Understanding Hate Crime Offending through the Convergence of Minority Threat Theory and Critical Race Theory

• In Event: Manifestations of Racial Victimization

Abstract

Hate crimes are often motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry. Such crimes are different from ordinary crimes due to its uniqueness to injury to the victim. The most prominent victims are Black Americans who experience such crimes at extreme rates. This paper focuses on Anti-Black incidents which occur more than three times higher compared to other racial or ethnic groups.
To further understand the systemic bias that creates disparate outcomes for Black people targeted by race-based crimes, this research will review literature to examine where minority threat theory (MTT) and critical race theory (CRT) emerge to explain systemic bias in hate crimes. Blalock’s MTT argues that as racial/ethnic minority groups increase, the majority group perceives a growing threat. To maintain control over the minority group, society implements both formal controls (i.e. legal sanctions) to disproportionally target people of color, as well as informal controls against the minority group such as acts of discrimination, specifically hate crimes. CRT can expand on MTT by understanding the legacy of hate crimes. CRT finds racism embedded in laws, creating disproportionate outcomes (i.e. hate crimes) for people based on race. CRT’s understanding of historical violence can explain the complexity behind hate crimes.

Author

• Katrina Rose Perry, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center