Hate Crimes: A USA-Balkan Comparison

• In Event: Cross-national Studies of Violence

Abstract

While sometimes difficult to discern “hate crimes” from otherwise violent crimes, the recent wars in the Middle East (Syria, Afghanistan , Iraq), and the ensuing mass migration stemming from this violence and opportunity, has had the unintended consequence of a noticeable rise in “hate crimes” in those gateway European countries, noticeably the former Yugoslavia. Added to this phenomenon is the election of Donald Trump as the U.S. president. The Balkan migrant-route situation has threatened the already fragile sectarian relations within the nations emerging from the Yugoslavian wars of 1991-2002 again stirring latent hostilities between Bosniac-Muslims, Croatian-Catholics, and Serbian-Orthodox groups. Similarly, the election of President Donald Trump has been seen by some in the extreme right, notably white supremacy group, as license to attack minorities including people-of-color, LGBTQs, and those of non-Christian faiths, notably Muslims. Our study looks at this recent uptake in “hate-crime” violence and the challenges facing law enforcement and the judiciary in effectively prosecuting these crimes especially the potential bias and discretion of police, prosecutors, and judges. A secondary analysis is attempting to understanding the reason for this form of “out-group” hostility, discerning between individual versus group acts..

Authors

• Laurence Armand French, University of New Hampshire

• Velibor Lalic, European Defendology Center

• Nenad Radovic, Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies