Historical Trends in Hate in the United States: Status, Self-help, and Institutional Partisanship

• In Event: Understanding the Future of Hate: Concepts, Theories, and Trends in Bias Crimes Research

Abstract

Hate crimes can be understood as a form of social control known as “self-help.” As such, hate groups engage in boundary-forming and maintaining behaviors, and they are likely to increase this behavior when they perceive threats to their group’s status, all else being equal. However, this perceived threat and the enactment of self-help to confront it is likely to be most pronounced when those targeted lack strong partisans and allies. These insights can help account for trends in hate crimes since the 1860s. The relative status relations between hate groups and their targets and the position of these groups vis-à-vis society’s dominant institutions will be compared and contrasted during four historic eras: Reconstruction; post-Reconstruction through the 1940s; the 1950s – 1990; and, the 1990s – 2016. Consideration of these periods provide insights into the recent increase in observed hate crimes reported by the FBI. Specifically, the perceived threat to prominent hate groups coupled with the recent attack on central institutions coming from both the political left and political right create social conditions that are ripe for crime, including hate-motivated crimes.

Author

• James Hawdon, Virginia Tech