An Integrated Theoretical Approach to Hate Crimes

• In Event: Understanding Hate Crimes from a Theoretical and Empirical Perspective

Abstract

Hate crimes are offenses motivated by an offender’s bias against the victim’s perceived or actual race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexuality, or disability. The actions involved in hate crimes resemble those of “normal” crimes, typically involving assault, intimidation, and/or vandalism, and these offenses bring the direct harms associated with “normal” offenses (e.g., violence, property damage, fear). However, the bias-motivated element of hate crimes makes them particularly harmful, as they also indirectly harm members of the targeted victim’s social group by making them fear their own potential victimization. Federal crime data indicate that an average of over 6700 hate crimes have occurred within the United States each year since 2010, with countless others likely going undetected or unreported.

This paper first overviews trends in hate crime statistics, including frequency over time and offender, victim, offense, motivation, and situational characteristics. This paper then discusses definitional issues surrounding these offenses before giving a historical overview of bias-motivated crime. This paper then discusses theoretical explanations of the causes and distribution of hate crimes, including various micro-level and macro-level theories, before suggesting an integrated theoretical approach and discussing how this approach could be studied empirically.

Author

• Chris Forepaugh, University of Nevada, Las Vegas