis, if motivated solely or at least largely by racial hatred, attack and destroy Jewish religious sites, above all synagogues? The answer the article gives, a speculative one, is that Hitler’s antisemitism expresses a hatred of life and death that has deep roots in Western history, roots that can be traced most directly to the hatred of life and death expressed by Christianity and, specifically, to the hatred expressed by one of Christianity’s most hate-filled theologians, Martin Luther. Hence, the article offers a comparative interpretation of Hitler and Luther’s antisemitism in two main sections. A final section reflects on the difficulty of understanding antisemitism, hatred and violence and thus concludes with Primo Levi’s claim that in Auschwitz there is no answer, there is no why (Hier ist kein Warum).

Inter-Ethnic Violence in Nigeria and the Proposed Solution to Address Them

Inter-ethnic violence in Nigeria refers to conflicts and tensions between different ethnic groups within the country. It is a complex issue with deep-rooted historical, social, and political factors. The subject matter of this paper is to examine the prevalence of inter-ethnic tensions in Nigeria, which is defined as an act of aggression or violence between clusters of two or more distinct ethnicities. It identifies the underlying reasons for this violence, which include sectarian strife, ethnic rivalry for resources, political instability, and economic disparity. It also examines the impact of this violence on Nigeria's population and economy, which has been linked to an increase in poverty, dislocation, and migration. Finally, this paper provides an investigation of the approaches employed by the government of Nigeria to tackle this issue, including their successes and failures, and proposes effective solutions to reduce the occurrence of this type of violence. To address these challenges, some proposed solutions include promoting dialogue and reconciliation between ethnic groups, implementing inclusive governance structures, and investing in education and economic opportunities for all communities. Ultimately, this paper emphasizes the need for inter-ethnic collaboration to reduce the incidence of this form of violence and promote security and stability in Nigeria.

Punishing Hate: Examining Individual Variation in Support for Hate Crime Laws

While first implemented in the 1980s, hate crime legislation remains divisive in America; yet, most research examining differences in support for hate crime laws was conducted decades ago. This research addresses this gap by examining individual differences in support for hate crime laws using information from 3,503 survey respondents across the U.S. The results indicate that most respondents (66%) support hate crime laws, and that only roughly 12% of respondents actively oppose them; 22% had no opinion. Results further suggest there are significant gender differences in support; however, these differences are no longer significant after controlling for differences in individual attitudes, including prejudice and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), which are strong predictors of opinions toward hate crime laws.