Hatred Simmering in the Melting Pot: Hate Crime in New York City, 1995-2010

• In Event: Hate Crime Contextualized

Abstract

Hate crime proves prevalent in American society, inflicting a variety of harms on victims as well as society at large. Scholars have long sought to understand the motivations and conditions behind hate crime offending. Green and his colleagues conducted the classic neighborhood studies examining the conditions that foster hate crime (Green, Glaser, & Rich, 1998; Green, Strolovich, & Wong, 1998; Green, Strolovitch, Wong, & Bailey). Using police data, the current study replicates and extends Green's neighborhood studies by investigating hate crime in New York City from 1995 to 2010. This study investigates whether Green, Strolovitch, & Wong’s (1998) 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" (demographic, economic, etc.) on different types of anti-minority hate crime, including those against racial, ethnic, and religious minorities as well as anti-gay hate crime. Using negative binomial regression analyses, the current study provides a thorough analysis of hate crime in New York City as well as further insight into hate crime in the context of defended neighborhoods.

Author

• Colleen E Mills, Pennsylvania State University, Abington