Hate Crime in New York City, 1995-2010: Revisiting the Classic NYC Neighborhood Studies

• In Event: Hate Crime Offending

Abstract

Hate crime proves prevalent in American society, inflicting a variety of harms on victims as well as larger society. Scholars have long sought to understand the motivations and conditions behind hate crime offending. Using NYPD data (1987-1995), Green and his colleagues conducted the classic studies examining the conditions that foster hate crime (Green, Glaser, & Rich, 1998; Green, Strolovich, & Wong, 1998; Green, Strolovitch, Wong, & Bailey, 2001). Supporting the "defended neighborhoods" thesis, Green, Strolovitch, and Wong (1998) found that anti-minority hate crime was a response to an influx of minorities into white neighborhoods. Using police data, the current study replicates and extends Green's neighborhood studies by examining hate crime in NYC from 1995 to 2010. This study investigates whether Green, Strolovitch, & Wong’s (1998) neighborhood level findings hold true over an extended period of time in NYC, during which the city underwent major demographic changes. Using a group conflict framework (Blalock, 1967; Tolnay & Beck, 1995), the current study extends prior work by investigating the impact of various "threats" (economic, criminal, etc.) on different types of anti-minority hate crime. The study provides a thorough portrait of hate crime in NYC, the nation's largest urban area.

Author

• Colleen Elizabeth Mills, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center