Unveiling the Intersection of Race, Lynching Legacy, and Hate Crime Victimization: Insights from the National Crime Victimization Survey

• In Event: Racially-Motivated Extremism, Discrimination, and Other Bias Outcomes

Abstract

Prior research has underscored the salience of the legacy of lynching in shaping a diverse spectrum of criminological phenomena. Building upon this scholarly work, we examine whether the relationship between the race of the offender and the race of the victim is associated with the risk of hate crime victimization, and how Black lynching may moderate this dynamic. We combine a restricted version of the National Crime Victimization Survey (2005-2025) with county-level data on lynching extracted from Tolnay and Beck’s database. Our empirical findings demonstrate that Black victims tend to be more inclined to identify incidents as hate crimes when perpetrated by White offenders, while White victims are more likely to do so when the offender is Black. Furthermore, our results reveal that past lynching reduces the likelihood of hate crime victimization if both the offender and the victim were Black. Overall, our results illuminate the pivotal role of race as a key determinant in shaping the interpretation of hate crime within the social context. They also suggest that areas with histories of lynching may harbor distinctive lingering effects on protective orientations towards hate-motivated violence involving Black victims and Black offenders. These results shed light on nuanced interactions influencing hate crime victimization.

Authors

• Jasmyn Stevens, Florida State University

• Sylwia Piatkowska, Florida State University

• Brendan Lantz, Florida State University