Hate Crime Victimization Research Articles

‘I felt . . . caged’: Victims of hate crime and their negotiation of space

This article considers the modes by which hate crime shapes targeted groups’ engagement with public space. It breaks new ground by drawing on spatial concepts and embodiment theory, to consider the geographic dimensions of hate crime. The ways in which targeted groups negotiate, restrict and curtail their movements, and attempt to conceal their targeted identities, in public are detailed. We argue victims experience a profound sense of dislocation from their local communities. This is explored by focussing on the spatial consequences of hate crime for victims, both at the material level, through the restriction of their physical movement, and also somatically, through feelings of restriction inculcated into victims’ affective being. Drawing on inductive qualitative fieldwork conducted in Ireland, we consider some of the particularities of the Irish case while also advocating for a wider understanding of the link between space and hate crime.

‘My trust in strangers has disappeared completely’: How hate crime, perceived risk, and the concealment of sexual orientation affect fear of crime among Swedish LGBTQ students

Previous research has established correlations between anti-LGBTQ hate crime, fear of crime, perceived victimization risk, and the concealment of sexual orientation. Aside from correlations, the relationships between these variables remain poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to explore the relationships between anti-LGBTQ hate crime, perceived risk, and the concealment of sexual orientation in relation to fear of crime. Based on previous research and theory, the authors hypothesize (1) that experiences of hate crime victimization increase fear of crime, perceived victimization risk, and the concealment of sexual orientation; (2) that high levels of perceived risk result in high fear of crime and a more prevalent concealment of orientation; and (3) that the concealment of sexual orientation results in lower fear of crime. The sample consists of LGBTQ students enrolled at a Swedish university. The study uses a mixed method approach, combining survey data ( N = 353) and interview data ( N = 10). The data are assessed using path analysis and thematic analysis. The path analysis supported the authors’ hypothesis regarding experiences of anti-LGBT hate crime, perceived risk, and fear of crime. The qualitative analysis showed that victims of hate crimes had a reduced ability to process negative emotions because they experienced other traumatic life events parallel to the victimization. Similarly, feelings of being reduced to a negative stereotype resulted in higher levels of both fear of crime and perceived risk. Finally, the path analysis rejected the hypothesis that the concealment of sexual orientation results in lower fear of crime. Rather than being an agency-driven and functional fear response, the interview data showed that while these practices reduced victimization risk, they negatively impacted the overall health of the participants through feelings of lack of authenticity and self-censorship.

Beyond the Binary: The Issue of Intra-Minority Hostility and the Need to Challenge Conventional Victim/Perpetrator Frameworks Within Hate Studies.

It is well-established within the hate studies literature that the majority of hate crimes and incidents of targeted hostility are perpetrated by those in the "majority" society. In the UK, academic and official research consistently shows that young White, British males are most commonly the culprits of all forms of targeted victimization, especially racist hate. However, urban areas of "super-diversity" offer researchers an opportunity to understand hate crime victimization and perpetration in a more nuanced and comprehensive way. Hate studies research has slowly begun to highlight instances of people from marginalized and stigmatized groups being targeted on the basis of their identity by individuals who are also members of minority groups, sometimes even the same minority group as the victim. Very little is understood about this particular victimizing dynamic other than it appears to be an attempt by minority group members to "fit in" by adopting what they perceive to be majority group values and attitudes. By drawing from 44 qualitative in-depth interviews exploring the experiences of new migrants and refugees and observations from 20 months of grassroots engagement, this article challenges established theories of "othering" that overwhelmingly refer to binary, static majority/minority tensions. The stories of these too-often "hidden" victims of targeted hostility offer a fresh perspective on the relationships between victims of hate and perpetrators. The article also contributes new explanations as to why those who are often targeted go on to target others.

Preventing Religion-Based Hate Crime Victimization Among Youth: A Systematic Review of Personal, Collective, and Policy Responses.

Hate crime victimization targeting the victim's religious identity poses a serious problem for individuals, communities, and societies. This systematic review describes countermeasures to such victimization, aiming for broad descriptive inclusion by canvassing personal adaptations, collective programs, and institutional-governmental policies. Targeting peer-reviewed articles published between 2002 and 2022, we found 44 articles describing measures related to religion-based victimization prevention. We classified the studied measures into 12 main types. The most salient personal adaptations included camouflage-type blending in to avoid victimization, using religion as a source of resilience, and changing routines to deflect risk. At the collective level, mobilizing community resilience, stereotype reduction, and place-based solutions were often researched. The relatively few institutional-level studies addressed measures to enhance the connection between victims and authorities by various means. The experimental studies heavily concentrated on experiments supporting the efficacy of changing people's perceptions as a means of prevention. The review concludes with a discussion about research and policy implications.

Far-Right Extremism, Elections and Hate Crime: A Temporal Evaluation of Bias-Motivated Violence in Slovakia

Abstract The present study provides an initial attempt to assess the impact of extremist right electoral support on racially motivated and extremist violent crime rates across Slovak regions. We transcend previous research by examining associations between national and regional elections, immigration rates, vote-shares, and violent hate crime rates utilizing temporal statistics on racially motivated and extremist violent crimes, which are linked with data on support for nationalist parties and on indicators of socio-economic development. Results illustrate that extreme right parties matter, such that the higher their electoral vote-shares, the higher the violent hate crime incidence and victimization rates. We, also, find that high immigration rates strengthen the effect of electoral vote-shares on bias crime in Slovakia.

Toward a resilient, resistant, and reciprocal community: Everyday youth activism of Korean American and migrant students amidst COVID-19

Situated in AsianCrit, which emphasizes centrality of racism among Asians in education as well as youth activism scholarship that denotes the engagement of youth in informal, communal, and everyday political spheres, the current qualitative study aims to center and uplift the voices of Korean American and migrant students who were enthusiastically involved in a Korean Student Organization (pseudonym) since the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, this study explores Korean American and migrant students’ motivations, perspectives, and aspirations to participate in the organization at a predominantly white university in the Midwest since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By highlighting how Korean American and migrant students foregrounded their experiences of racism and marginalization at a predominately white university during the COVID-19 pandemic by creating a variety of collective activities, events, and opportunities within and across the campus to survive, resist, and flourish amidst of heightened racist climates, this study will provide several implications for AsianCrit and youth activism scholarship. Together, the goal of this study is to bring attention to everyday youth activism and agency among Asian and Asian American students regarding racial justice and complicate and challenge the hegemonic representations of Asian and Asian Americans as model minorities, forever foreigners, or victims of anti-Asian hate crimes in contemporary U.S. society.

Prototypes of Hate and Expectations of the Model Victim.

This research explored the content of hate crime prototypes in a North American context, with particular attention to how such prototypes might influence blame attributions. In Study 1a, participants were recruited from a blended sample of universities (n = 110) and community members (n = 102) and asked to report their thoughts about typical hate crime offenses, victims, and offenders. These open-ended responses were coded, and common themes were identified. In Study 1b, a new group of participants (n = 290) were presented with these themes and asked to rate each for their characteristics of hate crimes. Studies 1a and 1b confirmed the presence of a clear prototype of hate crimes, such that (a) perpetrators were believed to be lower status White men with clear expressions of bias, (b) hate crime offenses were believed to be acts of interpersonal violence accompanied by slurs or verbal abuse, and (c) hate crime victims were thought to be members of a marginalized group who remain passive during the offense. Study 2 explored the consequences of victim prototypes on assessments of victim blame. Participants (n = 296) were recruited from York University and presented with a case vignette that varied the prototypicality of a victim of hate, depicting him as either Black or White and either passive, verbally responsive, or physically confrontational in the context of an assault. Participants showed greatest sympathy for the Black victim who passively ignored verbal harassment but increasingly assigned blame when the Black victim spoke or reacted physically. When the victim was White, participants showed little variation in their assessment of blame as a function of the victim's behavior. These results suggest that Black victims are subjected to greater behavioral scrutiny than White victims and that sympathy for victims of hate may be contingent on their passivity in the face of harassment.

Policing Hate Crime: Exploring the Issue with a Cohort of Sworn Police Officers

AbstractGlobally, there has been a trend in rising levels of hate crime that scholars have argued is reflective of significant social problems within society. Research into hate crime has typically focused on the police and their subsequent response to this crime type, with many findings reporting that the police are racist, homophobic and Islamophobic, to name but a few. However, existing research seldom captures the insights and experiences of sworn police officers, as much of the data is gathered from third parties. This paper presents the empirical findings from a Delphi study conducted with one police force in Australia, sampling sworn New South Wales (NSW) police officers between October 2020 and October 2021. The findings focus on four overarching areas: defining hate crime, perpetrators of hate crime, victims of hate crime, and responses to hate crime. These themes capture the perspectives of NSW police officers in relation to operational and organisational practice in respect of hate crime. Drawing on a Delphi method, the research outlines police perceptions of the nature of hate crime, as well as capturing how hate crime can be effectively reported, recorded, and responded to. Conclusions and implications are considered. These include the requirement for a clearer definition and targeted education strategies aimed at improving knowledge and understanding relating to hate crime. Future directions include the development of a standardised approach to reporting, recording, and responding to hate crime.

The shadow of fear: hate crime victimization and stress after Charlottesville.

Recent years have witnessed an increase in highly publicized attacks targeting members of ethnoracial and religious minority groups. To date, existing research has primarily focused on the tendency for such "trigger events" to generate violent aftershocks. We argue that beyond such ripple effects, highly salient trigger events significantly increase hate-crime related stress among racial and ethnic minorities. Additionally, we explore whether these effects are limited to the group most clearly targeted, or if they "spill over" to other minoritized communities. To study reactions to hate crimes, we draw upon national survey data (N = 1,122) in combination with a natural experiment involving the Unite the Right rally and vehicle attack in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. We employ an "unexpected event during survey" design to estimate the causal effect of the Charlottesville rally on stress about hate crimes. We first show that there was an increase in anti-Black hate crimes in the 2 weeks following the Charlottesville incident. We also find a corresponding increase in stress due to the perception of personal vulnerability to hate crimes among African-Americans. However, we do not observe a significant increase in levels of stress following the trigger event among Hispanics and Asian Americans. Our results suggest that highly publicized instances of intergroup violence can have significant impacts on stress about hate crime victimization within the target group. However, we find that this effect is short-lived, and that both violent aftershocks and the general climate of fear spurred by hate crimes may be racially bounded.

An Exploratory Analysis Examining the Relationship Between Protective and Risk Factors of Bullying and Hate Crime Victimization Within Schools

ABSTRACT Over the years, scholars have argued that there are similarities and differences between bullying and hate crimes within Americas’ schools. However, no known study has tested the claims that bullying and hate-related victimization are more similar (or different) and whether they share similar protective and/or risk factors. Utilizing the 2019 NCVS School Crime Supplement, the present study draws on several theoretical traditions to examine the protective and risk factors associated with bullying and hate-related victimization in schools. Skewed logistic regression models find that while there are some similarities between the protective and risk factors among bullying and hate-related victimization, there are also some noticeable and distinct differences. The findings fill important theoretical and empirical gaps in the bullying and hate crime literature. Further, the findings offer important policy implications as it relates to detection and prevention of bullying and hate-related victimization within schools.

Hate Crime and Class Vulnerability: A Case Study of White Nationalist Violence Against Unhoused Indigenous People

Abstract Advocates and academics have increasingly called on governments to recognize anti-homeless violence as a hate crime and type of domestic extremism, representing a broader trend in Westernized countries for responding to social issues through anti-hate policies. Can these approaches protect unhoused people? Drawing upon ethnographic interviews and observation with 50 unhoused community members in a Canadian city, we outline their experiences with anti-homeless and anti-Indigenous violence. Our findings show how hate crime approaches often (1) fail to consider intersectionality, especially how class contributes to vulnerability, and (2) overlook place-based victimization and how institutions enable class vulnerability. We call for more localized analyses of hate crime and introduce the concept of ‘cumulative risk of hate crime victimization’ to help address intersectionality.

Ingroup Empathy, Help, and Blame After Anti-LGBT+ Hate Crime.

Crimes motivated by hatred toward a person's sexual orientation or gender identity typically cause greater physical and emotional harm than comparative crimes not motivated by hate. Compounding these impacts, hate crime victims receive less empathy, less support, and are blamed more for their victimization both by society in general and by criminal justice agencies. However, as hate crimes are the epitome of intergroup hostility, the crimes are also likely to engender an ingroup empathy bias in which fellow LGBT+ people provide greater empathy to hate crime victims, potentially motivating greater support and reducing victim blaming for these particularly marginalized victims. Across three studies, we examined LGBT+ participants' empathic reactions to hate crime victims, along with their willingness to help victims and blame victims. In the Pilot Study (N = 131) and Study 1 (N = 600), we cross-sectionally showed that indirect experiences of hate crimes predicted a stronger LGBT+ identity which, in turn, was associated with greater empathy that predicted greater willingness to help victims and blame the victim less. In Study 2 (N = 657), we experimentally manipulated the motivation of a crime (hate vs. non-hate) and the group membership of the victim (ingroup-LGBT+ vs. outgroup-heterosexual) and found that crimes that had one or more group elements (i.e., involved an ingroup member and/or was motivated by hate) elicited greater empathy that, in turn, increased the willingness to help the victim and reduced victim blaming. Together, the findings provide cogent evidence that LGBT+ communities respond to anti-LGBT+ hate crimes with overwhelming empathy, and this ingroup empathy bias motivates helping behaviors and reduces victim blame, thereby buffering the marginalizing consequences of hate crimes. Policy implications include acknowledging and harnessing the importance of shared identities when practitioners and criminal justice agencies respond to anti-LGBT+ hate crimes.

The Consequences of Hate Crime Victimization: Considering Prejudicial Attitudes as an Outcome of Interracial Bias-Motivated Conflict

Objectives: While extant research has largely framed prejudicial attitudes as a precursor to hate crime offending, the current research considers the possibility that negative outgroup attitudes may also be an important consequence of hate crime victimization as well. Methods: Using survey data from 3,183 respondents across the United States, this research employs a series of regression models to examine the relationship between hate crime victimization and three different types of prejudicial attitudes: anti-Asian xenophobia, anti-Hispanic xenophobia, and anti-Black prejudice. Results: Results indicate that hate crime victimization is significantly and positively associated with all three prejudicial attitudes, such that those who experienced a hate crime are more likely to report higher levels of anti-Asian xenophobia ( b = .455; p < .001), anti-Hispanic xenophobia ( b = .408; p < .001), and anti-Black prejudice ( b = .360; p < .001). Results also indicate that these patterns are both offender race-specific and stronger for more recent victimization, compared to less recent victimization. Conclusions: When interpreting these results within a pattern matching framework, we argue that they suggest important initial evidence that prejudice may not be just a precursor to hate crime offending, but also a possible consequence of hate crime victimization, thus implying a potentially cyclical relationship between intergroup offending and victimization that should be the subject of future research.

Which Latinos Experience Bias Victimization? An Examination of Acculturation, Immigrant Status, and Socio-economic Status.

The present study examined factors that could be associated with bias victimization according to intergroup threat theory, namely socioeconomic status (SES), acculturation (Anglo orientation and Latino orientation), immigrant status, and their interactions. Self-identified Latino participants (N = 910) from three cities in the United States were queried about experiences with bias victimization, specifically hate crime and noncriminal bias victimization. Findings revealed that levels of bias victimization, hate crime, and noncriminal bias victimization were associated with SES, Anglo orientation, immigrant status, and their interactions, although in some unpredicted ways. Interactions among key variables helped clarify the roles of these factors in concert on bias victimization. The hate crimes against U.S.-born Latinos and the victimization risk associated with increasing Anglo orientations among immigrants contradicts predictions of intergroup threat theory. More nuanced analyses of social locations are needed to examine bias victimization.

The production of hate crime victim status: Discourses of normalisation and the experiences of LGBT community members

This article identifies discourses which serve to ‘normalise’ experiences of anti-LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) violence and prevent harmed LGBT persons from accessing the status of ‘hate crime victim’. The phenomenon of normalisation is established in research addressing homophobic, biphobic and transphobic violence, where it is understood fundamentally as the rendering unremarkable of violent manifestations of hate due to their ubiquity. This article interrogates the dynamics of the normalisation process. Drawing on a Foucauldian approach, we explore normalisation as a disciplinary practice, through which people who have experienced anti-LGBT violence are denied access to the status of hate crime victim. Through discourse analysis of focus group data, we identify obstacles to identification and self-identification as a victim grounded in the experience and anticipation of judgement both within society and the LGBT community. Discourses against which the claims of LGBT people are adjudicated (re)produce cultural myths about hate crime, about anti-LGBT violence and about victimhood. While this article acknowledges that the value of identifying as a victim is not uncontested, it also asserts that the practice of normalisation, in denying this status, impacts on access to justice and to support. Far from passive, LGBT people who do not self-identify as victims find ways to manage the impacts of hate using their own resources. In this manner, the disciplinary practice of ‘normalisation’ responsibilises persons harmed by social ills for their own care and silences potentially disruptive claims of victimhood on the part of marginal people.

No-go zone for Jews? Examining how news on anti-Semitic attacks increases victim blaming

Abstract Antisemitism is on the rise. Recently, discussions have considered so-called “no-go zones for Jews” (city areas Jews should avoid to reduce the likelihood of being attacked). In this context and drawing from attribution theory, we examined if news consumers perceive a Jewish hate crime victim as partly responsible for being attacked when news coverage explicitly emphasizes that the victim displayed religious symbols (kippah) in a certain inner-city location. We conducted a quota-based survey experiment (N = 392) in Germany (4 groups, between-subjects design) and randomly exposed participants to news coverage about an anti-Semitic attack. The article either emphasized that the Jewish victim displayed religious symbols (kippah) or not, and highlighted the specific location of the attack (Berlin synagogue vs. deprived inner-city district of Berlin). Moderated mediation analysis suggested that participants perceived the victim’s behavior to be more provocative when the news article highlighted that the victim displayed religious symbols and when the attack occurred in a deprived Berlin district. Yet, effects were only detected for individuals with low (vs. high) levels of education. Perceived provocativeness in turn increased victim blaming indicating that some individuals indirectly regarded the Jewish victim to be partly responsible for being attacked.

A Snapshot of Hate: Subjective Psychological Distress After a Hate Crime: An Exploratory Study on Victimization of Muslims in Canada

Across Canada, hate crimes, especially those motivated by race, ethnicity, or religion, are still prevalent. For example, in 2019, 46% of police-reported hate crimes were motivated by race or ethnicity, and 32% were motivated by religion (Moreau, 2021). In Canada, Muslims are the second most targeted religious group in terms of hate crimes. However, Canadian research on the nature of hate crime victimization amongst Muslims and the impacts on their health and well-being is limited. The present study sought to use exploratory survey data to assess the demographic characteristics of those experiencing both verbal and physical assaults based on their religion. Further, we assessed whether those that experienced these assaults also experienced psychological distress (such as feeling nervous or hopeless). Based on a sample of 230 participants (58% women), it was found that individuals that self-identified as visibly Muslim were 3 times more likely, and those living in Vancouver were 9 times more likely, to report having been physically assaulted. Furthermore, having been physically assaulted, being a woman, residing in Vancouver, or self-identifying as visibly Muslim were factors associated with higher levels of psychological distress. This study is the first of its kind exploring the effects of hate crimes on Muslims across Canada. The impacts of hate crime on the psychological well-being of this marginalized population, especially for Muslim women, suggests a need for more research on the psychological distress of these individuals

Religion and Hate Crime Victimisation: A Representative Study of Young People in Finland

Key societal macro-trends, such as immigration and the increasing salience of post-secular and identity-based religiosity, are converging to increase the relevance of religion in everyday life. Such developments call for a reassessment of the religion–victimisation link. We analyse the prevalence and severity patterns of hate victimisation in different groups defined by religion and explore the links between routine activities and lifestyle factors in hate crime victimisation. Our research site, Finland, is a country with a long history of religious homogeneity, recently interrupted by religious pluralisation. We draw on the 2020 sweep of the Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study (FSRD), a nationally representative crime survey targeting 15–16-year-olds (N = 5482). We found that religiously unaffiliated and Muslim youths have an above-average risk of hate crime victimisation. There were some indications that the patterns of victimisation are different across religious denominations. For instance, Muslim youths were more likely to be attacked by adults. Hate crime victimisation risk was not mediated by routines and lifestyles. Independent of religion, there was, however, a strong and direct positive association between hate victimisation and a risky lifestyle, i.e. substance use and interaction with delinquent peers. Comparing the findings with assault victimisation, we observed that the results are largely specific to hate crime offending rather than assault victimisation in general. We discuss the findings from the perspective of criminological theory, future research needs, and policy implications.

Hate crimes against LGBT people: National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017-2019.

We estimate the prevalence and characteristics of violent hate crime victimization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United States, and we compare them to non-LGBT hate crime victims and to LGBT victims of violent non-hate crime. We analyze pooled 2017-2019 data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (n persons = 553, 925;n incidents = 32, 470), the first nationally representative and comprehensive survey on crime that allows identification of LGBT persons aged 16 or older. Descriptive and bivariate analysis show that LGBT people experienced 6.6 violent hate crime victimizations per 1,000 persons compared with non-LGBT people's 0.6 per 1,000 persons (odds ratio = 8.30, 95% confidence interval = 1.94, 14.65). LGBT people were more likely to be hate crime victims of sexual orientation or gender bias crime and less likely to be victims of race or ethnicity bias crimes compared to non-LGBT hate crime victims. Compared to non-LGBT victims, LGBT victims of hate crime were more likely to be younger, have a relationship with their assailant, and have an assailant who is white. Compared to LGBT victims of non-hate violence, more LGBT hate crime victims reported experiencing problems in their social lives, negative emotional responses, and physical symptoms of distress. Our findings affirm claims that hate crimes have adverse physical and psychological effects on victims and highlight the need to ensure that LGBT persons who experience hate crime get necessary support and services in the aftermath of the crime.

Hate crime victimization and reporting within Miami's queer Latine immigrant population.

This research examined hate crime victimization and crime reporting among Miami's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Latine immigrant population. Informed by the intersectionality perspective and the Cuban dominance thesis, I predicted that respondents would experience higher levels of victimization than what law enforcement data capture, yet the vast majority of these crimes would go unreported (Hypothesis 1); Respondents or third parties would be more likely to report victimization to police as crime severity increased (Hypothesis 2); and Cuban LGBTQ victims would be more likely to report crime than non-Cuban Latines (Hypothesis 3). Four hundred LGBTQ immigrant Latine individuals (age: M = 37.7 years, Cuban = 51.5%, transgender = 5.8%) in Miami completed face-to-face interviews through a three-stage venue-based sampling procedure. Although 48% of screened respondents reported experiencing at least one incident of victimization within 5 years, they reported only 15% of these incidents to police (supporting Hypothesis 1). Increased violent and property crime were associated with markedly increased reporting (odds ratio [OR] = 5.44, p < .001), as was the use of a weapon (OR = 2.80, p < .01; supporting Hypothesis 2). Friends' encouragement to report a crime was by far the strongest predictor of crime reporting (OR = 12.47, p < .001). Cuban Americans were less likely to report anti-LGBTQ hate crimes to the police, although this effect was not statistically significant after models accounted for documented and new immigrant measures of (supporting Hypothesis 3). Hate crime victimization and underreporting were prevalent in this sample. Given the different crime-reporting outcomes for Cuban victims, it is important to examine victimization and crime reporting among the Latine population by country of origin. Queer networks and friends within the LGBTQ community may facilitate reporting crime and seeking help. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).